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Ian McKellen <span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>  Sir Ian Murray McKellen (May 25, 1939) is an English Oscar and Tony-nominated stage and screen actor known to genre fans as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and Magneto in the X-Men trilogy. McKellen was born in Burnley, Lancashire, England to Dennis Murray, a civil engineer and Margery Lois a homemaker. He has two elder siblings Ian and Jean. The family moved to the town of Wigan shortly after his birth where they weathered the German bombings of WWII. At age three, he contracted diphtheria. His bout with the disease altered his voice, contributing to its recognizable timbre. McKellen developed an interest in theater in his youth and was encouraged in the art by his parents who brought him to see plays. He began performing in school plays. He performed as Malvolio in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and spent his summers at camp at Stratford watching performances by Vivien Leigh and Charles Laughton among others at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
EducationMcKellen attended Bolton School and won a scholarship to St. Catherine's College at Cambridge. He focused most of his attention on theater, ignoring his other studies. He worked in student theater with Derek Jacobi, David Frost, and Trevor Nunn. His work in theatre with other gay men enabled his acceptance of his own homosexuality. He later became an activist for gay rights. CareerMckellen eventually earned his bachelor's degree in English literature in 1961 and made his professional stage debut the same year at Coventry's Belgrave Theatre . He protrayed the title role in Marlowe's Edward II and performed in Royal Shakespeare Company productions of Romeo and Juliet, and MacBeth. He appeared on Broadway in Bent and also starred in the London National Theatre production and the 1997 film. In 1980, he starred in the Broadway production of Amadeus and his performance as Salieri earned him a Tony Award. McKellen began appearing on screen in the mid 1960s in the TV series The Indian tales of Rudyard Kipling and David Copperfield and the TV Movie Sunday Out of Season. He made his film debut in 1969's The Promise and in the same year appeared in Alfred the Great and A Touch of Love. He reprised his stage role as Edward II, in the 1970 BBC movie and follwed up with other historic roles in The Tragedy of King Richard II, Keats, Hamlet, MacBeth and The Scarlet Pimpernel.  Ian gained international attention for his role in the 1989 film Scandal in which he played John Profuno. He also appeared in Countdown to War playing Nazi Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler. The early 90s brought main stream success in America. In 1993, he played Death in The Last Action Hero costarring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Geoffrey Miller in Six Degrees of Separation with Will Smith. 1994 brought The Shadow with Alec Baldwin and the gay romance To Die For. Other roles include Cold Comfort Farm with Kate Beckinsale, the title role in Richard III, Rasputin, and Gods and Monsters in which he played Frankenstein director, James Whale. In 1998, he starred in Bryan Singer's Apt Pupil and followed up with David Copperfield. In 2000, McKellen took on the role of Eric Lensherr/Magneto in the film version of X-Men. He followed up with another prominent role in 2001's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and the sequels The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King . He also appeared in the X-Men sequels X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand. In 2006, he starred as Sir Leigh Teabing in the controversial film version of The Da Vinci Code and followed up with a voice role in Flushed Away. Upcoming roles include Displaced, The Colossus and Magneto. Personal LifeMcKellen lost his mother at twelve and his father twelve years later at twenty-four. Following his mother's death, his father remarried to Gladys McKellen who proved to be accepting of his homosexuality when he finally came out. McKellen entered his first serious relationship with Brian Taylor, a Bolton history teacher, in 1964. The relationship ended in 1972. Mckellen then became involved with Sean Mathias. Their relationship was fiery and conflicted and ended after ten years together. AwardsMcKellen has been twice nominated for an Oscar for his role in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Apt Pupil. He won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and was nominated for Return of the King. He also won a Saturn award for Apt Pupil. He was nominated three times for a BAFTA but has not won. Mckellen received a British Independent Film Award for his role in Gods and Monsters and a Broadcast Film Critics Association Award (BFCA) shared with his The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King costars for Best Ensemble. He earned a BFCA award for Gods and Monsters and a 1995 Cable ACE award for And the Band Played On. Other awards include:
Quotes"The Lord of the Rings is a mythology, it is a fairy tale, it's an adventure story. It never happened. Except somewhere in our hearts." "I am encouraged by the theatricality of Tolkien's readings - full of rhythm and humour and characterisation. Without question Gandalf is like Tolkien but then so, I suspected, are Frodo and Aragorn." "I've had enough of being a gay icon! I've had enough of all this hard work, because, since I came out, I keep getting all these parts, and my career's taken off. I want a quiet life. I'm going back into the closet. But I can't get back into the closet, because it's absolutely jam-packed full of other actors." "They didn't call it marriage, although you can call it anything you want. The one thing you cannot mention is God, that is absolutely verboten. I suppose I'm a bit mean-spirited, but I really can't see why the government couldn't just say gay people can get married - that would have been true equality and so much simpler. But that hasn't been done because they couldn't face the furore. So they've passed a law that is not available to straight people - straight people cannot have a civil partnership, they have to get married - extraordinary." "It is very, very, very difficult for an American actor who wants a film career to be open about his sexuality. And even more difficult for a woman if she's lesbian. It's very distressing to me that that should be the case. The film industry is very old fashioned in California."
External Links
Categories: Ian McKellen | 1939 Births | Actors | English Actors | X-Men Actors | Lord of the Rings Actors
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