8 Actors Pissed Off By Their Movie Character Deaths

The Lord of the Rings movies had their story all laid out for them long before production ever began, so the fate of their character shouldn't have come as a surprise to any of the trilogy's actors.

Christopher Lee was a consummate professional in the acting world, having appeared in well over 200 productions in his time on our screens. While he had no objections to the story of Tolkien's fantasy epic, his issue was with director Peter Jackson's wishes for the manner in which his character was to die.

The death of Saruman is a scene that wasn't included in the movie's theatrical cut. After being confronted by Gandalf and co, Saruman is stabbed from behind by his servant, Grima Wormtongue, and then falls to his death from the top of the tower of Orthanc.

While the death was disappointing to audiences, Lee's issue with it was more of a technical complaint.

According to Lee, who spent years working in the military prior to becoming an actor, Jackson's direction for him to scream as he was stabbed would have been both inaccurate and ridiculous. He calmly put across the argument that he knew first-hand that men simply sighed when stabbed in the back, and the character's death ultimately played out in the way Lee thought best.