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Ian McKellen
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Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE (born 25 May 1939), is an English actor of stage and screen, the recipient of the Tony Award and two Academy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. He is known to many for roles such as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy and as Magneto in the X-Men films.
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.
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Encyclopedia
Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE (born 25 May 1939), is an English actor of stage and screen, the recipient of the Tony Award and two Academy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. He is known to many for roles such as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy and as Magneto in the X-Men films.
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 years
McKellen was born in Burnley, Lancashire, England, though he spent most of his early life in Wigan. Born shortly before the outbreak of World War II, the experience had some lasting impact on him. In response to an interview question 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." When he was 12, his mother, Margery Lois (née Sutcliffe) died; his father died when he was 24. When he came out of the closet to his stepmother, Gladys McKellen, who was a Friend (Quaker): "Not only was she not fazed, but as a member of a society which declared its indifference to people's sexuality years back, I think she was just glad for my sake that I wasn't lying any more."
McKellen attended Bolton School (boys division), of which he is still a supporter, attending regularly to talk to pupils. McKellen's acting career started at Bolton Little Theatre, of which he is now the patron. An early fascination with the 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. (Jean continued to act, direct, and produce amateur theatre up to her recent death.)
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". He and his first serious partner, Brian Taylor, a history teacher from Bolton, began their relationship in 1964. It lasted 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 has 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.
In the early 1980s, McKellen lost his appetite for meat except for fish and became a pescetarian.
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 was not 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. In McKellen's role as executive producer he returned his £50,000 fee in order to complete the filming of the final battle. His performance in the title role was critically acclaimed, and he was nominated for Golden Globe and BAFTA awards, and won the European Film Award for best actor.
His breakthrough role for mainstream American audiences came with the modestly acclaimed Apt Pupil, based on a story by Stephen King. McKellen portrayed an old Nazi officer, living under a false name in the U.S., who was befriended by a curious teenager (Brad Renfro) who threatened to expose him unless he told his story in detail. His casting was based partly on his performance in Cold Comfort Farm, seen by Apt Pupil director Bryan Singer, despite the BBFC's refusal to release it in cinemas. He was subsequently nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the 1998 film Gods and Monsters, where he played James Whale, the gay director of Show Boat (1936) and Frankenstein.
He reteamed with Apt Pupil director Bryan Singer to play the comic book character Magneto in X-Men and its sequels X2: X-Men United and X-Men: The Last Stand. It was while filming X-Men that he was cast as the wizard Gandalf in Peter Jackson's three-film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings (consisting of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King). McKellen received honors from the Screen Actors Guild for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for his work in The Fellowship of the Ring and was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the same role. He also voiced Gandalf in the two video game adaptions of the film trilogy. He will reprise the role for the upcoming prequel The Hobbit.
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 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 would have felt if the film had borne a prominent disclaimer that it is 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 have 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 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 was not until 1988 that he came out to the general public, in a programme on BBC Radio 3. The context that prompted McKellen's decision — overriding concerns about a possible negative effect on his career — was that the controversial amendment known popularly as "Section 28" (see below) was under consideration in the United Kingdom Parliament. By this time, McKellen's ten-year relationship with Mathias had ended, removing the additional concern of what effect his coming out would have on his partner's career. McKellen has stated that he was influenced in his decision by the advice and support of his friends, among them noted gay author Armistead Maupin.
In 2003, during an appearance on Have I Got News For You, McKellen claimed that when he visited Michael Howard, the Conservative Environment Secretary (the Environment Secretary had the brief for local government at the time), in 1988 to lobby against Section 28, Howard refused to change his position but did ask him to leave an autograph for his children. McKellen agreed, but wrote "Fuck off, I'm gay."
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". Section 28 was, however, enacted and remained on the statute books until 2003. In the intervening period, McKellen continued to fight for its repeal and criticised British Prime Minister Tony Blair for failing to concern himself with the issue.
McKellen has continued to be very active in LGBT rights efforts. In a statement on his website regarding his activism, the actor comments that
McKellen is a co-founder of Stonewall, a LGB rights lobby group in the United Kingdom, named after the Stonewall riots. McKellen is also Patron of LGBT History Month, Pride London, and The Lesbian & Gay Foundation.
In 1994, at the closing ceremony of the Gay Games, he briefly took the stage to address the crowd, saying, "I'm Sir Ian McKellen, but you can call me Serena." (This nickname, originally given to him by Stephen Fry, had been circulating within the gay community since McKellen's knighthood was conferred.) In 2002, he attended the Academy Awards with his then-boyfriend, New Zealander Nick Cuthell - possibly a first for a major nominee since Nigel Hawthorne, the first openly gay performer to be nominated for an Academy Award, who attended the ceremonies with his partner, Trevor Bentham, in 1995.
In 2006, McKellen spoke at the pre-launch of the 2007 LGBT History Month in the UK, lending his support to the organisation and its founder, Sue Sanders, a personal friend. On 5 January 2007 McKellen became a patron of The Albert Kennedy Trust, an organisation that provides support to young, homeless and troubled gay, lesbian and transgender people.
In 2006, McKellen became a Patron of Oxford Pride. At the time he said:
McKellen has also taken his activism internationally, where it caused a major stir in Singapore. Invited to do an interview on a morning show, he shocked the interviewer by asking if they could recommend him a gay bar. The program immediately ended.
Awards
- 1981: New York Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play, for Amadeus
- 1984: London Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Revival, for Wild Honey
- 1984: London Evening Standard Award for Best Actor, for Coriolanus
- 1989: London Evening Standard Award for Best Actor, for Othello
- 1990: London Olivier Award for Best Actor, for Richard III
- 1996: European Film Award for Best Actor, for Richard III
- 1997: Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Mini-Series or TV Movie, for Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny
- 1998: Back Stage West Garland Awards, for his one-man show A Knight Out in Los Angeles
- 1998: National Board of Review for Best Actor, for Gods and Monsters
- 1999: Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor, for Gods and Monsters
- 2001: Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actor, for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
- 2004: Manila, Philippines Pride International Film Festival's Lifetime Achievement & Distinction Award
- 2007: Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production, for Flushed Away
- In May 2007, he was named, by the Independent on Sunday Pink List, the fifth most influential gay person in Britain, down from the 1st place the previous year.
Selected stage and screen credits
Theatre
- Much Ado About Nothing, Royal National Theatre, Old Vic, London, 1965
- Trelawny 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
- Dance of Death, at the Broadhurst Theatre (New York) in 2001. At the Lyric Theatre (London, England) in 2003
- 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
Miscellaneous
External links
Interviews, blogs and clips
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