Ian McKellen

In 1978, he met his second partner, Sean Mathias, at the Edinburgh festival. This turbulent relationship lasted for ten years, when they decided to separate due to the conflict in their acting careers.

McKellen is Patron of English Touring Theatre and also President and Patron of the Little Theatre Guild of Great Britain, an association of amateur theatre organisations throughout the UK.

He was born in a suburb of Lancashire to Denis Murray, a civil engineer and Margery Lois. He had an older sister, Jean, five years older to him.

Just before the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, his family moved to Wigan. They lived there through the war and his early childhood, and then they moved to Bolton.

He attended the nursery school attached to the Disconson Street Wesleyan Primary School. By eleven, he was at the Wigan Grammar School for Boys, and, a year later, was transferred to Bolton School.

McKellen's acting career started at Bolton Little Theatre, of which he is now the Patron. His parents encouraged his interest in theatre and took him to watch Peter Pan at the Opera House.

When he was 18 years old, he won a scholarship to St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he studied English literature. There, he was actively involved with the in-house Theatre and also acted in plays.

His first professional appearance came in 1961 when he appeared as ‘Roper’ in ‘A Man for All Seasons’ at the Nottingham Playhouse. Earlier, an audio recording of the Marlowe Society's Cymbeline had gone on commercial sale.

In 1964, he made his first West end appearance in ‘A Scent of Flowers’ in the regional repertory theatres. This play was considered notably successful by the reviewers.

In 1965 he was a member of Laurence Olivier's National Theatre Company at Old Vic. This membership led to roles at the Chichester Festival, which includes productions from classics to contemporary writing and musicals.

From the1970s to the next two decades, he became a well-known figure in British theatre, performing at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre. He played leading roles in several popular plays.

In 1993, he played a South African tycoon in ‘Six Degrees of Separation’. The same year, his role in the television movie ‘And the Band Played On’, about AIDS, got him an Emmy nomination.

His later films reached an even broader audience. In 2000, he starred in the first of several X-Men movies, as the villain Magneto.

He was cast as the wizard Gandalf in ‘The Lord of the Rings’. The best supporting actor award was bestowed upon him by Screen Actors Guild for this role and he also won an Academy Award nomination.

In August 2012, McKellen took part in the opening ceremony of the London Paralympics. He portrayed the role of Prospero from ‘The Tempest’.