He was one of the few people to volunteer to fight on the Finnish side in the Russo-Finnish winter war in 1939-1940, though he and his fellow British volunteers were in Finland only for about two weeks and were kept well away from direct combat.
His daughter, Christina Erika Lee, was born with her legs severely deformed. They were bent at such a severe angle that they were almost backwards. She spent her first two years in splints. She eventually learned how to walk after the age of three and no longer needed splints.
His favorite director is Tim Burton.
His films have made more money than any other actor's in history. As of May 2006, five of his films ("The Lord of the Rings" trilogy and the two "Star Wars" films in which he played Count Dooku) had total grosses in excess of $4.4 billion. Even without considering Lee's other appearances dating back to 1948, his totals considerably surpass the figures of #3 billion and #3.8 billion claimed by Harrison Ford and Samuel L. Jackson, respectively.
His stepfather (his mother's second husband) was the maternal uncle of writer Ian Fleming (of James Bond fame). Lee and Fleming are therefore step-cousins.
In Horror of Dracula (1958), Lee in the title role had to drop a woman into a grave, but when he carried her, she was unexpectedly heavy and in trying to drop her into the grave, Lee also fell in with her.
In 1972, he founded Charlemagne Productions Ltd.
In 2008, he received a lifetime achievement award at Pula Film Festival (Croatia).
In a bonding of two generations of Frankenstein's monsters, Lee and his wife were good friends with Boris Karloff and his wife. This friendship wasn't as a result of them working together (they made two films together, Corridors of Blood (1958) and Curse of the Crimson Altar (1968)) but by the coincidence that they lived next door to each other in England.
In a radio interview in South Africa, Lee claimed that he held the record for number of film roles by an actor. [2001]
In his role as the title character, The Mummy (1959), in which he co-starred with Peter Cushing, Lee got severely injured in the course of the filming. All that smashing through real glass windows and doors had dislocated his shoulder and pulled his neck muscles, especially when he had to carry an actress with arms fully extended across a swamp, walking as much as 87 yards, which damaged his shoulders considerably.
In various interviews over the years has referred to all three actors to play "James Bond" that he has worked with - Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig - as the best and most close to Ian Fleming's intentions. However, he has also criticized Fleming's weak characters when discussing his own Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) and described the screen adaptation as considerably better written.
Is a Commander of the Most Venerable Order of St. John.
Is a Commander of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.
Is an honorary member of three stuntmen's unions.
Is listed as the Center of the Hollywood Universe by the Oracle of Kevin Bacon website at the University of Virginia, because he can be linked to any one in Hollywood on average in 2.59 steps. That is less than either Charlton Heston or Kevin Bacon himself.
Lee's friend, Jean Paul Getty, lent him and wife Gitte his Sutton Place home for their honeymoon in 1961.
Lee's hobby is gardening.
Like his Lord of the Rings director, Peter Jackson, he has appeared in films with three generations of Astins.
On July 21st 2004, he was given the honorary citizenship of the Italian city of Casina (Province of Reggio Emilia) where Sarzano, the castle of his ancestors is situated. He gave his speech of thanks in Italian.