When Lee was nine, he was sent to Summer Fields School, a preparatory school in Oxford whose pupils often later attended Eton. One night, he was introduced to Prince Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, the assassins of Grigori Rasputin, whom Lee was to play many years later. The family moved to Fulham, living next door to the actor Eric Maturin. Fleming, author of the James Bond novels, thus became Lee's step-cousin. They then returned to London, where Lee attended Wagner's private school in Queen's Gate, and his mother married Harcourt George St-Croix Rose, a banker and uncle of Ian Fleming. After enrolling in Miss Fisher's Academy in Territet, he played his first role, as Rumpelstiltskin. During this time, his mother took his sister and him to Wengen in Switzerland. Lee's parents separated when he was four and divorced two years later. He had an elder sister, Xandra Carandini Lee (1917–2002).
Lee's maternal great-grandfather, Jerome Carandini, the Marquis of Sarzano, was an Italian political refugee his wife, Lee's great-grandmother, was English-born opera singer Marie Carandini ( née Burgess). Lee's father fought in the Boer War and First World War, and his mother was an Edwardian beauty who was painted by Sir John Lavery, Oswald Birley, and Olive Snell, and sculpted by Clare Sheridan her lineage can be traced to Charlemagne. Lee was born on in Belgravia, London, the son of Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Trollope Lee (1879–1941) of the 60th King's Royal Rifle Corps, and his wife, Countess Estelle Marie ( née Carandini di Sarzano 1889–1981).
Lee was knighted for services to drama and charity in 2009, received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2011, and received the BFI Fellowship in 2013. His other film roles include Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Count Dooku in several Star Wars films (2002–2008), and Saruman in both the Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003) and the Hobbit film trilogy (2012–2014). In an extremely long career, Lee often portrayed villains, and appeared as Count Dracula in seven Hammer Horror films, ultimately playing the role nine times. Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee CBE CStJ ( – 7 June 2015) was an English actor, author, and singer.