10 Real Reasons Movie Characters Seemed So Sinister

Christoper Lee's iteration of The Mummy may not be quite as immediately iconic as Boris Karloff or Lon Chaney Jr.'s, but Lee brings a very distinct flavour to the role of Kharis, his own physical performance aided by fantastic makeup effects.

It's easy to watch his stiff, lurching movements and assume it was all thought up by Lee for purely creative reasons, but in actual fact this was basically necessary in order to get through the physically demanding shoot.

In large part, Lee opted to play the part stiff due to numerous injuries he sustained over the course of shooting, such as dislocating his shoulder, throwing out his back, and smashing his legs.

As filming wore on, Lee adopted an increasingly stiff style to limit him having to move pained parts of his body, in what ingeniously doubles as a brilliant feat of physical acting for the decaying character.