Is Christopher Lee Harvey Dent?

[Ultimo]

I read recently that the DCAU version of Lex Luthor was based on Telly Savalas.  In retrospect, I definitely see it.

However, I recently came across a picture of Christopher Lee as a young man, and I swear he looks JUST like the DCAU Harvey Dent.

You tell me...

 

[Snarky]

There are pics out there of Christopher that look even closer.  But probably? Not?

[TheOtherTed]

That'd be a pretty deep dive to find a model - about 50 years into the past from the founding of the animated franchise.  Though given one of his most recurring roles, I guess it wouldn't be impossible...

 

[Techwright]

3 hours ago, Ultimo said:

I read recently that the DCAU version of Lex Luthor was based on Telly Savalas.  In retrospect, I definitely see it.

However, I recently came across a picture of Christopher Lee as a young man, and I swear he looks JUST like the DCAU Harvey Dent.

You tell me...

 

 

Respectfully, I don't see it.  For one thing, I believe they chose to make their version of Harvey either a lighter-tone African-American, or someone of mixed race ancestry.  If you take a look at the first pic of Two-Face in his wiki writeup here, I think you'll see what I mean.  It makes sense, too, as the rest of the rogues' gallery are either Caucasian or Asian.    I did wonder if they may have used a bit of voice actor Richard Moll's face in the design, but definitely not all of the face.  Moll is big, but he doesn't have the substantial jaw that the animated Harvey has.

[High_Beam]

Billy Dee Williams was set up as Harvey Dent in the first two Batman pictures then when it was time to make Two Face, they recast him with Tommy Lee Jones.  I still have bitterness over that BS.

[biostem]

It's more like a generic "lantern jaw" style that many taller/slimmer male characters are depicted with, IMHO...

[Ultimo]

Well I mean, look at the shape of the head and jaw.  Almost identical.  Look at the lips, slightly thicker than average.  Look at the heavy lidded eyes and the prominent brows.

 

Maybe it's me.

 

Either way, I think he'd have been a FANTASTIC Two-Face.

[TheOtherTed]

For my money, a young Jay Leno is a likelier model.

 

[High_Beam]

1 hour ago, TheOtherTed said:

For my money, a young Jay Leno is a likelier model.

 

Desperately searching for Tomahawk missile launch codes.

[Techwright]

15 hours ago, Ultimo said:

Well I mean, look at the shape of the head and jaw.  Almost identical.  Look at the lips, slightly thicker than average.  Look at the heavy lidded eyes and the prominent brows.

 

Maybe it's me.

 

Either way, I think he'd have been a FANTASTIC Two-Face.

Oh, now would Christopher Lee make a superb Two-Face?  That is a different question than whether he looks like the animated character and the answer would have been yes, absolutely yes, though it should have been a very dark version and not a goofball one.  I've yet to see a proper live-action Two-Face (that's right, I didn't like Two-Face in The Dark Knight.  I felt it broke the immersion.)

[Techwright]

22 hours ago, High_Beam said:

Billy Dee Williams was set up as Harvey Dent in the first two Batman pictures then when it was time to make Two Face, they recast him with Tommy Lee Jones.  I still have bitterness over that BS.

 

Be grateful.  BDW might have ended up in that schlock, and it would have been a greater tragedy.

[Ultimo]

Two Face is a character that can be very difficult to make work.  Tommy Lee Jones could have been a great Two Face, but the makeup just didn't do it justice, and he was forced to try and out-camp Jim Carrey.  Two-Face just isn't a campy character, there's a reason he never appeared in Adam West's Batman series.  I thought they actually did him justice in The Dark Knight, though his turn against Gordon seemed a little contrived.

 

I started the thread because of the similarity in appearance, my comment that Christopher Lee would have been great as Two-Face was kind of an afterthought.  It's just that I thought his appearance looked a lot like the animated Two-Face.

[High_Beam]

3 hours ago, Techwright said:

 

Be grateful.  BDW might have ended up in that schlock, and it would have been a greater tragedy.

True but still, kind of a dick move.

[Techwright]

18 hours ago, Ultimo said:

Two-Face just isn't a campy character, there's a reason he never appeared in Adam West's Batman series.

 

Actually...

It is considered canon to the 1966 series.  The last canon episode ever.

It is true that they never made a live action Two-Face episode, because they felt the character would be too harsh for the period in which the "Bright Knight" series was made.  But as Adam West pointed out once, it was always something they wanted to do.  Getting Bill Shatner to voice him was just great casting and remained true to the popular stars of the late 1960s. 

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

Just scrolling through old threads, and if there are any movie producers out there reading this... Christopher probably wasn't Two-Face.

But he was near as dammit a real-life James Bond - and as one of Fleming's friends, may have been a bit of an inspiration.

 

So I would quite like to see a movie or TV series about Christopher Lee, Nazi Hunter. He was attached to SOE for a time during WW2 as well as RAF Intelligence, and then spent a couple of years tracking down escaped SS scum.

 

Are there any current actors out there who could do tall, dark and evilly attractive (as well as that baritone?)

Edited March 28 by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[Techwright]

On 3/28/2024 at 12:46 PM, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

Just scrolling through old threads, and if there are any movie producers out there reading this... Christopher probably wasn't Two-Face.

But he was near as dammit a real-life James Bond - and as one of Fleming's friends, may have been a bit of an inspiration.

 

So I would quite like to see a movie or TV series about Christopher Lee, Nazi Hunter. He was attached to SOE for a time during WW2 as well as RAF Intelligence, and then spent a couple of years tracking down escaped SS scum.

 

Are there any current actors out there who could do tall, dark and evilly attractive (as well as that baritone?)

 

You didn't add that Lee actually was the villain in one of the Bond films, specifically The Man with the Golden Gun.  The character was portrayed as an assassin so good that he was essentially the evil version of Bond.  I'd love to hear the backstory on that.  Did he get the role because he was Fleming's friend?

 

And I love the story about Christopher Lee, that in preparing to film Saruman's death scene in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, he corrected Peter Jackson, who wanted Saruman to cry out when stabbed. Lee told him that a man stabbed through the lungs does not cry out, but instead gives out a slight gasping breath.  He did not explain, except to note that he knew.  Jackson changed the scene to follow Lee's advice.

[PeregrineFalcon]

3 minutes ago, Techwright said:

Did he get the role because he was Fleming's friend?

Christopher Lee and Ian Fleming knew each other. Lee's mother married Fleming's uncle.

 

It's been said that James Bond was based, at least in part, on Christopher Lee.

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

Lee was originally offered Dr No by Fleming and was stoked about getting the role: but Ian forgot to tell Harry Saltzman, and by the time he remembered they had already cast Joe Wiseman. Who hated every minute of it and preferred theatre, dahlink.

 

Oddly, that works: Connery might not have shone quite as much against a truly charismatic villain, whereas Wiseman’s obvious disdain oozes through the screen and ramps up his superiority complex.

 

By the time Fleming died, Lee was a superstar in his own right. And when Jack Palance turned down Golden Gun, Harry remembered what Ian had asked for… and who better to play the Anti-Bond?

 

EDIT: while I'm at it and dreaming up roles for folks, I'd like to alter history a little bit and have whoever's playing young Chris Lee retrieving Lin Manuel-Miranda, who's playing Juan Pujol Garcia. One of the strangest/funniest stories of WW2...

 

...and would allow Chris (or his avatar) to sing on film, which he really only got to do the once. But it's magnificent.

 

 

Edited March 30 by ThaOGDreamWeaver