10 Actors Even More Impressive When You Know The Truth

Bolstering the widely-circulated notion that Christopher Lee just might be the most interesting man who has ever lived - actor or otherwise - is the fact that he was the original inspiration for James freakin' Bond.

Through his mother's marriage, Lee became the step-cousin to Bond author Ian Fleming in his youth, and it's widely accepted that Fleming ended up loosely basing the character of Bond on Lee's own life.

As a young man living through World War II, Lee accrued years of military service, including a stint working in a mysterious Special Forces unit which he declined to speak publicly about.

Later, he was seconded to the Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects, where he spent his time hunting down Nazi war criminals.

Lee's military history reportedly informed Fleming's creation of 007, and fittingly, Fleming later offered Lee the role of villain Dr. No in the very first Bond film, though producers went with Joseph Wiseman instead.

Lee did get his Bond movie moment a little over a decade later, however, when he played unforgettable antagonist Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun.