Everything about Ian Mckellen totally explained
Sir Ian Murray McKellen,
CH,
CBE (born
25 May,
1939) is an
English stage and
screen actor, the recipient of the
Tony Award and two
Oscar nominations. He is best known for working and comprising specific roles such as
Gandalf in the
Lord of the Rings film trilogy and as
Magneto in the
X-Men films. His work has spanned genres from serious
Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular
fantasy and
science fiction.
He was made a
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1979, and
knighted in the 1991
New Year Honours for his outstanding work and contributions to the
theatre. In the 2008
New Year Honours he was made a
Companion of Honour (CH) for services to drama and to equality.
In 1988, he came out as
gay and became a founding member of
Stonewall, one of the
United Kingdom's most influential
LGBT rights groups, of which he remains a prominent spokesman.
Biography
Early life
McKellen was born in
Burnley,
Lancashire,
England, though spent most of his early life in
Wigan and later attended
Bolton School. Born shortly before the outbreak of
World War II, the experience had some lasting impact on him. In an interview with
The Advocate magazine (
December 25,
2001), when an interviewer remarked that he seemed quite calm in the aftermath of the
September 11 terrorist attack, he said: "Well, darling, you forget — I slept under a steel plate until I was four years old."
McKellen's father, Denis Murray McKellen, a
civil engineer, was a
lay preacher, and both of his grandfathers were preachers as well. At the time of Ian's birth, his parents already had a five-year-old daughter Jean. His home environment was strongly
Christian, but non-orthodox. "My upbringing was of low nonconformist Christians who felt that you led the Christian life in part by behaving in a Christian manner to everybody you met." of which he's still a supporter, attending regularly to talk to pupils. McKellen's acting career started at Bolton Little Theatre, of which he's now the Patron. An early fascination with theatre was encouraged by his parents, who took him on a family outing to
Peter Pan at the
Manchester Opera House when he was three. When he was nine, his main Christmas present was a wood and bakelite, fold-away Victorian Theatre from
Pollocks Toy Theatres, with cardboard scenery and wires to push on the cut-outs of Cinderella and of Olivier's Hamlet. His sister took him to his first Shakespeare play,
Twelfth Night, by the amateurs of Wigan's Little Theatre, shortly followed by their
Macbeth and Wigan High School for Girls' production of
A Midsummer Night's Dream with music by Mendelssohn and with the role of Bottom played by Jean McKellen. (Until her recent death, Jean still acted, directed, and produced amateur theatre.)
He won a scholarship to
St. Catharine's College,
University of Cambridge, when he was eighteen, where he developed an attraction to
Derek Jacobi. He has characterized it as "a passion that was undeclared and unrequited". began their relationship in 1964. It was a relationship that was to last for eight years, ending in 1972. They lived in
London, where McKellen continued to pursue his career as an actor. For over a decade he's lived in a five-story Victorian conversion in
Narrow Street,
Limehouse,
London. In 1978 he met his second partner,
Sean Mathias, at the
Edinburgh Festival. According to Mathias, the ten-year love affair was tempestuous, with conflicts over McKellen's success in acting versus Mathias' somewhat less-successful career.
Twenty years ago McKellen lost his appetite for meat except for
fish and became a
pescetarian.
Theatrical career
McKellen made his stage debut in
Coventry in 1961 and his
West End debut in 1964. His first film role — in the unfinished
The Bells of Hell Go Ting-A-Ling-A-Ling (1966) — produced a £4000 fee that helped fund his
repertory work for a time, but the experience contributed to a focus on the stage, which remained the medium he was best known for well into the fourth decade of his career.
The role that made McKellen famous was his 1969 portrayal of King
Edward II of England in the
Prospect Theatre Company's touring production of
Marlowe's
Edward II. McKellen is also active in fostering young people's interest in the stage, and is a dedicated patron of
Theatre Peckham, a performing arts charity based on the Sceaux Gardens Estate in Peckham, which provides professional training for young people in Southwark.
In 2007, he returned to the
Royal Shakespeare Company, appearing in
Trevor Nunn's productions of
The Seagull (sharing the role of Sorin with
William Gaunt) and in the title role of
King Lear, to great acclaim.
Germaine Greer, a Shakespeare scholar, famously commented on the disrobing scene which featured McKellen's "impressive genitalia" but critically panned the production, lamenting of McKellen's portrayal that "such virtuosic caricature makes sympathy impossible". But most of McKellen's notices were raves, with critic
Ian Shuttleworth writing "Every moment is beautifully pitched, from the initial 'division of the kingdom' speech which he reads off cue cards to his final expiration, almost inadvertently, between phrases of grief for the dead Cordelia. This isn't a Lear who blows and cracks his cheeks to vie with the storm on the heath; he feels his control slipping little by little, until he's utterly distracted but never raging or raving." The production of
King Lear also featured appearances by
Sylvester McCoy and
Jonathan Hyde. He will reprise his role in the
2008 TV film of the same name.
Popular success
McKellen had taken film roles throughout his career - beginning in 1969 with
A Touch of Love, excluding the unreleased
The Bells of Hell Go Ting-A-Ling-A-Ling (1966) – but it wasn't until the 1990s that he became more widely recognised in this medium, through several roles in blockbuster Hollywood movies.
In 1993, McKellen had a supporting role as a South African tycoon in the
sleeper hit Six Degrees of Separation, in which he starred with
Stockard Channing,
Donald Sutherland, and
Will Smith. In the same year, he was also exposed to North American audiences in minor roles in the television
miniseries Tales of the City (based on the novel by his friend
Armistead Maupin) and the movie
Last Action Hero, in which he played
Death. Also in 1993, McKellen played a large role in the TV movie
And the Band Played On, about the discovery of the
AIDS virus.
