Is Christopher Lee (Saruman from FOTR) ill?

I was reading through the Celebrity Death Pool 2003 thread and I noticed that a bunch of people had picked Christopher Lee, and someone mentioned that even Lee has said he’s not sure he’ll be around to see ROTK be released.

Does anyone know if Lee has publicly acknowledged being ill? I see from his bio on IMDB that he’s 80 years old, but I was wondering if he knows he’s ill or if he’s just assuming he’s getting up there in years and his time is coming.

Any insights?

Don’t be silly, Dracula can’t die.

I don’t believe he is ill; he’s just bloody old.

He strikes me as one of those people that will never die. Like my grandma.

But seriously, if he isn’t still around in 5 years I’ll be very surprised.

The impression I get is that he’s just getting old, and is basically whistling in the dark. I don’t think he’s ill other than the typical age-related problems… at least I haven’t heard anything in that vein.

That said, I’m with fish on this one.

Good lord that man has been in alot of movies (250.)

As the other dopers have pointed out, I don’t think he’s ill beyond his old age. I’ve noticed that alot of old people start up around 60 or 65 saying things like “yep, I don’t have long to go” and “I won’t be around to see that.” I don’t really get why so many older people do it but maybe it’s a line of thinking like “ok, if I say I’m gonna die this year then I won’t.”

Hell, my grandfather has been saying “I won’t be around in 20 years anyway” since he was in his early 50’s and he can still outrun me in a footrace.