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Sir Ian Murray McKellen, Order of the British
Empire|KBE (born May 25, 1939) is a highly
acclaimed United Kingdom|British actor on both
theater|stage and film|screen, regarded by many as
the greatest living British actor. His roles have
spanned genres from serious Shakespearean and
modern theatre to popular action movies. He is
also well known as a campaigner for gay rights.

==Youth and early career==
McKellen was born in Burnley, Lancashire, shortly
before the outbreak of World War II, and has
indicated that this had some 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,
2001 Terrorist Attack|September 11 terrorist
attack, he said: "Well, darling, you forget
— I slept under a steel plate
during the Battle of
Britain until I was four years
old." (Quotes in this article are from the
Advocate interview unless otherwise noted.)

McKellen's father, Denis Murray McKellen, a civil
engineer, was a laity|lay preacher, and both of
his grandfathers were preachers as well. His home
environment was strongly Christianity|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 McKellen (née Sutcliffe)
died; his father died when he was 24.

When he Coming out|came out of the closet to his
stepmother, Gladys McKellen, who was a Society of
Friends|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's acting career started while he was
still a boy. He won a scholarship to St
Catharine's College, Cambridge|St. Catharine's
College, University of Cambridge, when he was 18,
where he developed an intense crush on Derek
Jacobi. He has characterised it as "a passion that
was undeclared and unrequited."  McKellen made his
stage début in Coventry in 1961 and his West End
début in 1964. He was already a major name in the
theatre before establishing himself as a
television and film actor.  

He and his first lover, Brian Taylor, 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.

==First major stage roles==
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 (play)|Edward II. The
production was controversial for its explicit
torture scenes and implicit homosexuality.  He
later reprised the role for the BBC.  In 1972, he
founded the Actors' Company with his friend Edward
Petherbridge, and this was the beginning of his
reputation as a spokesman for actors and the
British theatre in general.  Between 1974 and
1978, he enhanced his reputation with leading
roles in Royal Shakespeare Company productions
such as Romeo and Juliet (in which he played
opposite Francesca Annis) and Macbeth (opposite
Judi Dench).  

In 1978 he met his second lover, Sean Mathias, at
the Edinburgh Festival. According to Mathias, the
love affair was tempestuous, with conflicts over
McKellen's success in acting versus Mathias'
somewhat less-successful career.  Mathias said
that "in those days, the world was far more
homophobia|homophobic, and me being the young,
pretty boy — people wouldn't take me
seriously as an actor, being Ian's boyfriend."
Mathias was 22 when they met; McKellen 39.
However, Mathias also says McKellen "did nothing
but help me" in his career.

==Award-winning successes==
McKellen starred on Broadway theatre|Broadway in
Bent, a play about gay men in Nazi extermination
camp|death camps, starting in 1979. Despite his
role in this ground-breaking play, which brought
to public view for the first time in a widespread
way the persecution of homosexuality|gay people in
Nazi Germany, McKellen was not yet out publicly.
At first, he was unsure whether he dared to take
the role. "As impressed as I was by it, I thought
'My God! Do I dare be in this?' And Sean read it
and said, 'Well you have to do it'," he said.

Bent proved to be of great significance to
McKellen. Since starring in the original Broadway
production of Bent, he has been involved in two
other productions of the play.  In 1990 he starred
in the revival at the Royal National
Theatre|National Theatre in London directed by
Mathias, and also made a supporting appearance in
the movie version, also directed by Mathias, which
was released in 1997 in film|1997.

McKellen's talents won him successively more
important and visible parts, until eventually in
1980 he won the role of Salieri in the Broadway
theatre|Broadway production of Amadeus. He was
awarded the Tony Award for his performance, the
most prestigious award given to actors in live
theatre in the United States.  His appearance as
Walter, a mentally-retarded adult, in a 1982 in
television|1982 television play, won him a new
following; but he was still a relative unknown to
much of the U.S. public.


In the 1990s, McKellen began to branch into major
American film and television roles.  In 1993 in
film|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 in
film|1995, he played the title role in Richard III
(1995 movie)|Richard III.  The performance was
critically acclaimed, and he was nominated for
Golden Globe and BAFTA awards, and won the
European Film Awards|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.

Queen Elizabeth II appointed him Order of the
British Empire|CBE in 1979 and knighted him Order
of the British Empire| KBE in 1990 for his
outstanding work and contributions to the theatre,
becoming Sir Ian McKellen.

In 1994 McKellen put together a one man show, A
Knight Out. The show was very successful and he
still performs it today. He considers it a
perpetual "work in progress".

