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
job
It's my impression that I've done every job that I've been asked to do.
desperate films job
Very, very rare that you do a job knowing that the audience is desperate for you to do that job. Most films you make don't get released, is the fact.
jobs play film
Most of the time when you do a job, a play or a film, you're wondering, "Will there be an audience?"
jobs next directors
When you're on stage with an audience, the director's nowhere to be seen. He's onto the next job.
jobs attitude play
I've played an awful lot of people that other people would call villains, but that isn't a very helpful attitude to have if you're about to play them. They are just people, and they may do dreadful things and say dreadful things, but your job as an actor is to know why they do them or say them.
playing
When I was playing Gandalf, I didn't think, 'Oh my dear, I'm playing a 7,000 year old wizard,' because I've never met one, and I don't know what they're like.
deaths public
There are deaths in public places on the grounds that the victim is gay.
There are some fantastic parts for older actors.
When I've been asked what should be on my gravestone, I've said: 'Here lies Gandalf. He came out.' Two big achievements.
admiring flattering including laurence life people rather spent tremendous
There are some tremendous actors in the U.K. who have been knighted, and I've spent much of my life admiring many of them, like Laurence Olivier. So it's very flattering to be in their company. But you also end up in the company of people you don't admire, including some rather dodgy politicians.
hope left life stage
I still hope I've got a lot of life left on stage and making films.
audiences people
People on television have trouble with fame because audiences think they're their mates.
illegal man time
I was a shy gay man at a time when it was illegal to be gay.
came days remember saying sorry tom
I remember Tom Stoppard saying to me when I came out, 'I feel so sorry for you, because you'll never have children.' These days I would say, 'Well, why not, Tom?'