A collection of scrapbooks owned by Sir Christopher Lee has given new insight into the actor’s early career and struggle to become a Hollywood star, including a fateful sword fight with Errol Flynn that left him with a nearly severed finger.

The actor’s wife Lady Birgit Lee donated the three never-before-seen scrapbooks – which contain promotional shots, stills from films and annotations, and span from 1948 to 1972 – to the BFI archive where they will be available to the public via its research access service at its Southbank location in London.

Nathalie Morris, senior curator at the BFI archive, said that the scrapbooks offer a rare glimpse into the early career trajectory of one of the UK’s most iconic actors, who would have been 97 years old on 27 May.

“You get a nice sense of his personality. There are nice bits of dry, self-deprecating humour, and lots of charming, witty asides that make you think he’d love to spend an evening regaling people with tales.”

One of the stories is an incident on the set of 1955’s The Dark Avenger when Lee and Flynn had a sword fight which went awry. “They had big broad swords and bare hands, and during a fight Errol Flynn got carried away,” says Morris.

“Christopher Lee wrote: ‘He cut right through my little finger. He didn’t mean to do it. It was one of those unfortunate little accidents’, which I just think is wonderful.”

The BFI is currently in the process of digitising its collection of 1.35m photographic prints and scrapbooks. For Morris, these collections tell vital stories that would otherwise be lost from film history.

“They tell such a valuable story about what happened behind those films that you’ve seen and know well,” she says. “They’re the hidden stories which show that films don’t just appear.

“Christopher Lee is one of our greatest actors. There are so many films, his career spans decades and we’re really thrilled that Lady Lee has donated the photographs to us and they will take pride of place in our collection.”