On this date in 1939, Ian Murray McKellen was born in Burnley, Lancashire, England. At 18, McKellen won a scholarship to Cambridge, where he read English and participated in student drama. He graduated in 1961 and began working as an actor. Most of McKellen’s early acting career took place on the stage, both in the UK and on Broadway, but he also worked in film and television in the UK.
In 1980 McKellen received the Tony Award for Best Actor for his stage role as Salieri in “Amadeus.” In the 1990s he started to work in Hollywood films.
McKellen has been nominated for two Oscars, once for Best Actor in 1999 for his role as film director James Whale in “Gods and Monsters,” and once for Best Supporting Actor in 2002 for the role of the wizard Gandalf in “The Fellowship of the Ring,” a role for which he won the Screen Actor’s Guild Award. McKellen played Gandalf in all three “Lord of the Rings” movies and reprised the role in the “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” (2012).
He has also played the comic-book villain Magneto in the movies “X-Men” (2000), “X2” (2003), and “X-Men: The Last Stand” (2006). McKellen’s classical acting career includes playing many Shakespearean leads, both for stage and screen. In 1995 he famously played the lead in the film “Richard III,” set in an alternate fascist England, and in 2007, he played King Lear in a stage production that toured the world and was shown on American TV.
McKellen is open about his personal atheism but does not often speak on the subject. He came out as a gay man publicly in 1988 and became a founding member of the UK LGBT advocacy group Stonewall to advocate against discriminatory legislation. McKellen was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1979 and was knighted in 1991 for his contributions to theater. In 2008 he was made a Companion of Honor for his services to drama and equality.
PHOTO: McKellen at “The Return of the King” premiere in 2003; Stefan Servos photo under CC 3.0.
