Ian McKellen

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Ian McKellen

Ian McKellen AKA Ian Murray McKellen

Born: 25-May-1939
Birthplace: Burnley, Lancashire, England

Gender: Male
Religion: Atheist
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Gay [1]
Occupation: Actor

Nationality: England
Executive summary: Gandalf the Grey

Ian McKellen's first professional stage appearance was in 1961, and in 1965 he made his film debut, playing a gay character in A Touch of Love with Sandy Dennis. He has been directing plays since the mid-1960s, and has received the prestigious Olivier Award five times. For most of his career he favored stage work over film, which is why his reputation as an actor perhaps exceeds his film résumé. On stage, he has played virtually every important part in all the classics, but not until 1981 did he find his first starring role on film, playing D. H. Lawrence in Priest of Love with Ava Gardner.

He is most widely known as Gandalf the Grey in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In Gods and Monsters with Brendan Fraser he played James Whale, the out and gay director of the classic Frankenstein films. Among his many other film and television roles, he played AIDS activist Bill Kraus in And the Band Played On with Matthew Modine, the title role in Richard III with Annette Bening, and Tsar Nicholas II in Rasputin with Alan Rickman.

He played British politician John Profumo in Scandal, and said he took the role specifically to prove that an out gay actor could portray "a raging heterosexual." McKellen did not make a private secret of his homosexuality, but he outed himself dramatically during a live interview on British radio in 1988. The subject was an English anti-gay law, Section 28, and the host was Peregrine Worsthorne. Several times, Worsthorne dismissively referred to gays as "they" and "them", until a frustrated McKellen said in a pronounced stage whisper, "I am one of them." McKellen is the first openly gay Englishman to be honored with knighthood.

[1] Radio interview, BBC Radio 4, 1988. See also Gregg Kilday, "Ian McKellen & Wilson Cruz", The Advocate, 15 August 2000. He is asked if his decision affected his career, and replied, "I think anyone who argues that is just battling the homophobia within themselves. If anything, my career has taken off since I came out. And of over 20 film parts that I've played since then, only three have been gay. I don't think of myself as a queer artist, but I do bring my own gay perception to anything I do."

Father: Denis Murray McKellen (civil engineer, d. 1963, auto crash)
Mother: Margery Lois Sutcliffe (homemaker, d. 1951 breast cancer)
Sister: Jean McKellen (amateur actress, b. 1934, d.)
Mother: Gladys McKellen (stepmother)
Boyfriend: Brian Taylor (school teacher, dated and cohabited 1964-72)
Boyfriend: Sean Mathias (filmmaker, dated and cohabited 1978-88)
Boyfriend: Greg Nickels (New Zealander, met while making Lord of the Rings)
Boyfriend: Nick Cuthell (male model, b. 1977, dated 2002)

High School: Bolton School, Lancashire
University: BA English, St Catharine's College, University of Cambridge

Knight of the British Empire 1990
Risk Factors: Vegetarian

FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
The Golden Compass (27-Nov-2007) [VOICE]
Stardust (9-Aug-2007) Narrator [VOICE]
Flushed Away (22-Oct-2006) [VOICE]
X-Men: The Last Stand (22-May-2006)
The Da Vinci Code (17-May-2006)
Doogal (24-Feb-2006) [VOICE]
Neverwas (9-Sep-2005)
Asylum (11-Feb-2005)
Eighteen (5-Dec-2004) [VOICE]
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (1-Dec-2003)
X2 (24-Apr-2003)
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (5-Dec-2002)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (10-Dec-2001)
X-Men (13-Jul-2000)
David Copperfield (25-Dec-1999)
Apt Pupil (16-Sep-1998)
Gods and Monsters (21-Jan-1998)
Swept from the Sea (9-Sep-1997)
Bent (May-1997)
Rasputin (23-Mar-1996)
Restoration (29-Dec-1995)
Richard III (20-Aug-1995)
Jack and Sarah (2-Jun-1995)
Cold Comfort Farm (1-Jan-1995)
To Die For (2-Dec-1994) [VOICE]
The Shadow (1-Jul-1994)
I'll Do Anything (4-Feb-1994)
Six Degrees of Separation (08-Dec-1993)
And the Band Played On (11-Sep-1993)
The Ballad of Little Jo (20-Aug-1993)
Last Action Hero (18-Jun-1993)
Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City (8-May-1993)
Scandal (28-Apr-1989)
Windmills of the Gods (7-Feb-1988)
Plenty (10-Sep-1985)
The Keep (16-Dec-1983)
Walter and June (1983)
The Scarlet Pimpernel (9-Nov-1982)
Alfred the Great (14-Jul-1969)
A Touch of Love (Jun-1969)

Official Website:
http://www.mckellen.com/

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