Ian Mckellen
Ian Mckellen
Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBEis an English actor. He is the recipient of six Laurence Olivier Awards, a Tony Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a BIF Award, two Saturn Awards, four Drama Desk Awards and two Critics' Choice Awards. He has also received two Academy Award nominations, four BAFTA nominations and five Emmy Award nominations...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth25 May 1939
CityBurnley, England
I'm an eccentric English actor, and there's a lot of us around.
critic deal edinburgh great harold owe richard
I owe a great deal to Harold Hobson, doyen drama critic of the 'U.K. Sunday Times,' who championed me as Shakespeare's Richard II at the 1969 Edinburgh Festival.
centre draw laid lear playing
If you are playing King Lear you are the centre of attention anyway. You don't need to draw attention to yourself. It's all laid out for you.
less likely millions recognized
If you've been in a film that's seen by millions and millions and millions of people, you're more likely to be recognized for that than for your theater performances, which were seen by considerably less people. Why would I get upset by that?
activity extremely government malcolm type
In Singapore, Malcolm X type of activity would be extremely difficult because the government can be very harsh on lawbreakers.
gay men thinking
The demographic of our audience is young. It also contains a high proportion of black, Jewish and gay people, who have all been encouraged by society to think of themselves as oddities or mutants. I hope that's why X-Men chimes with them - it's certainly why I was attracted to the idea in the first place.
ambition tvs latecomers
I'm a latecomer to popular TV. This is rather new to me, being in a sitcom. It's been an ambition of mine.
bullying school gay
I am going around British secondary schools, as a gay man talking about my life, and encouraging schools to get rid of homophobic bullying and to care for their gay members of staff and their gay students.
school kids needs
Kids are coming out earlier and earlier - some, as young as twelve now - and schools need to take that into account.
character directors lines
If you're sounding right, you're probably walking right, and vice versa. If you get the footwork right - if you get even one line right in a rehearsal, the director will say, 'do you know when you said that, it was exactly the character. You were really landed on it.'
stories actors mediums
Actors are merely the medium through which a story happens.
television storytelling form
Television can take anything. It can take the most exaggerated of storytelling forms.
character gay old-fashioned
In the old-fashioned sitcoms, to be gay was, in itself, funny, and you laughed at the characters rather than with them.
men talking years
A few years ago, a friend said to me: "You do realize, Ian, when X-Men and Lord of the Rings come out, your life will totally change?" I didn't know what he was talking about, but he was right. My life has totally changed - but in a good way. Unbeknownst to me, it's given me a lot more confidence.