Christopher Lee dead: Lord of the Rings actor Elijah Wood pays touching tribute to actor who played Lord Saruman

'If anyone was going to be immortal, it was Christopher,' actor tweeted

Elijah Wood has paid touching tribute to the late actor Sir Christopher Lee.

Wood, who played Frodo alongside Lee's Lord Saruman on the Lord of the Rings franchise, tweeted that the actor would be profoundly missed as an “icon, and a towering human being with stories for days.”

Lee passed away on 7 June in a London hospital aged 93.

Wood went on to say that the actor, knighted in 2009, possed “such a presence” and confessed to being nervous when first meeting him in 2000.

The 34-year-old actor, whose big break was the LOTR trilogy, said: “if anyone was going to be immortal, it was Christopher. Indeed, we were blessed.”

He described Lee’s legendary storytelling: “he loved to regale everyone with his various and many extraordinary experiences”.

His tribute joins that of fellow LOTR cast member Dominic Monaghan, who tweeted earlier today: “He was a fascinating person. Threw a bic pen into a tree in front of me.”