- Grandfather of Jonny Lee Miller
- After losing his wife Gladys in a house fire and most of his money in a mugging, he became suicidally depressed and took to drinking. By chance, he met Richard Burton in a pub shortly thereafter. After hearing of his troubles, Burton wrote Lee a check for $6,000 on the spot. Lee snapped out of his depression, cleared his debts, remarried and continued working up till his death in 1981.
- He was seriously ill during the filming of Live and Let Die (1973), causing the producers to consider replacing him with Kenneth More. However Lee recovered sufficiently to play the character M until Moonraker (1979), the last Bond film made before his death from stomach cancer in 1981.
- A portrait of him (in the character of "M") can be seen briefly in the background of the MI6 castle in the 007 film The World Is Not Enough (1999).
- While making On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), George Lazenby, who portrayed Bond in the film, was fooling around on horseback and caused Lee to fall into a fence and tear his leg open. As no doctor was available, the local vet stitched the gash up.
- He was notorious for enjoying a drink, but never let this affect his work. During filming of The Third Man (1949), Lee went missing and the director sent crew to trawl the local bars to find him.
- He and Desmond Llewelyn were the only actors in the James Bond series who never retired or were fired from their roles. Their respective roles of M and Q were only recast because of their deaths.
- Most famous for playing 'M' in the first 11 James Bond films.
- Was preparing to reprise the role of "M" in For Your Eyes Only (1981) at the time of his death. As a sign of respect, the script was changed to say that "M" was on leave, rather than recast the role with another actor (which did not occur until Octopussy (1983)), and scenes originally meant to include "M" were rewritten with other characters, such as "Q" for the confession booth meeting with James Bond (Roger Moore).
- He appeared in three films with Robert Brown, his eventual successor as M: The Third Man (1949), Sink the Bismarck! (1960) and The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). Coincidentally, Geoffrey Keen appeared in all three films.
- He worked with Christopher Lee in Pursuit of the Graf Spee (1956), Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965) and The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) while his grandson Jonny Lee Miller worked with him in Dark Shadows (2012).
- He made his stage debut at 6.
- He appeared in a moving scene with Petula Clark with his whole head covered in bandage in "White Corridors" the hospital drama film (1951).
- He worked as a fruit porter to fund his drama studies.
- He made 10 films with Desmond Llewelyn: From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979).
- He made 13 films with Lois Maxwell: Dr. No (1962), From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), Operation Kid Brother (1967), You Only Live Twice (1967), On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Live and Let Die (1973), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Bons baisers de Hong-Kong (1975), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979).
- He was born into a show biz family.
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