Christopher Lee has done a lot of badass things throughout his life. He's played Dracula multiple times, appeared in both the Lord Of The Rings and Star Wars franchises - thus securing a place amongst nerd royalty - and recently recorded a heavy metal album, at age 92. Pretty badass. All of that pales in comparison, however, when you consider the actor's war record - something which inevitably gets entangled with that of Ian Fleming, his step-cousin. Yes, years before their paths crossed with Lee taking the role of the eponymous Bond villain in The Man With The Golden Gun, Lee was a member of the Special Operations Executive, aka the Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare. As was Fleming, and they were based out of Baker Street. You know, where Sherlock Holmes lived. Under direct command of Churchill himself, the Ungentlemen dealt with espionage and sabotage behind enemy lines, which meant they were effectively spies. In his own autobiography Lee mainly speaks of his on-the-record military service, including a spell fighting for the Finnish forces in the Winter War against the Soviet Union, before enlisting with the RAF. Due to trouble with his eyesight he was discharged, spent the remainder of the war working in intelligence. It's said that Lee's North African spy group "caused us more damage than any other British unit of equal strength", which isn't bad. Not quite Saruman levels of destruction, but not bad.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
