Ian McKellen

Sir Ian McKellen CH KBE
McKellen at the San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2013.
Born	Ian Murray McKellen (1939-05-25) 25 May 1939 [1] Burnley, Lancashire, England, UK
Alma mater	University of Cambridge
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1959–present
Partner(s)	Brian Taylor (1964–1972) Sean Mathias (1978–1988)
Website
www.mckellen.com

Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, KBE (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor.^[2][3] The recipient of multiple Laurence Olivier Awards, a Tony Award, a Golden Globe Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations, McKellen's work spans genres ranging from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. His most notable film roles include Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy and The Hobbit film trilogy, Magneto in the X-Men films, and Sir Leigh Teabing in The Da Vinci Code.

McKellen was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1979,^[4] was knighted in 1991 for services to the performing arts,^[5] and was made a Companion of Honour for services to drama and to equality, in the 2008 New Year Honours.^[6]

Biography

Background

McKellen was born in Burnley, Lancashire,^[7], but was raised in Wigan when his family moved there when he was just 4 months old. Some modern day reports suggest he was brought up in Bolton, yet he lived there only from the age of 13. 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 11 September attacks, he said: "Well, darling, you forget—I slept under a steel plate until I was four years old."^[8]

McKellen's father, Denis Murray McKellen, a civil engineer, was a lay preacher, and both of his grandfathers were preachers. His great-great-grandfather, James McKellen, was a "strict, evangelical Protestant minister" in Ballymena, County Antrim.^[9] 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."^[8] When he was 12, his mother, Margery Lois (née Sutcliffe), died; his father died when he was 24. Of his coming out of the closet to his stepmother, Gladys McKellen, who was a member of the Religious Society of Friends, he said, "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 anymore."^[8]

McKellen attended Bolton School (Boys' Division),^[10] 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.^[11] An early fascination with the theatre was encouraged by his parents, who took him on a family outing to Peter Pan at the Opera House in Manchester when he was three.^[12] 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 Laurence Olivier's Hamlet.^[12]

His sister took him to his first Shakespeare play, Twelfth Night,^[13] 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, with the role of Bottom played by Jean McKellen, who continued to act, direct, and produce amateur theatre up to her death.^[14] He won a scholarship to St Catharine's College, Cambridge, when he was 18 years old.^[15] He has characterised it as "a passion that was undeclared and unrequited".^[8]

Personal life

McKellen and his first serious partner, Brian Taylor, a history teacher from Bolton, began their relationship in 1964.^[16] 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.^[17] In 1978 he met his second partner, Sean Mathias, at the Edinburgh Festival. This relationship lasted until 1988. According to Mathias, the ten-year love affair was tempestuous, with conflicts over McKellen's success in acting versus Mathias's somewhat less-successful career. Mathias later directed McKellen in Waiting For Godot at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in 2009. The pair entered into business partnership with Evgeny Lebedev, purchasing the lease on The Grapes public house in Narrow Street,^[18] close to McKellen's home.^[19]

A friend of actor Ian Charleson and an admirer of his work, McKellen contributed an entire chapter to the 1990 book, For Ian Charleson: A Tribute.^[20]

In the late 1980s, McKellen lost his appetite for meat except for fish, and so mostly excludes it from his diet.^[21] He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2006.^[22]

Career

Theatre

McKellen at the premiere of The Return of the King in Wellington, New Zealand, 1 December 2003.

While at Cambridge McKellen was a member of the Marlowe Society, appearing in Henry IV (as Shallow) alongside Trevor Nunn and Derek Jacobi (March 1959), Cymbeline (as Posthumus, opposite Margaret Drabble as Imogen) and Doctor Faustus.^[23][24][25] His first professional appearance was in 1961 at the Nottingham Playhouse, as Roper in A Man for All Seasons, although an audio recording of the Marlowe Society's Cymbeline had gone on commercial sale as part of the Argo Shakespeare series.^[23][25]

After four years in regional repertory theatres he made his first West End appearance, in A Scent of Flowers, regarded as a "notable success".^[23] In 1965 he was a member of Laurence Olivier's National Theatre Company at the Old Vic, which led to rôles at the Chichester Festival. In the 1970s and 1980s McKellen became a well-known figure in British theatre, performing frequently at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre, where he played several leading Shakespearean roles, including the titular part in Macbeth (which he had first assayed for Trevor Nunn in a "gripping...out of the ordinary" production, with Judi Dench, at Stratford in 1976), and Iago in Othello, in award-winning productions directed by Nunn.^[23] Both of these productions were adapted into television films, also directed by Nunn.

