Only One Lord of the Rings Cast Member Actually Got To Meet J.R.R. Tolkien

Few people had as remarkable a life as Christopher Lee. Apart from his numerous iconic roles in film, including Saruman the White in Peter Jackson‘s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, he was also a World War II veteran, a heavy metal singer, and more. As if all that hadn’t already granted him a larger-than-life status, for fans of The Lord of the Rings, he was also one step above everyone else for a simple reason: he was the only member of the film trilogy cast to have actually met the author of the books, Professor J.R.R. Tolkien himself.

Not that Christopher Lee would ever see himself as better than anyone concerning anything, being the humble and down-to-earth man he was, but meeting Tolkien is something countless fans of the franchise would do anything for. Because of this, Lee was often painted almost as an anointed lore master appointed by the professor himself, but the true story of how they met was actually much simpler and sweeter, proving that, as incredible a life as he may have lived, Lee was actually always one of us, the fans.

Christopher Lee and J.R.R. Tolkien Met in a Pub in Oxford in the 1950s

The idea of two titans, such as Christopher Lee and J.R.R. Tolkien, sounds like one of the defining events of our age, but it was actually a very brief and casual moment. Lee talked about it when he was interviewed on the British talk show Wogan Now & Then in 2006, and explained that he was actually starstruck when he saw Tolkien and could only come up with short answers. It wasn’t really about two great people coming together, but about someone getting the rare opportunity to meet a person they deeply admired.

The encounter took place in Oxford, in the late 1950s, as Lee explains. The actor was in town visiting friends and went for a drink in a local pub called The Eagle and Child — “It’s better known as The Bird and the Baby,” Lee explains, chuckling. The pub is a major location in Tolkien’s history, as it was where he and fellow legendary writer C.S. Lewis would hold meetings of their literary discussion group, The Inklings. “We were sitting having a beer, and I suddenly saw this figure come in. Pipe, just like every photograph. A jovial-looking man,” says Lee. By then, Lee had already started reading the books, which had come out in volumes between 1954 and 1955.

It was a mutual friend who got the meeting to happen. “One of the people with us said, “Well, I’ve actually worked for him. I’ll try and get him to come over and say, ‘How do you do?'” And that’s exactly what happened. “He came over and said, ‘How do you do?’, and I said, ‘How do you do, sir?’ And I thought, ‘Now, should I kneel or…?’ I was completely overcome.” So, there was no great exchange between Lee and Tolkien when they met, unfortunately, but we can all understand Lee’s position. After all, we’d all get starstruck meeting not just Tolkien, but him, too.

Christopher Lee Remained a Fan of The Lord of the Rings His Whole Life

Even though Lee’s meeting with Tolkien was very brief, the fact that The Lord of the Rings films feature someone who actually knew the professor himself grants them a degree of legitimacy that other works can only aspire to. “While I was filming The Lord of the Rings, I thought about what he would have thought all the time, and hope he would have approved,” Lee told The Independent in 2003. He was adamant about the impact and quality of the trilogy, as he once said that it was “going to make cinema history. It’s going to have an impact unlike anything anyone’s seen. I’m totally convinced.”

Only someone with Lee’s unmatched history in the film industry and his understanding of Tolkien’s work could have made that assessment, and he was absolutely correct. His passion when speaking about the films and the books makes just as strong an impression, though, making it clear that he was a die-hard fan of The Lord of the Rings as much as anyone. He read the books when they first came out, and kept a tradition of re-reading them every year until his passing in 2015. “I thought it was the greatest work of literature I’d ever read in my life. I still think so. I read it every year,” he said on Wogan Now & Then.

What his tale of meeting Tolkien says about Lee as a person is that, although he was certainly aware of his status, he was just as enthusiastic about The Lord of the Rings as any fan, and that’s very sweet coming from someone of his stature. Despite being known for his countless iconic villainous roles throughout the decades, at that moment, Lee’s reaction was closer to what the Hobbits have when meeting an Elf for the first time than to a great man meeting an equal. Because that’s certainly what it was really about: one great man humbly acknowledging the impact and importance of another great man in his life. If only we had more of that nowadays.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy is available to stream on HBO Max.