Ian McKellen 1939 86
Ian McKellen 1939 86
Sir Ian Murray McKellen (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. He has played roles on the screen and stage in genres ranging from Shakespearean dramas and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. He is regarded as a British cultural icon and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1991. He has received numerous accolades, including a Tony Award, six Olivier Awards, and a Golden Globe Award, and he has been nominated for two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, and five Emmy Awards.
McKellen made his stage debut in 1961 at the Belgrade Theatre as a member of its repertory company and, in 1965, made his first West End appearance. In 1969, he was invited to join the Prospect Theatre Company to play the lead parts in Shakespeare's Richard II and Marlowe's Edward II. In the 1970s, McKellen became a stalwart of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre of Great Britain. He has earned five Olivier Awards for his roles in Pillars of the Community (1977), The Alchemist (1978), Bent (1979), Wild Honey (1984), and Richard III (1995). McKellen made his Broadway debut in The Promise (1965). He received the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role as Antonio Salieri in Amadeus (1980). He was further nominated for Ian McKellen: Acting Shakespeare (1984). He returned to Broadway in Wild Honey (1986), Dance of Death (1990), No Man's Land (2013), and Waiting for Godot (2013), the latter two being a joint production with Patrick Stewart.
McKellen achieved worldwide fame for his film roles, including the titular King in Richard III (1995), James Whale in Gods and Monsters (1998), Magneto in the X-Men films, Cogsworth in Beauty and the Beast (2017) and Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003) and The Hobbit (2012–2014) trilogies. Other notable film roles include A Touch of Love (1969), Plenty (1985), Six Degrees of Separation (1993), Restoration (1995), Mr. Holmes (2015), and The Good Liar (2019).
McKellen came out as gay in 1988 and has since championed LGBT social movements worldwide. He was awarded the Freedom of the City of London in October 2014. McKellen co-founded Stonewall, an LGBT rights lobby group in the United Kingdom named after the Stonewall riots. He also patronises LGBT History Month, Pride London, Oxford Pride, GayGlos, LGBT Foundation and FFLAG.
2.15
Popularity153
Credits6.7
Rating129M
Budget552M
RevenueActing
Primarily153 Credits
View all credits
Credit 153
2026 Avengers: Doomsday as Magneto
2025 Dragged Through Time
2025 Untitled Anthony Hopkins Documentary as Self
2025 Richard II as Richard II
2025 Schadenfreude as Continuity Announcer
2025 The Christophers
2025 Ken Dodd: A Legacy of Happiness
2024 The Critic as Jimmy Erskine
2024 Dragfox as Ginger Snap the Fox (Speaking)
2024 The Real Ken Dodd: The Man I Loved
2024 The Life and Death of Lily Savage as Self
2024 Hamlet as Hamlet
2023 The One Note Man as Narrator (voice)
2022 Quintessentially British as Self
2022 Freedom: 50 Years of Pride as Self
2022 Hamlet Within
2021 Hating Peter Tatchell as Self
2021 Infinitum: Subject Unknown as Dr. Charles Marland-White
2020 Ian McKellen on Stage: With Tolkien, Shakespeare, Others and YOU
2020 Du Fu: China's Greatest Poet
2019 Cats as Gus, the Theatre Cat
2019 The Good Liar as Roy Courtnay
2019 On Broadway as Self
2019 The Isle Associate Producer
2018 All Is True as Earl of Southampton
2018 National Theatre Live: King Lear as King Lear
2018 McKellen: Playing the Part as Himself
2017 Animal Crackers as Horatio P. Huntington (voice)
2017 The Paul O'Grady Story as Self
2017 How a Kite Flies as Mr. Kite (voice)
2017 Beauty and the Beast as Cogsworth
2017 The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin as Self
2017 Edmund the Magnificent as Self - Narrator (voice)
2016 Judi Dench: All the World's Her Stage as Self
2016 National Theatre Live: No Man's Land as Spooner
2016 Play the Devil: Making Richard III
2016 Shakespeare on Film
2016 Shakespeare on Stage, Screen and Elsewhere with Ian McKellen
2016 All the World's a Screen: Shakespeare on Film as Prospero's Speech Reader (voice)
2016 Shakespeare Live! From the RSC as Self - Performer
2016 The Roof as And Even Yet Another Fan
2015 Knights of Classic Drama at the BBC as Self (archive footage)
2015 The Dresser as Norman
2015 Mr. Holmes as Sherlock Holmes
2014 The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies as Gandalf the Grey
2014 Nelson Mandela Redrawn as Self
2014 X-Men: Days of Future Past as Magneto
2014 Miss in Her Teens as The Prologue
2013 The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug as Gandalf the Grey
2013 The Wolverine: Path of a Ronin as Self
2013 The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot as Self
2013 Muse of Fire as Self
2013 The Wolverine as Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto (uncredited)
2013 The Egg Trick as Magician
2012 Doctor Who: The Snowmen as The Great Intelligence (voice)
2012 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey as Gandalf the Grey
2012 London 2012: Paralympics Opening Ceremony as Self
2011 Looking for Lowry as Himself
2011 The Betty Driver Story as Self
2010 Lady Grey London
2010 Small-Time Revolutionary as Hamish Miller (voice)
2010 A Lost and Found Box of Human Sensation as Narrator (voice)
2010 Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy as Self (archive footage)
