In his first film role after the war, Christopher Lee was required to act being shot. His performance, based on his wartime experience, was badly received and he was told to try again. Obstinately, he stuck with his realistic approach. But when he saw the result on screen: 'It was plain to me that there was one great fault in all the deaths I'd witnessed in the real world. The people who died were all novices. They'd had no practice.'

Ten years later, having died on celluloid 'in every way known to man, and a few known only to scriptwriters', Lee was left wondering whether perhaps 'a reputation might come in the same way as a coral formation, which is made up of a deposit of countless tiny corpses.'

His reputation