In 2007 he returned to the Royal Shakespeare Company, in productions of King Lear and The Seagull, both directed by Trevor Nunn. In 2009 he appeared in a very popular revival of Waiting for Godot at London's Haymarket Theatre, directed by Sean Mathias, and playing opposite Patrick Stewart.^[26][27]

McKellen is Patron of English Touring Theatre and also President and Patron of the Little Theatre Guild of Great Britain, an association of amateur theatre organisations throughout the UK.^[28]

In late August 2012, McKellen took part in the opening ceremony of the London Paralympics, portraying Prospero from The Tempest.^[29]

Popular success

McKellen had taken film roles throughout his career—beginning in 1969 with his role of George Matthews in A Touch of Love, but it was not until the 1990s that he became more widely recognised in this medium, through several roles in blockbuster Hollywood films.^[15]

In 1993, McKellen had a supporting role as a South African tycoon in the critically acclaimed^[30] Six Degrees of Separation, in which he starred with Stockard Channing, Donald Sutherland, and Will Smith. In the same year, he appeared in minor roles in the television miniseries Tales of the City (based on the novel by his friend Armistead Maupin) and the film Last Action Hero, in which he played Death.

In 1993, he also appeared in the television film And the Band Played On, about the discovery of the AIDS virus, for which McKellen won a CableACE Award for Supporting Actor in a Movie or Miniseries and was nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie.^[31] In 1995, he played the title role in Richard III,^[32] which transported the setting into an alternative 1930s in which England is ruled by fascists. The film was a critical success.^[33] McKellen co-produced and co-wrote the film, adapting the play for the screen based on a stage production of Shakespeare's play directed by Richard Eyre for the Royal National Theatre, in which McKellen had appeared.^[15][33] As executive producer he returned his £50,000 fee to complete the filming of the final battle.^[34] In his review of the film, Washington Post film critic Hal Hinson, called McKellen's performance a "lethally flamboyant incarnation", and said his "florid mastery ... dominates everything".^[35] His performance in the title role garnered best actor nominations for the BAFTA Award and Golden Globe, and won the European Film Award for Best Actor. His screenplay was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

His appeared in the modestly acclaimed film^[36] Apt Pupil, which was 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. He was subsequently nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the 1998 film Gods and Monsters, wherein he played James Whale, the director of Show Boat (1936) and Frankenstein.^[15]

McKellen re-teamed with Bryan Singer to play the comic book supervillain Magneto in X-Men and its sequels X2: X-Men United and X-Men: The Last Stand.^[15] While filming X-Men McKellen 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). He 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 nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the same role. He also voiced Gandalf in the video game adaptions of the film trilogy as well as in The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age.^[37] On 10 January 2011 it was officially confirmed that Mckellen would reprise the role of Gandalf in the three-part film adaptation of The Hobbit.^[38]

McKellen in 2010

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 narrated Richard Bell's film Eighteen, as a grandfather who leaves his World War II memoirs on audio-cassette for his teenage grandson.

McKellen has appeared in limited release films, such as Emile (which was shot in three weeks following the X2 shoot),^[39] 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.^[40] 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".^[40] 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 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor - Comedy Series nomination for his performance. In 2009 he portrayed Number Two in The Prisoner, a remake of the 1967 cult series The Prisoner.^[41] He will reprise his role as Magneto in X-Men: Days of Future Past, set for release in July 2014; he will share this role with Michael Fassbender, who played a younger version of the character in 2011's X-Men: First Class.^[42]

Activism

LGBT rights campaigning

Sir Ian Murray McKellen at Manchester Pride 2010

McKellen at Europride 2003 in Manchester.

While McKellen had made his sexual orientation 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.^[43] The context that prompted McKellen's decision — overriding any concerns about a possible negative effect on his career — was that the controversial Section 28 of the Local Government Bill, simply known as Section 28, was under consideration in the British Parliament.^[15] 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.^[15] In a 1998 interview that discusses the 29th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, McKellen commented, "I have many regrets about not having come out earlier, but one of them might be that I didn’t engage myself in the politicking."^[44]

In 2003, during an appearance on Have I Got News For You, McKellen claimed when he visited Michael Howard, then Environment Secretary (responsible for local government), 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."^[45] McKellen described Howard's junior ministers, Conservatives David Wilshire and Dame Jill Knight, who were the architects of Section 28, as the 'ugly sisters' of a political pantomime.^[46]

Section 28, which proposed to prohibit local authorities from "promoting homosexuality" 'as a kind of pretended family relationship', was ambiguous and the actual impact of the amendment was uncertain.^[47] 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.^[15] 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".^[8] Section 28 was, however, enacted and remained on the statute books until 2003.