In 1995, he played the title role in
Richard III, a film he also co-wrote (adapting the play for the screen based on a stage production of Shakespeare's play directed by
Richard Eyre for the
Royal National Theatre) and co-produced.
On
16 March 2002, he was the host on
Saturday Night Live. In 2003, McKellen made a guest appearance as himself on the American cartoon show
The Simpsons, in a special British-themed episode entitled "
The Regina Monologues", along with
Tony Blair and
J. K. Rowling. In April and May 2005, he played the role of Mel Hutchwright in
Granada Television's long running soap opera,
Coronation Street, fulfilling a lifelong ambition. He is also known for his voicework, having narrated
Richard Bell's
Eighteen, as a grandfather who leaves his World War II memoirs on audiocassette for his teenage grandson.
McKellen has also appeared in limited release films, such as
Emile (which was shot in a few days during the
X2 shoot),
Neverwas and
Asylum. He appeared as Sir Leigh Teabing in
The Da Vinci Code. During a
17 May 2006 interview on
The Today Show with the
Da Vinci Code cast and director,
Matt Lauer posed a question to the group about how they'd have felt if the film had borne a prominent disclaimer that it's a work of fiction, as some religious groups wanted. McKellen responded, "I've often thought the
Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying 'This is fiction.' I mean, walking on water? It takes... an act of faith. And I've faith in this movie — not that it's true, not that it's factual, but that it's a jolly good story." He continued, "And I think audiences are clever enough and bright enough to separate out fact and fiction, and discuss the thing when they've seen it". McKellen also appeared in the 2006 series of
Ricky Gervais' comedy series
Extras, where he played himself directing Gervais' character
Andy Millman in a play about gay lovers. McKellen received a 2007
Emmy nomination for his performance.
LGBT rights campaigning
While McKellen had made his
sexuality known to his fellow actors early on in his stage career, it wasn't until 1988 that he
came out to the general public, in a programme on
BBC Radio 3.
The amendment in question,
Section 28 of the Local Government Bill, proposed to prohibit local authorities from "promoting
homosexuality" 'as a kind of pretended family relationship'. The drafting was open to several interpretations and the actual impact of the amendment was uncertain. McKellen became active in fighting the proposed law, and declared himself gay on a
BBC Radio programme where he debated the subject of Section 28 with the conservative journalist
Peregrine Worsthorne. He has said of this period: "My own participating in that campaign was a focus for people [to] take comfort that if Ian McKellen was on board for this, perhaps it would be all right for other people to be as well, gay and straight".
Selected stage and screen credits
Theatre
Much Ado About Nothing, Royal National Theatre, Old Vic, London, 1965
Trelawney of the "Wells", National Theatre, London & Chichester Festival, 1965
The Promise, West End; Broadway, 1967
Edward II (in title role), Edinburgh Festival & West End, 1969
Hamlet (title role), UK/European Tour, 1971
'Tis Pity She's a Whore, UK Tour, 1972
Dr Faustus (title role), Royal Shakespeare Company, Edinburgh Festival & Aldwych Theatre (London), 1974
King John, RSC, 1975
Romeo and Juliet (as Romeo), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon & London, 1976
The Winter's Tale, RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1976
Macbeth (title role), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon & Young Vic (London), 1976–1977
The Alchemist, RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon & London, 1977
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, RSC, Barbican Arts Centre (London), 1977
Three Sisters, RSC, UK Tour, 1978
Bent, (as Uncle Freddie) West End, 1979
Amadeus (as Salieri), Broadway, 1980
Coriolanus (title role), National Theatre, 1984
Wild Honey, National Theatre, 1984 (& Broadway, 1986)
The Cherry Orchard (as Lopakhin), National Theatre, 1985
The Duchess of Malfi, National Theatre, 1985
The Real Inspector Hound, National Theatre, London & Paris, 1985
Othello (as Iago), RSC, London & Stratford-upon-Avon, 1989
Richard III (title role), National Theatre, world tour, 1990 & US tour, 1992
Uncle Vanya (title role), National Theatre, 1992
Peter Pan (as Mr. Darling/Captain Hook), National Theatre, 1997
An Enemy of the People, National Theatre, 1997 & Ahmanson Theatre (Los Angeles), 1998
Present Laughter, West Yorkshire Playhouse (Leeds, England), 1998
Aladdin, (as Widow Twankie) Old Vic, 2004 & 2005
The Cut, Donmar Warehouse, 2006
King Lear by William Shakespeare, (as Lear), Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 2007
The Seagull by Anton Chekov, (as Sorin), Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 2007; New York (Brooklyn Academy of Music), 2007 Minneapolis, 2007, New London Theatre (West End), 2007-8
King Lear by William Shakespeare, (as Lear), New Zealand, 2007; New York (Brooklyn Academy of Music), 2007, Minneapolis, 2007, New London Theatre (West End), 2007-8
Filmography
Television
David Copperfield (title role) (1966)
Fever (1968)
Keats (as John Keats) (1970)
Edward II (1970)
The Tragedy of King Richard II (1970)
Country Matters (1972)
Hedda Gabler (1972)
Macbeth (1979)
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982)
Walter (1982)
And the Band Played On (1993)
Tales of the City (1993)
(as Tsar Nicholas II) (1996)
The Simpsons (2003)
Coronation Street (2004)
Hay Street (2005)
Extras (2006)
King Lear (title role) (2008)
Miscellaneous
Vampire in the music video "Heart" by Pet Shop Boys
The man who's "falling out of reach" in the music video "Falling Out of Reach" by GuillemotsFurther Information
Get more info on 'Ian Mckellen'.
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