ian mckellen

McKellen at the premiere of The Return of the King in Wellington, New Zealand, 1 December 2003 Born 25 May 1939 (1939-05-25) (age 69)

Burnley, Lancashire, England Years active 1965 - present Domestic partner(s) Brian Taylor (1964-1972)

Sean Mathias (1978-1988) Official website [show]Awards won Golden Globe Awards Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or TV Movie

1997 Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny Laurence Olivier Awards Actor of the Year in a Revival

1977 Pillars of the Community

1984 Wild Honey

Best Comedy Performance

1978 The Alchemist

Actor of the Year in a New Play

1979 Bent

Best Actor

1991 Richard III Screen Actors Guild Awards Outstanding Supporting Actor - Motion Picture

2001 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Outstanding Cast - Motion Picture

2003 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Tony Awards Best Leading Actor in a Play

1981 Amadeus Other awards NBR Award for Best Actor

1998 Gods and Monsters

NBR Award for Best Cast

2003 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor (film)

1998 Apt Pupil

2001 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Honorary Golden Berlin Bear

2006 Lifetime Achievement

Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE (born 25 May 1939), is an English stage and screen actor, the recipient of the Tony Award and two Academy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. He is known to many for roles such as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy and as Magneto in the X-Men films.

He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1979, and knighted in the 1991 New Year Honours for his outstanding work and contributions to the theatre.[1][2][3] In the 2008 New Year Honours he was made a Companion of Honour (CH) for services to drama and to equality.[4]

In 1988, he came out as gay and became a founding member of Stonewall, one of the United Kingdom's most influential LGBT rights groups, of which he remains a prominent spokesman. Contents [hide] 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Popular success 1.3 LGBT rights campaigning 2 Awards 3 Selected stage and screen credits 3.1 Theatre 3.2 Filmography 3.3 Television 3.4 Miscellaneous 4 References 5 External links 5.1 Interviews, blogs and clips //

Biography

Early life

McKellen was born in Burnley, Lancashire, England, though he spent most of his early life in Wigan. Born shortly before the outbreak of World War II, the experience had some lasting impact on him. In response to an interview question when an interviewer remarked that he seemed quite calm in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attack, he said: "Well, darling, you forget — I slept under a steel plate until I was four years old."[5]

McKellen's father, Denis Murray McKellen, a civil engineer, was a lay preacher, and both of his grandfathers were preachers as well. At