Ian McKellen

Ian McKellen
Date of birth	May 25, 1939
Place of birth	Burnley, Lancashire, England, U.K.
Nationality	British

"The Lord of the Rings is just mythology, it's a fairytale, it's an adventure. It never happened, except in our hearts. But then there was the Shire in 3 dimensions. And smoke coming out of the burrows where they lived….. And, I believed."

—McKellen on The Lord of the Rings

Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE (born May 25, 1939) is a highly acclaimed British-American actor on both stage and screen. His roles have spanned genres from serious Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular action movies. He is also known for his longtime portrayal of the older version of the X-Men character Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto) in the movies based on the Marvel comic. He is also well known as a campaigner for gay rights. He lives in London.

McKellen played the role of the wizard Gandalf in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy that adapted J.R.R. Tolkien's novel trilogy The Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King). For the first installment, McKellen received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He reprised the role of Gandalf for the three-part film adaptation of The Hobbit, including The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the second-part, The Desolation of Smaug and the final-part of the trilogy, The Battle of the Five Armies.

With Sir Christopher Lee, actor of Saruman, in 2001 (Photo by Dave Hogan)

In May 2020, McKellen appeared with many other cast members of The Lord of the Rings films in Josh Gad's "One Zoom to Rule Them All" virtual reunion.

McKellen has confirmed that he has been approached to reprise the role of Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum (working title) and other near term Middle-earth films.

Documentary appearances

• The Lord of the Rings film trilogy appendices (2002 - 2004)
  • Part One: From Book to Vision  >  From Book to Script
  • Part Two: From Vision to Reality  >  Visual Effects  >  Scale
  • Part Two: From Vision to Reality  >  Filming The Fellowship of the Ring  >  The Fellowship of the Cast
  • Part Four: The Battle for Middle-earth Begins  >  "The Battle for Helm's Deep is Over..."
  • Part Five: The War of the Ring  >  From Book to Script and Home of the Horse Lords
  • Part Five: The War of the Ring  >  Designing and Building Middle-earth  >  Designing Middle-earth and Costume Design

Selected filmography

• Alfred the Great (1969) - Roger
• The Promise (1969) - Leonidik
• Priest of Love (1981) - D.H. Lawrence
• Time Bandits (1981) - Young
• The Keep (1983) - Dr. Theodore Cuza
• Zina (1985) - Kronfeld
• Plenty (1985) - Sir Andrew Charlson
• Scandal (1989) - John Profumo
• Last Action Hero (1993) - Death
• The Ballad of Little Jo (1993) - Percy Corcoran
• Six Degrees of Separation (1993) - Geoffrey
• Tombstone (1993) - Louis
• I'll Do Anything (1994) - John Earl McAlpine
• The Shadow (1994) - Reinhardt Lane
• Jack & Sarah (1995) - William
• Richard III (1995) - King Richard III
• Restoration (1995) - Will Gates
• Bent (1997) - Uncle Freddie
• Gods and Monsters (1998) - James Whale
• Apt Pupil (1998) - Kurt Dussander
• X-Men (2000) - Eric Lensherr / Magneto
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) - Gandalf
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) - Gandalf
• X2: X-Men United (2003) - Eric Lehnsherr / Magneto
• Emile (2003) - Emile
• The Lord of the Rings (2003) - The Return of the King (2003) - Gandalf
• Sprung! The Magic Roundabout (2005) - Zebedee (voice)
• Asylum (2005) - Dr. Peter Cleave
• Neverwas (2005) - Gabriel Finch
• The Da Vinci Code (2006) - Sir Leigh Teabing
• X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) - Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto
• Flushed Away (2006) - The Toad (voice)
• Stardust (2007) - Narrator (voice)
• The Golden Compass (2007) - Iorek Byrnison (voice)
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) - Gandalf
• The Wolverine (2013) - Magneto
• Jobs (2013) - Hugh
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) - Gandalf
• Miss in Her Teens (2014) - The Prologue
• X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - Magneto
• The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) - Gandalf
• Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) - Darwin
• Mr. Holmes (2015) - an old Sherlock Holmes
• National Theatre Live: No Man's Land (2016) - Spooner
• Beauty and the Beast (2017) - Cogsworth
• Animal Crackers (2017) - Horatio P. Huntington (voice)

External links

• Ian McKellen's official website
• Ian McKellen at Wikipedia