The Ian McKellen You Don’t Really Know
And why you’ll never see him in a James Bond or Harry Potter film.
You probably know revered British actor Ian McKellen from his roles as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings films or Magneto in the X-Men movies. If so, you barely know him at all.
From his earliest roles in Shakespearean plays on the British stage, to his early but notable film parts in small but important movies, to his breakout in blockbuster Hollywood movies, McKellen has proven himself to be among the most versatile of actors. More than that, he has imbued each of his characters with the humanity and dignity that animate his life as one of the most visible gay artists and civil rights activists of his generation, and ours.
It is for both his work as a consummate performing artist and his life as a champion of human rights that he has been honored repeatedly by his industry and the world. His awards include practically every acting prize — save the elusive Oscar, for which he has been nominated twice — and he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1991.
“Sir Ian’s performances have guaranteed him a place in the canon of English stage and film actors,” said Richard Barnett, vice chancellor of Northern Ireland’s University of Ulster, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2013.
“But Ian Murray McKellen is also a man of deep personal conscience,” Barnett added. “He is known as a voice of liberty. And he is known for his attention to the everyday matters of human courtesy, respect and loyalty — all evident in his acting.”
To take in the breadth of McKellen’s work, it may be useful to look at it in broad categories, starting with his work in Shakespeare’s plays.
Shakespeare on Stage & Screen
McKellen’s first important role was the lead in Richard II for the Prospect Theatre Co. in 1968, about which The Sunday Times’ critic, Harold Hobson, wrote:
“The ineffable presence of God himself enters into Mr McKellen’s Richard.”
McKellen also played the lead in Marlowe’s Edward II in Edinburgh in 1969, in which he enacted the gay monarch’s “male affections” and brutal death scene, spurring outrage among local politicians.
The actor worked frequently with Shakespeare director Trevor Nunn, notably in a 1976 production (alongside Judi Dench) of Macbeth, in 1989 for Othello and in 2007 for a world-traveling production of King Lear.
About the latter role, McKellen said:
“King Lear, I’ve been seeing all my life. I mean, the great actors of my lifetime, … to join their company, as it were, by playing a part that’s challenged them, is one of the great joys of being an actor who does the classics. Without doubt, Lear is the one [role] I got most nervous about.”
McKellen also inhabited the title role of Richard III for director Richard Eyre for the Royal National Theatre, an innovative production that updated the period and setting of the play to 1930s Europe. McKellen in 1995 adapted the stage production himself for the screen, in a film directed by Richard Loncraine.
Shakespeare scholar Harold Bloom declared McKellen’s oily, salacious Richard the greatest he had ever seen, according to film critic Roger Ebert. Ebert himself said of his performance:
“McKellen occupies it like a poisonous spider in its nest. Lurching sideways through his life, smoking as if it’s as necessary to him as breathing, seductive when he wants to be, when angered Richard reveals the predator within. … Yet this Richard has a reptilian charm.”
First Films
McKellen’s first leading film role was as English writer D.H. Lawrence in 1980’s Priest of Love, which The New York Times’ Vincent Canby dismissed as a “foolish film” while praising McKellen for making Lawrence “seem more interesting than he is actually written.” (Canby also misspells McKellen’s name, a sign of his relative newcomer status.)
McKellen appeared in a variety of lead and supporting roles after that, among them as British Secretary of State for War John Profumo in 1989’s Scandal, about the Profumo Affair in post-war Britain.
McKellen made a good impression in a supporting role in 1993’s Six Degrees of Separation, based on John Guare’s stage play. But when co-star Will Smith said he refused to do a male kissing scene because it would “gross out” his followers, McKellen spoke out against Smith’s comments:
“He thought he was saying something very individual, but what he was actually confirming was that he’s got the disease so many people have — homophobia.”
McKellen later said that he made sure Smith knew how he felt:
“When I met him at the Los Angeles opening of the movie, I made sure to give him a kiss for the benefit of the paparazzi.”
That same year McKellen played a supporting role in the HBO AIDS docudrama And the Band Played On, for which he was nominated for a primetime Emmy.
McKellen’s breakout occurred in 1998, when he gained huge acclaim for his lead performance in writer/director Bill Condon’s Gods and Monsters. McKellen played James Whale — the gay film director who made Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein—in a fictionalized story about his late-life friendship with a young gardener (played by Brendan Fraser).
The film was widely praised, mainly based on McKellen’s performance, garnering a 95 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
McKellen earned his first Oscar nomination for the touching role, about which The New York Times’ Janet Maslin wrote:
“Gods and Monsters has been capably made in all regards. What especially elevates it is the razor-sharp cleverness of Mr. McKellen’s performance, which brings unusual fullness and feeling to a most unusual man.”