He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best
Actor for his role in the 1998 film Gods and
Monsters, where he played James Whale, gay
director of Show Boat (1936) and Frankenstein
(1931 film)|Frankenstein.

More recently, McKellen has become a major global
star by playing leading roles in blockbuster
films. First he played Magneto (comics)|Magneto in
X-Men (movie)|X-Men and its sequel X2 (movie)|X2.
He followed that performance with the role of
Gandalf in the three films that comprise the
screen adaptation of The Lord of the Rings (The
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
(film)|The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of
the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(film)|The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
(film)|The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the
King). For The Fellowship of the Ring he was
nominated for the Academy Award for Best
Supporting Actor.  

Critics were surprised in 2005 when he did not win
the Canadian Genie Award for Best Performance by
an Actor in a Leading Role in the film Emile
(2003) which some consider McKellen's best
performance to date.

In April and May 2005, he played the role of Mel
Hutchwright in Granada Television's long running
soap opera, Coronation Street.

==Work for gay rights==
While McKellen was always out to his co-actors,
his public persona was another matter. It was not
until 1988 that he came out to the general public.
A controversial amendment was under consideration
in the United Kingdom Parliament of the United
Kingdom|Parliament: 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 during a debate that
aired on the BBC. "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," he said. Section 28
was, however, enacted and remained on the statute
books until 2003. McKellen continued to fight for
its repeal and criticised British Prime Minister
Tony Blair for failing to concern himself with the
issue.

By the time he came out, McKellen's ten-year
relationship with Mathias had also ended. He has
stated that being free of the additional concern
of what effect his coming out would have on his
partner's career made the choice easier, as did
the advice and support of his friends, among them
noted gay author Armistead Maupin.

In 1994, he made a bit of a splash at the closing
ceremony of the Gay Games, where he stood before a
crowd of gay athletes and their supporters and
fans to say, "I'm Sir Ian McKellen, but you can
call me Serena." (This nickname had been
circulating within the gay community since
McKellen's knighthood was conferred)

McKellen has continued up to the present to be
very active in gay rights movement|gay rights
efforts. He is a co-founder of Stonewall
(UK)|Stonewall, a gay rights lobby group in the
United Kingdom. The group is named after the
Stonewall riots.

==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 Theatre|Chichester
Festival, 1965
*The Promise, West End theatre|West End; Broadway
theatre|Broadway, 1967
*Edward II (play)|Edward II (in title role),
Edinburgh Festival & West End, 1969
*Hamlet (title role), UK/European Tour, 1971
*Tis Pity She's a Whore|'Tis Pity She's a Whore,
UK Tour, 1972
*The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus|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 (play)|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, West End, 1979
*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 (play)|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 (play)|Aladdin, Old Vic, 2004

===Film===
*The Keep, (1983)
*Scandal (as John Profumo), (1989)
*Six Degrees of Separation, (1993)
*Last Action Hero, (1993)
*The Shadow, (1994)
*Restoration (film)|Restoration, (1995)
*Richard III (1995 movie)|Richard III, (1995)
*Bent, (1997)
*Apt Pupil, (1998)
*Gods and Monsters, (1998)
*X-Men (movie)|X-Men, (2000)
*The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
(film)|The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of
the Ring, (2001)
*The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (film)|The
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, (2002)
*The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
(film)|The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the
King, (2003)
*X2: X-Men United, (2003)
*Emile, (2005)
*Flushed Away, (2006)
*The Da Vinci Code (movie)|The Da Vinci Code,
(2006)

===Television===
*David Copperfield (title role), (1966)
*Hay Fever, (1968)
*Keats (as John Keats), (1970)
*Edward II, (1970)
*Richard II|The Tragedy of King Richard II, (1970)
*Hedda Gabler, (1972)
*Macbeth, (1979)
*The Scarlet Pimpernel, (1982)
*Walter, (1982)
*And the Band Played On, (1993)
*Tales of the City, (1993)
*Rasputin (as Tsar Nicholas II), (1996)
*Coronation Street (2005)

==References==
Quotes used in this article are from an interview
conducted by The Advocate, December 11, 2001.

==External links==
* http://www.mckellen.com/ Home page
* http://www.mckellen.com/cinema/lotr/index.htm
McKellen's personal pages on the Lord of the Rings
movie, features a diary and answers to questions
by fans.
* http://www.overstuffed-closet.net/ian The Ian
McKellen Fanlisting
* http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=6425 Ian
McKellen at the Internet Broadway Database
*imdb name|id=0005212|name=Ian McKellen