
Ian McKellen
3 FOLLOWERS • 66 CREDITS • MAY 25, 1939 • 86
Biography
Sir Ian Murray McKellen (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. He has played roles on the screen and stage in genres ranging from Shakespearean dramas and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. He is regarded as a British cultural icon and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1991. He has received numerous accolades, including a Tony Award, six Olivier Awards, and a Golden Globe Award, and he has been nominated for two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, and five Emmy Awards.
McKellen made his stage debut in 1961 at the Belgrade Theatre as a member of its repertory company and, in 1965, made his first West End appearance. In 1969, he was invited to join the Prospect Theatre Company to play the lead parts in Shakespeare's Richard II and Marlowe's Edward II. In the 1970s, McKellen became a stalwart of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre of Great Britain. He has earned five Olivier Awards for his roles in Pillars of the Community (1977), The Alchemist (1978), Bent (1979), Wild Honey (1984), and Richard III (1995). McKellen made his Broadway debut in The Promise (1965). He received the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role as Antonio Salieri in Amadeus (1980). He was further nominated for Ian McKellen: Acting Shakespeare (1984). He returned to Broadway in Wild Honey (1986), Dance of Death (1990), No Man's Land (2013), and Waiting for Godot (2013), the latter two being a joint production with Patrick Stewart.
McKellen achieved worldwide fame for his film roles, including the titular King in Richard III (1995), James Whale in Gods and Monsters (1998), Magneto in the X-Men films, Cogsworth in Beauty and the Beast (2017) and Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003) and The Hobbit (2012–2014) trilogies. Other notable film roles include A Touch of Love (1969), Plenty (1985), Six Degrees of Separation (1993), Restoration (1995), Mr. Holmes (2015), and The Good Liar (2019).
McKellen came out as gay in 1988 and has since championed LGBT social movements worldwide. He was awarded the Freedom of the City of London in October 2014. McKellen co-founded Stonewall, an LGBT rights lobby group in the United Kingdom named after the Stonewall riots. He also patronises LGBT History Month, Pride London, Oxford Pride, GayGlos, LGBT Foundation and FFLAG.
Known For

Saturday Night Live

Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen

Tony Awards

The Graham Norton Show

Golden Globe Awards

Late Night with Seth Meyers

BBC Play of the Month

Doctor Who

Family Guy

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

The Simpsons

Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway

Sesame Street

Real Time with Bill Maher

Parkinson

Omnibus

Who Do You Think You Are?

The One Show

David Copperfield

Extras

ted

Coronation Street

The Wolverine

The Oscars

Stardust

Avengers: Doomsday

David Copperfield

Deadpool & Wolverine

Last Action Hero

Beauty and the Beast

Judi Dench: All the World's Her Stage

Cats

Cold Comfort Farm

X-Men: The Mutant Watch

Shakespeare Live! From the RSC

The Golden Compass

The Keep

X-Men: Days of Future Past

X2

Six Degrees of Separation

Scandal

Flushed Away

The Da Vinci Code

X-Men

Larry & Vivien: The Oliviers in Love

Asylum

The Second Uncanny Issue of X-Men - Making X2

Knights of Classic Drama at the BBC

Windmills of the Gods

X-Men: The Last Stand

Hedda Gabler

Armistead Maupin Is a Man I Dreamt Up

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

The Good Liar

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

All the World's a Screen: Shakespeare on Film

Marley

Gods and Monsters

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Hamlet

The Prisoner

The Dresser

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

The Tragedy of King Richard II
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