In the same year, McKellen played a menacing former Nazi officer opposite a very young Brad Renfro in Apt Pupil, based on a story by Stephen King.
The film is notable for marking the first pairing of McKellen with director Bryan Singer, who would go on to cast him in the X-Men movies, kicking off the superhero movie trend that now dominates Hollywood and helping to boost McKellen into the top tier of stars.
Blockbuster Movies
“I’d never read Lord of the Rings until I was asked to play Gandalf, so I didn’t really know it was a frightfully famous book. … I had never come across the X-Men comics till I was asked to play Magneto, so I just jumped into that job.’’ —McKellen, speaking to the Associated Press in 2007
Singer cast McKellen as Eric Lensherr, also known as the mutant Magneto, in 2000’s X-Men, the first of what would become a series of films based on the Marvel Comics franchise.
The first film painted a particularly dark portrait of superhero origins: It begins in a Nazi concentration camp. Singer has said he was attracted to the story because of its metaphor for discrimination, and McKellen’s character fights for the rights of the oppressed, a subject dear to his heart.
The film also gave McKellen an opportunity to play off a similarly classically trained British actor: Patrick Stewart, who played Professor Charles Xavier.
New York Times critic Elvis Mitchell liked the result:
“Xavier’s nemesis is his former mutant friend, Magneto (Ian McKellen), whose roiling syllables make you want to see him square off against Mr. Stewart. ... When they go golden throat to golden throat, it is like watching members of another species in action.”
McKellen and Stewart have actually been friends since the 1970s and frequently share a stage, most recently in Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land. McKellen even officiated Stewart’s wedding in 2013.
About the same time, McKellen got the call from New Zealand director Peter Jackson to play Gandalf, the avuncular wizard, in his proposed films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic fantasy book The Lord of the Rings, which went on to become a massive global hit franchise.
McKellen’s definitive portrayal of Gandalf received accolades as well: He won a Screen Actors Guild award and earned a second Oscar nomination. He went on to play the role in three Rings films and three Hobbit movies.
McKellen appeared in other hit movies during this period, including a role as the mysterious Sir Leigh Teabing in 2006's The Da Vinci Code.
Later Films
McKellen re-teamed with his Gods and Monsters director, Bill Condon, for 2015’s Mr. Holmes, playing a 93-year-old Sherlock Holmes in a speculative story based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective.
Entertainment Weekly had this to say about McKellen’s generally well-received performance:
“The mystery subplot lacks the ingenuity of the greatest Holmes stories, but McKellen excels, switching effortlessly between the reclusive beekeeper with a faltering memory and the elegant younger detective at the height of his powers.”
You can also look for McKellen as the voice of Cogsworth — the butler turned into a clock—in the upcoming live-action version of Disney’s beloved animated film Beauty and the Beast, which hits theaters next year.
No James Bond or Harry Potter
Virtually ever British actor working today has appeared in one or both of the following franchises: James Bond and Harry Potter.
But not McKellen.
Why not 007? He told Uproxx:
“X-Men was about something. Superman isn’t really about anything. It’s a joke. The nerd changes his underpants and becomes a Superman. That’s James Bond: ‘Shaken, not stirred,’ silly, stupid, British twit. … and then, Action Man.”
As for the beloved Potter franchise, McKellen was once rumored to have been offered the role of Dumbledore to replace Richard Harris, the ailing Irish actor who originated the role in the first two films. He denied that, Contactmusic reported:
“Legendary thespian and film star, Sir Ian McKellen, came under fire from the late Richard Harris several years ago when he landed the role of the wise but mischievous Gandalf in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy. McKellen claims that Harris was furious for not being cast in Peter Jackson’s fantasy epic, and this was exacerbated by McKellen being chosen over him.
“Harris reportedly exploded at the rumour that McKellen would then take the role of Dumbledore as well in 2002, when Harris’ health steadily began to fail. The actor explained: ‘Before Richard Harris died, there was an enquiry: Would I be interested in playing in Harry Potter? And I said, “Yes, certainly.” But I’ve not heard anything since.’
“McKellen finally explained: ‘So whether they were already sensing that Richard was ill, which I couldn’t have anticipated at that point, or whether it was for another part, which is what I assumed, I don’t know. But, no, I was never up for Dumbledore. He said I was a “passionless actor,” and so were Derek Jacobi and Kenneth Branagh. I was very happy to be in such esteemed company! But as I say, Richard Harris was mainly a disappointed man, because I had played Gandalf, and he had to settle for Dumblewit. Or Dumblebore, I should say’.”
Stream Ian McKellen in Richard III on Tribeca Shortlist now.
Bonus video: Jeremy Irons praises McKellen’s performance in Richard III:
