2. He knows how a good stabbing sounds. During the filming of his death scene for the extended version of Return Of The King, director Peter Jackson talked to him about the sound that was made when someone was stabbed. Lee said to him, "Have you any idea what kind of noise happens when somebody's stabbed in the back? Because I do." He went into enough detail about his clandestine activities during World War II for Jackson to be satisfied that he knew what he was talking about. 3. He's related to one of Australia's great opera singers. Lee's great-grandmother, Marie Carandini, nee Burgess, was an opera singer. Her family migrated to Australia when she was a child. At the age of 17, she married Jerome (originally Girolamo) Carandini, the 10th Marquis of Sarzano, who was a political refugee from Italy. They became influential figures in the establishment of opera in Australia. She has a street in the Canberra suburb of Melba named after her. 4. He was at France's last public execution.

When he was 17 he witnessed the guillotining of Eugen Weidmann, the last person to be publicly executed in Paris. He wrote about it in his autobiography. Eugen Weidmann led away by police officers after questioning, after being accused or kidnap and murder, December 21st 1937. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) 5. He could have been Leslie Nielsen. Lee told the BBC that his greatest regret was turning down the Leslie Nielsen role in Airplane! He felt he should have done more comedies. He also said he regretted not taking the role played by Donald Pleasence in Halloween.

6. He's been married to the Queen. Sort of. Lee played Prince Philip in the 1982 TV movie Charles & Diana: A Royal Love Story, made a year after the pair were married. 7. He's the only Bond villain related to Bond's creator. Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, was his cousin by marriage. His stepfather's sister, Evelyn was Fleming's mother. He would play Bond villain Francisco Scaramanga in The Man With The Golden Gun, opposite Roger Moore. 8. His favourite role wasn't in a horror film.

Lee said he was most proud of his performance as Mohammed Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan, in the 1998 biopic Jinnah. He regarded The Wicker Man, written by Anthony Shaffer, as the best scripted film he appeared in. 9. Hamlet was his first movie with Peter Cushing. Lee had a legendary horror partnership with actor Peter Cushing, with whom he appeared in more than 20 films. The first movie they were in together was Laurence Olivier's 1948 Hamlet, although they did not actually meet. Cushing played Osric, Lee was a spear carrier. 10. He went to the pub with Tolkien.

Lee was a Lord Of The Rings fan from the publication of the first volume, and re-read LOTR every year. He was the only member of the LOTR cast to have met J.R.R. Tolkien. It was at a pub in Oxford called,The Eagle and Child. Lee was so much in awe of him that all he could say was, "how do you do?". 11. Saruman was not his first choice. Lee dreamed of playing Gandalf in a movie version of LOTR. When he found out that Peter Jackson was making the films, he asked his agent to put him up for a role. He read some lines of Gandalf for Jackson, but ended up being cast as "the long, thin, bearded streak of immortal nastiness, Saruman the wizard". 12. He killed on Saturday Night Life. Lee hosted Saturday Night Live in 1978, when Meat Loaf was the musical guest. Lee appeared in a skit a about movies so bad that even he had knocked them back. Among them were: The Thing That Wouldn't Leave, Dr. Terror's House of Pancakes and The Island of Lost Luggage.

13. He worked with McCartney and Parky. Lee featured on the cover of Paul McCartney's 1973 Band On The Run album, one of several people, alongside McCartney and his band, dressed as convicts caught in a searchlight. They also include TV interview Michael Parkinson, boxer John Conteh and actor James Coburn. 14. He knew Rasputin's assassins. Lee played the title role in Rasputin: The Mad Monk, a role with which he thought he had an unusual connection. When he was a child, he met two of the ringleaders of Rasputin's assassination.

15. He's even scarier when he sings. The Wicker Man Name Your PoisoThe Return of Captain Invincible. 16. He's an award-winning heavy metal musician. Lee's musical career took a metal turn. He released a "symphonic metal" album, Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross in 2010. It won him a spirit of metal award at the 2010 Metal Hammer Golden Gods ceremony. He claimed to be descended from Charlemagne.

17. He also does Christmas carols. In 2012, Lee released heavy metal Christmas covers of The Little Drummer Boy and Silent Night. His new take on Jingle Bells, Jingle Hell entered the Billboard Hot 100 at 22. This meant he was the oldest living artist to enter the charts. 18. He played a gay bikie one time. The first film in which he played an American character was Serial, in 1980. He played a corporate headhunter who had a secret life as the leader of a gay biker gang.

19. Errol Flynn cut him with a sword. Lee said he has been in more swordfights than any other actor. He prided himself on doing his own fighting, and having the scars to prove it. They include a nasty wound from a scene with Errol Flynn. 20. He fought a Yoda vampire. Lee did, however, have a digital double for many of the scenes in his famous swordfight against Yoda in Star Wars Attack Of The Clones. There was a small Yoda doll used as a reference for the actors during filming, and as a nod to Lee's most famous role, as Count Dracula, Yoda occasionally sported fangs.