A portrait of him (in the character of "M") can be seen briefly in the background of the MI6 castle in the 007 film The World Is Not Enough (1999).
Grandfather of Jonny Lee Miller
He and Desmond Llewelyn were the only actors in the James Bond series who never retired or were fired from their roles. Their respective roles of M and Q were only recast because of their deaths.
He was notorious for enjoying a drink, but never let this affect his work. During filming of The Third Man (1949), Lee went missing and the director sent crew to trawl the local bars to find him.
He was seriously ill during the filming of Live and Let Die (1973), causing the producers to consider replacing him with Kenneth More. However Lee recovered sufficiently to play the character M until Moonraker (1979), the last Bond film made before his death from stomach cancer in 1981.
He worked as a fruit porter to fund his drama studies.
Most famous for playing 'M' in the first 11 James Bond films.
Was preparing to reprise the role of "M" in For Your Eyes Only (1981) at the time of his death. As a sign of respect, the script was changed to say that "M" was on leave, rather than recast the role with another actor (which did not occur until Octopussy (1983) in 1983), and scenes originally meant to include "M" were rewritten with other characters, such as "Q" for the confession booth meeting with James Bond (Roger Moore).
While making On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), George Lazenby, who portrayed Bond in the film, was fooling around on horseback and caused Lee to fall into a fence and tear his leg open. As no doctor was available, the local vet stitched the gash up.