Acting
Ian McKellen
EN cinema · 174 credits
Born
25 May 1939 (age 87)
Birthplace
Burnley, Lancashire, England, UK
Also known as Sir Ian McKellen · Sir Ian Murray McKellen · Ian McKellern
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, as well as nominations 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), Flushed Away (2006), 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 is a cofounder of Stonewall, an LGBT rights lobby group in the United Kingdom, named after the Stonewall riots. He is also patron of LGBT History Month, Pride London, Oxford Pride, GayGlos, LGBT Foundation and FFLAG. Description above from the Wikipedia article Ian McKellen, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known for
Filmography
The Christophers
as Julian Sklar
Avengers: Doomsday
as Magneto
Ebenezer
as Jacob Marley
LS Lowry: The Unheard Tapes
as L S Lowry
Schadenfreude
as Continuity Announcer
A World War II Fairy Tale: The Making of Michael Mann's 'The Keep'
as Self (archive footage)
The Critic
as Jimmy Erskine
Hamlet
as Hamlet
Dragfox
as Ginger Snap the Fox (Speaking) (voice)
The One Note Man
as Narrator (voice)
Infinitum: Subject Unknown
as Dr. Charles Marland-White
The Good Liar
as Roy Courtnay
Cats
as Gus, the Theatre Cat
On Broadway
as Self
The Isle
Associate Producer
Animal Crackers
as Horatio P. Huntington (voice)
National Theatre Live: King Lear
as King Lear
All Is True
as Earl of Southampton
Beauty and the Beast
as Cogsworth
Edmund the Magnificent
as Self - Narrator (voice)
How a Kite Flies
as Mr. Kite (voice)
All the World's a Screen: Shakespeare on Film
as Prospero's Speech Reader (voice)
Shakespeare Live! From the RSC
as Self - Performer
The Roof
as And Even Yet Another Fan
No Man's Land
as Spooner
Mr. Holmes
as Sherlock Holmes
Knights of Classic Drama at the BBC
as Self (archive footage)
The Dresser
as Norman
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
as Gandalf the Grey
X-Men: Days of Future Past
as Magneto
Miss in Her Teens
as The Prologue
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
as Gandalf the Grey
Muse of Fire
as Self
The Wolverine
as Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto (uncredited)
The Egg Trick
as Magician
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
as Gandalf the Grey
Doctor Who: The Snowmen
as The Great Intelligence (voice)
A Lost and Found Box of Human Sensation
as Narrator (voice)
Small-Time Revolutionary
as Hamish Miller (voice)
King Lear
as King Lear
The Golden Compass
as Iorek Byrnison (voice)
Stardust
as Narrator (voice)
For the Love of God
2007
For the Love of God
as The Jackdaw
Pet Shop Boys: Cubism
as Self- voice
The Da Vinci Code
as Sir Leigh Teabing
Flushed Away
as The Toad (voice)
Doogal
as Zebedee (voice)
X-Men: The Last Stand
as Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto
Saint of 9/11
as Narrator
Neverwas
as Gabriel Finch
Asylum
as Dr. Peter Cleave
The Magic Roundabout
as Zebedee (voice)
Eighteen
as Jason Anders (voice)
My First Time
as Narrator
Emile
as Emile
X2
as Eric Lehnsherr / Magneto
Larry & Vivien: The Oliviers in Love
as Narrator (voice)
X-Men
as Magneto
Cirque du Soleil: Journey of Man
as Narrator (voice)
X-Men: The Mutant Watch
as Self - 'Magneto'
After Stonewall
as Self
Gods and Monsters
as James Whale
Swept from the Sea
as Dr. James Kennedy
Apt Pupil
as Kurt Dussander
Bent
as Uncle Freddie
A Bit Of Scarlet
as Narrator
Rasputin
as Tsar Nicholas II
Jack & Sarah
as William
Richard III
as Richard III, Screenplay, Executive Producer
Cold Comfort Farm
as Amos Starkadder
Restoration
as Will Gates
Thin Ice
as Ian McKellen
The Shadow
as Dr. Reinhardt Lane
To Die For
as Quilt Documentary Narrator (voice)
I'll Do Anything
as John Earl McAlpine
David Macaulay: Roman City
as Augustus Caesar (voice)
And the Band Played On
as Bill Kraus
Six Degrees of Separation
as Geoffrey
Last Action Hero
as Death
The Ballad of Little Jo
as Percy Corcoran
Armistead Maupin Is a Man I Dreamt Up
as Narration (voice)
Gladio
as Aldo Moro (voice)
Othello
as Iago
Scandal
as John Profumo
Countdown to War
as Adolf Hitler
Süleyman the Magnificent
as Narrator
Plenty
as Sir Andrew Charleson
Zina
as Kronfeld
The Keep
as Dr. Theodore Cuza
Walter and June
as Walter
The Scarlet Pimpernel
as Chauvelin
Walter
as Walter
Priest of Love
as D.H. Lawrence
Dying Day
1980
Dying Day
as Antony Skipling
Macbeth
as Macbeth
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
as Alexander Ivanov
Hedda Gabler
1972
Hedda Gabler
as George Tesman
Craven Arms
1972
Craven Arms
as David Masterman
Hamlet
as Hamlet
Edward II
as King Edward
The Tragedy of King Richard II
as King Richard II
Alfred the Great
as Roger
A Touch of Love
as George