Long considered one of the finest British stage actors, Ian McKellen has defied conventional wisdom which posits that being openly homosexual would either pigeonhole you or destroy your career. In fact, since his 1988 decision to "come out" during a BBC radio broadcast, he not only has been knighted for his services to the theater (in 1991) but found himself an unlikely movie star.
Born in Burnley on May 25, 1939 and raised in Wigan and Bolton, Ian Murray McKellen knew from an early age that he wanted to pursue a career on stage. His parents, a civil engineer and his homemaker wife, encouraged the youngster's interest in culture, providing him with a toy theater in which McKellen staged plays. After "discovering" Shakespeare thanks to his older sister, he was hooked and began to act in school plays, including a turn as Malvolio in "Twelfth Night" at age 13. While at Cambridge, he appeared in dozens of student productions working with such future luminaries as John Barton, Trevor Nunn and Derek Jacobi. Like some of his contemporaries, McKellen trained in the now defunct repertory theater system (in his case in Coventry, Ipswitch and Nottingham) before making his London stage debut in 1964's "A Scent of Flowers.”
A tall, lean figure with full lips and heavy eyebrows, he was not conventionally handsome (which may have precluded earlier film work), but he proved a dynamic and powerful stage presence. Joining the National Theatre in 1965, McKellen supported then-husband-and-wife Robert Stephens and Maggie Smith in "Much Ado About Nothing.” His first breakout lead was in the Russian play "The Promise" in 1967, opposite Judi Dench in London and Eileen Atkins in NYC. (McKellen recreated the part for his first leading role in the little-seen feature version.) Amassing numerous accolades along the way, McKellen increased his profile undertaking roles in the Shakespeare canon but ironically became an international star for two contemporary parts. In 1979, he created the role of Max, a gay man who pretends to be Jewish when he is shipped to a concentration camp, in Martin Sherman's groundbreaking "Bent.” The following year, McKellen created the role of Salieri, the jealous rival of Mozart, in Peter Shaffer's fine "Amadeus.” Recreating the latter on Broadway solidified his stature which was capped by his winning a Tony Award for the role.
Although he has continued to appear on stage throughout the world (including appearances in two well-received solo shows, "Acting Shakespeare" and "A Knight Out"), McKellen found himself in demand for film and television roles post-"Amadeus.” He was tapped to play author D H Lawrence in the highly literate but slightly stodgy biopic "Priest of Love" (1981). In the title role of "Walter" in a 1982 British TV-movie, he skillfully portrayed a mentally challenged individual and earned more awards. Like Olivier, he has often donned heavy makeup if a role requires and he was virtually unrecognizable as a rapidly aging doctor in the oddball thriller "The Keep" (1983).
Spurred by legislation that prohibited local authorities from promoting "homosexual causes,” McKellen disclosed his sexuality on a 1988 BBC Radio broadcast. While it made headlines in the United Kingdom and spawned much talk that he would be typecast in future parts, the actor confounded his critics by undertaking the role of John Profumo, a politician brought down by a notorious heterosexual sex scandal in the 60s in "Scandal" (1989). Fully embodying a manly character, the actor demonstrated that his own sexual orientation was immaterial to his abilities as a performer. Beginning to become more active in gay-related causes, he recreated the role of Max in a one-night only staging of "Bent" that led to a 1990 revival, accepted the role of AIDS activist Bill Kraus in the HBO movie "And the Band Played On" (1992) and devised his one-man show "A Knight Out" which he often performs as a benefit fund-raiser. Recreating another stage triumph, he offered a chilling turn as "Richard III" in the 1995 feature version directed by Richard Loncraine which transposed the action to 1930s Europe.
Following a well-received supporting performance as Russian Czar Nicholas II in the HBO drama "Rasputin" (1996), McKellen accepted the smaller role of Freddie, who attempts to help Max escape from the Nazis, in the feature version of "Bent" (1997). The next year, as he approached his 60s, the actor became an unlikely movie star in two outstanding performances. In the less successful "Apt Pupil,” Bryan Singer's adaptation of a Stephen King novella, McKellen offered a chilling depiction of evil in the guise of a former Nazi identified by a local schoolboy who exhorts him to impart his knowledge. But his undeniable triumph was his aged James Whale, the expatriate British film director best-known for his horror films ("Frankenstein" 1931; "The Invisible Man" 1933; "The Bride of Frankenstein" 1935) in Bill Condon's superlative "Gods and Monsters.” McKellen found numerous parallels between their lives (both hailed from the same area of England, both started on stage as actors, both were homosexual) which informed his deeply moving characterization and helped him nab an Oscar nomination.
True to form, though, on the heels of these acclaimed film roles, he returned to the stage, first in L.A. in "An Enemy of the People" and then in Leeds, England in a season that included "The Seagull" and "The Tempest." McKellen's absence from the big screen did not last long, however. He reunited with Singer in 2000 to play Patrick Stewart's evil rival Magneto in "X-Men,” the hotly anticipated summer feature based on the adventures of the Marvel Comic's superheroes. That same year, he signed on to play the wizard Gandalf in Peter Jackson's equally eagerly anticipated "Lord of the Rings" trilogy set to be released over a three-year period ("The Fellowship of the Ring" 2001; "The Two Towers" 2002; and "The Return of the King" 2003).
McKellen turned in another stellar turn, alternately charming and commanding, and earned both rave reviews and numerous awards nominations for his portrayal, as well as the hearts of fans for his dedication to the role. Making another subset of fans equally happy, McKellen reprised the role of the villainous Magneto for the comic book sequel "X2" (2003). In “Asylum” (2005), a dour period drama starring Natasha Richardson as a board 1950’s housewife who falls in love with an asylum patient (Marton Csokas) under the care of her husband (Hugh Bonneville), the hospital’s forensic psychologist, McKellen played a cunning hospital administrator suspicious of the illicit love affair.
After voicing Zebedee the Sorcerer in the U.K. version of “Doral” (2006), based on a French television series aired on the BBC, McKellen was set to appear in one of the most controversial and anticipated movies to have come along in decades, “The Da Vinci Code” (2006), directed by Ron Howard from Dan Brown’s mega-blockbuster book about a famed symbologist (Tom Hanks) who’s called to the Louvre Museum where a curator has been murdered, leaving behind a trail of mysterious symbols and clues that lead to a secret society that has spent the past 2000 years guarding a secret that could destroy the very foundations of society if it were revealed. Meanwhile, McKellen once again revived the evil Magneto for the second sequel in the comic book franchise, “X-Men: The Last Stand” (2006) directed by Brett Ratner.
Despite his two Oscar nominations, McKellen was not above spoofing himself. In 2006, McKellen turned in a wicked parody of himself on the critically acclaimed HBO comedy series “Extras” (2005- ). Playing on his real-life public persona as a prominent out-of-the-closet celebrity, McKellen served as a hysterically funny, utterly cringe-worthy foil for the show’s homophobic lead character, Andy Millman (played by Ricky Gervais.) The guest-starring role earned McKellen his first Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series.