2009 Theatreland as Himself
2008 King Lear as King Lear
2007 The Golden Compass as Iorek Byrnison (voice)
2007 Stardust as Narrator (voice)
2007 The Art of Breaking Character as Self
2007 For the Love of God as The Jackdaw
2006 Flushed Away as The Toad (voice)
2006 X-Men: The Last Stand as Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto
2006 The Da Vinci Code as Sir Leigh Teabing
2006 Saint of 9/11 as Narrator
2006 Doogal as Zebedee (voice)
2005 Asylum as Dr. Peter Cleave
2005 Neverwas as Gabriel Finch
2005 The Hobart Shakespeareans as Himself
2005 Ringers: Lord of the Fans as Self
2005 Eighteen as Jason Anders (voice)
2004 A Filmmaker's Journey: Making 'The Return of the King' as Self
2004 The Magic Roundabout as Zebedee (voice)
2004 Frodo Is Great... Who Is That?!! as Self
2004 The Making of the Return of the King as Self
2004 Peter Tatchell: Just Who Does He Think He Is?
2003 The Quest Fulfilled: A Director's Vision as Self
2003 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King as Gandalf
2003 Beyond the Movie: The Return of the King as Self
2003 The Second Uncanny Issue of X-Men! Making 'X2'
2003 X2 as Eric Lehnsherr / Magneto
2003 The Making of The Two Towers
2003 X-Men: Premieres Around the World as Self
2003 Evolution X - The Making of X-Men
2003 Film Collectibles: Capturing Movie Memories as Self
2003 Émile as Emile
2002 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers as Gandalf
2002 Lord of the Piercing as Gandalf the Grey (archive footage)
2001 Beyond the Movie: The Fellowship of the Ring as Self
2001 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring as Gandalf
2001 A Passage to Middle-Earth: Making of 'Lord of the Rings' as Self
2001 Quest for the Ring as Self
2001 Larry & Vivien: The Oliviers in Love as Narrator (voice)
2000 Now You See Him: 'The Invisible Man' Revealed! as Self
2000 X-Men as Magneto
2000 X-Men: The Mutant Watch as Self - 'Magneto'
2000 Cirque du Soleil: Journey of Man as Narrator (voice)
1999 The World of Gods and Monsters: A Journey with James Whale as Self
1998 Apt Pupil as Kurt Dussander
1998 Gods and Monsters as James Whale
1998 Swept from the Sea as Dr. James Kennedy
1997 Bent as Uncle Freddie
1997 A Bit Of Scarlet as Narrator
1996 An Evening with Lily Savage as Self
1996 Rasputin as Tsar Nicholas II
1995 Richard III as Richard III Executive Producer, Screenplay
1995 Restoration as Will Gates
1995 Jack & Sarah as William
1995 Cold Comfort Farm as Amos Starkadder
1994 To Die For as Quilt Documentary Narrator (voice)
1994 Stonewall 25: Global Voices of Pride and Protest
1994 The Shadow as Dr. Reinhardt Lane
1994 David Macaulay: Roman City as Augustus Caesar (voice)
1994 I'll Do Anything as John Earl McAlpine
1993 Camp Christmas
1993 Six Degrees of Separation as Geoffrey
1993 And the Band Played On as Bill Kraus
1993 The Ballad of Little Jo as Percy Corcoran
1993 Armistead Maupin Is a Man I Dreamt Up as Narration (voice)
1993 Last Action Hero as Death
1992 Gladio as Aldo Moro (voice)
1990 Othello as Iago
1989 Countdown to War as Adolf Hitler
1989 Scandal as John Profumo
1988 Scarfe's Follies
1987 Süleyman the Magnificent as Narrator
1985 Zina as Kronfeld
1985 Plenty as Sir Andrew Charleson
1983 The Keep as Dr. Theodore Cuza
1983 Walter and June as Walter
1982 The Scarlet Pimpernel as Chauvelin
1982 Walter as Walter
1982 Ian McKellen: Acting Shakespeare
1981 Priest of Love as D.H. Lawrence
1979 Every Good Boy Deserves Favour as Alexander Ivanov
1979 Macbeth as Macbeth
1972 Hedda Gabler as George Tesman
1970 Hamlet as Hamlet
1970 Edward II as King Edward
1970 The Tragedy of King Richard II as King Richard II
1969 The Promise
1969 Alfred the Great as Roger
1969 A Touch of Love as George
1965 The Trial and Torture of Sir John Rampayne as Wolf
Genres
7.30 Music 2
7.23 Action 14
6.91 Documentary 39
6.89 Adventure 20
6.81 TV Movie 17
6.79 Science Fiction 7
6.49 Family 10
6.40 Fantasy 19
6.31 History 11
6.26 Crime 4
6.17 Drama 42
6.17 Thriller 10
6.15 Mystery 6
5.99 Romance 16
5.94 Western 1
5.80 Comedy 21
5.64 Animation 6
5.41 War 3
5.20 Horror 2