Christopher Lee

True to the title of his autobiography, Tall, Dark, and Gruesome (1977), Lee has distinguished himself in dark and sinister roles, playing Rasputin and appearing numerous times as Fu Manchu and Dracula. Eerie examples from his dozens of films include Curse of Frankenstein (1957), The Mummy (1959), Taste the Blood of Dracula (1969), House of the Long Shadows (1982), and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990). He is playing the wizard Saruman in the huge live-action The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the first installment, The Fellowship of the Ring, to be released in 2001.