When compared to the final acts of your basic summer blockbusters - not to mention the in-your-face finales of modern horror movies - the ending of 1958's "Horror of Dracula" is downright low-key. But when I saw it about 10 years later on some Monster Chiller Horror Theater-type TV show, it set my standard for fright-time thrills, thanks to Christopher Lee, who died June 7 at the age of 93.

Lee is of course Dracula, and another cult movie favorite, the late Peter Cushing, plays vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing. They fight in a big dining room in Dracula's castle, and things aren't really going Van Helsing's way until he spots sunlight through the curtains. He runs past Dracula, jumps onto a table and leaps at the windows, pulling the curtains down to let the sun start its work on the vampire. Then he grabs two brass candle holders and, with a dramatic flourish that to this day still gets my heart rate into a Fitbit-approved aerobic zone, crosses them in front of Dracula's face. Lee's acting and Terence Fisher's direction does the rest, showing us the rage and the monster that was always under the surface.

Lesson to future movie villains: THAT'S how you do a death scene.

Lee's Count Dracula was a compelling mix of suavity and red-eyed menace, a combination that would serve him and Hammer Films well through six more Dracula movies of the 1960s through the mid-70s. The production house had been in business since the 1930s, but found new life with horror films that pushed boundaries for sexuality and violence, products of the more permissive attitudes of the era. In Lee, Hammer found the perfect representative of supernatural villainy for changing times. He was tall, aristocratically handsome and could deliver a scripted threat with style. There's a reason why many of the obits you'll be reading about Lee in the coming days will mention the sex appeal he brought to the role of Bram Stoker's legendary vampire.

There's also a reason why directors George Lucas and Peter Jackson cast Lee in their "Star Wars" and "Lord of the Rings" franchises. Yes, they wanted to honor the actor who they grew up watching, but they also knew that Lee could still bring the badness without camping it up. Watch him fire up his light saber as Count Dooku in "Attack of the Clones," or as Saruman lull fellow wizard Gandalf into a false sense of security in "Fellowship of the Ring," and you'll see Lee doing what he's always done best.

The passing of famous actors and filmmakers should prompt a run to Netflix or Amazon, and there are other non-Dracula roles for Lee that are worth checking out: the strange and unforgettable "The Wicker Man," "The Man With The Golden Gun" (his obligatory James Bond bad guy appearance), Richard Lester's lively 1973 version of "The Three Musketeers." Younger fans who only know Lee as Count Dooku or Saruman should definitely search for those early Dracula films, especially 1966's "Dracula, Prince of Darkness."

Don't forget the one that took a bite out of my nightmares: "Horror of Dracula," starring Christopher Lee, who was so good at being so evil.