McKellen has continued to be very active in LGBT rights efforts. In a statement on his website regarding his activism, the actor commented that:

I have been reluctant to lobby on other issues I most care about – nuclear weapons (against), religion (atheist), capital punishment (anti), AIDS (fund-raiser) because I never want to be forever spouting, diluting the impact of addressing my most urgent concern; legal and social equality for gay people worldwide.^[48]

McKellen is a co-founder of Stonewall, a LGBT rights lobby group in the United Kingdom, named after the Stonewall riots.^[49] McKellen is also patron of LGBT History Month,^[50] Pride London, GAY-GLOS, The Lesbian & Gay Foundation,^[51] and FFLAG where he appears in their video "Parents Talking".^[52]

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).^[8] In 2002, he attended the Academy Awards with his then-boyfriend, New Zealander Nick Cuthell. 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.^[50] In 2007, he became a patron of The Albert Kennedy Trust, an organisation that provides support to young, homeless and troubled LGBT people.^[49]

In 2006, he became a patron of Oxford Pride, stating:

"I have been to many Pride occasions across the World, from being Grand Marshall in San Francisco to the first ever gay march in Johannesburg in post-apartheid South Africa. Wherever gay people gather publicly to celebrate their sense of community, there are two important results. First, onlookers can be impressed by our confidence and determination to be ourselves and, second, gay people, of whatever age, can be comforted by the occasion to take first steps towards coming out and leaving the closet forever behind. I send my love to all members of Oxford Pride, their sponsors and supporters, of which I am proud to be one."^{[citation needed]}

McKellen has taken his activism internationally, and caused a major stir in Singapore, where he was invited to do an interview on a morning show and shocked the interviewer by asking if they could recommend him a gay bar; the programme immediately ended.^[53] In December 2008, he was named in Out's annual Out 100 list.^[54]

In 2010, McKellen extended his support for Liverpool's Homotopia festival in which a group of gay and lesbian Merseyside teenagers helped to produce an anti-homophobia campaign pack for schools and youth centres across the city.^[55] In May 2011, he called Sergey Sobyanin, Moscow's mayor, a "coward" for refusing to allow gay parades in the city.^[56]

Charity work

In April 2010, along with actors Brian Cox and Eleanor Bron, McKellen appeared in a series of TV advertisements to support Age UK, the charity recently formed from the merger of Age Concern and Help the Aged. All three actors gave their time free of charge.^[57]

Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch

While in New Zealand filming The Hobbit in 2012, McKellen announced a special New Zealand tour 'Shakespeare, Tolkien, and You!', with proceeds from the shows going to help save the Isaac Theatre Royal, which suffered extensive damage during the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. McKellen said he opted to help save the building as it was the last theatre he played in New Zealand (Waiting For Godot in 2010) and the locals' love for it made it a place worth contributing to.^[58]

Selected credits

Stage

The hands of McKellen on a 1999 Gods and Monsters plaque in London's Leicester Square.

• 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 Max) Royal Court and Criterion, London, 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^[59]
• 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; New Zealand, 2007; New York (Brooklyn Academy of Music), 2007, Minneapolis, 2007, New London Theatre (West End), 2007–8
• The Seagull by Anton Chekhov, (as Sorin), Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 2007; New York (Brooklyn Academy of Music), 2007 Minneapolis, 2007, New London Theatre (West End), 2007–8
• Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, (as Estragon), Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, 2009 and 2010; Comedy Theatre, Melbourne, Australia, 2010^[60] and Fugard Theatre, Cape Town, South Africa, 2010
• The Syndicate by Eduardo De Filippo, Chichester Festival, 2011

Filmography

Music

• 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 Guillemots
• Appears on the Scissor Sisters track "Invisible Light", from their 2010 album "Night Work", reciting a passage regarding the "Invisible Light" of the title.^[61]

Audiobooks

• Audiobook narrator of Michelle Paver's Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series Wolf Brother, Spirit Walker, Soul Eater, Outcast, Oath Breaker and Ghost Hunter, as well as a version of Homer's The Odyssey.

Other work

A recording of McKellen's voice is heard before performances at the Royal Festival Hall, reminding patrons to ensure their mobile phones and watch alarms are switched off, and to keep coughing to a minimum.^[62][63]

He also took part in the 2012 Summer Paralympics opening ceremony as Prospero.^{[citation needed]}

Achievements

Honours

He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1979,^[4] and knighted in 1991 New Year Honours for his outstanding work and contributions to theatre.^[64][65][66] In the 2008 New Year Honours he was made a Companion of Honour (CH) for services to drama and to equality.^[6]

Honorary degrees

In 2001 McKellen was awarded an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from the University of Bath.^[67] In 2004 McKellen was conferred an honorary Doctor of Letters by Lancaster University. He was praised for his diversity of roles, his "deeply considered dramatic technique" and his Lancastrian roots.^[68] In 2013 McKellen received an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (DLitt) from the University of Ulster.^[69]

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
• 1998: Back Stage West Garland Awards, for his one-man show A Knight Out in Los Angeles
• 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.^[70]
• 2009: San Sebastián International Film Festival Donostia Award in recognition of an extensive professional career.^[71]
• 2010: Empire Awards 2010: Empire Icon Award^[72]

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

• The papers of Sir Ian McKellen, actor are held by the Victoria and Albert Museum Theatre and Performance Department.
• Ian McKellen at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Ian McKellen at the Internet Broadway Database
• Ian McKellen at the Internet Movie Database
• Biography of Sir Ian McKellen, CH, CBE, Debrett's