Sir Ian Murray McKellen\u00a0(born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. He has played roles on the\u00a0screen and stage\u00a0in genres ranging from\u00a0Shakespearean\u00a0dramas and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. He is regarded as a\u00a0British cultural icon\u00a0and was\u00a0knighted\u00a0by Queen\u00a0Elizabeth II\u00a0in 1991. He has received\u00a0numerous accolades, including a\u00a0Tony Award, six\u00a0Olivier Awards, and a\u00a0Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for two\u00a0Academy Awards, five\u00a0BAFTA Awards\u00a0and five\u00a0Emmy Awards.<\/p>\n
McKellen made his stage debut in 1961 at the\u00a0Belgrade Theatre\u00a0as a member of its repertory company, and in 1965 made his first\u00a0West End appearance. In 1969, he was invited to join the\u00a0Prospect Theatre Company\u00a0to play the lead parts in Shakespeare’s\u00a0Richard II\u00a0and\u00a0Marlowe’s\u00a0Edward II. In the 1970s, McKellen became a stalwart of the\u00a0Royal Shakespeare Company\u00a0and the\u00a0National Theatre of Great Britain. He has earned five\u00a0Olivier Awards\u00a0for his roles in\u00a0Pillars of the Community\u00a0(1977),\u00a0The Alchemist\u00a0(1978),\u00a0Bent\u00a0(1979),\u00a0Wild Honey\u00a0(1984), and\u00a0Richard III (1995). McKellen made his\u00a0Broadway\u00a0debut in\u00a0The Promise\u00a0(1965). He received the\u00a0Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play\u00a0for his role as\u00a0Antonio Salieri\u00a0in\u00a0Amadeus\u00a0(1980). He was further nominated for\u00a0Ian McKellen: Acting Shakespeare (1984). He returned to Broadway in\u00a0Wild Honey(1986),\u00a0Dance of Death\u00a0(1990),\u00a0No Man’s Land (2013), and\u00a0Waiting for Godot\u00a0(2013), the latter two being a joint production with\u00a0Patrick Stewart.<\/p>\n
McKellen achieved worldwide fame for his film roles, including the\u00a0titular King\u00a0in\u00a0Richard III (1995),\u00a0James Whale\u00a0in\u00a0Gods and Monsters\u00a0(1998),\u00a0Magneto\u00a0in the\u00a0X-Men\u00a0films,\u00a0Cogsworth\u00a0in\u00a0Beauty and the Beast\u00a0(2017) and\u00a0Gandalf\u00a0in\u00a0The Lord of the Rings\u00a0(2001\u20132003) and\u00a0The Hobbit (2012\u20132014) trilogies. Other notable film roles include\u00a0A Touch of Love\u00a0(1969),\u00a0Plenty\u00a0(1985),\u00a0Six Degrees of Separation\u00a0(1993),\u00a0Restoration\u00a0(1995),\u00a0Flushed Away\u00a0(2006),\u00a0Mr. Holmes (2015), and\u00a0The Good Liar\u00a0(2019).<\/p>\n
McKellen\u00a0came out\u00a0as gay in 1988, and has since championed\u00a0LGBT social movements worldwide. He was awarded the\u00a0Freedom of the City of London\u00a0in October 2014. McKellen is a cofounder of\u00a0Stonewall, an LGBT rights\u00a0lobby\u00a0group in the United Kingdom, named after the\u00a0Stonewall riots.\u00a0He is also patron of\u00a0LGBT History Month,\u00a0Pride London, Oxford Pride, GayGlos,\u00a0LGBT Foundation\u00a0and\u00a0FFLAG.<\/p>\n
Description above from the Wikipedia article Ian McKellen, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sir Ian Murray McKellen\u00a0(born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. He has played roles on the\u00a0screen and stage\u00a0in genres ranging from\u00a0Shakespearean\u00a0dramas and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. He is regarded as a\u00a0British cultural icon\u00a0and was\u00a0knighted\u00a0by Queen\u00a0Elizabeth II\u00a0in 1991. He has received\u00a0numerous accolades, including a\u00a0Tony Award, six\u00a0Olivier Awards, and a\u00a0Golden Globe Award, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1000068233,"template":"","class_list":["post-1000068232","movie_engine_person","type-movie_engine_person","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinesist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/movie_engine_person\/1000068232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinesist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/movie_engine_person"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinesist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/movie_engine_person"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinesist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1000068233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinesist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1000068232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}