Ian McKellen

Ian McKellen is known as a British actor. He is most famous for his 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'X-Men' films.

Background and Age

Ian Murray McKellen was born on May 25, 1939 in Burnley, Lancashire, England. His father, Denis Murray McKellen, was a minister and a structural architect, and his mom, Margery Lois Sutcliffe, was a homemaker. Their family unit, which likewise included McKellen's sister, Jean, was strict yet moderately tolerant. Catastrophe struck in 1951, when McKellen's mom kicked the bucket from breast cancer. The future actor was only 12 years of age at the time. Sorrow hit the family again in 1963 when Denis McKellen was killed in a car crash.

McKellen went to the Bolton School and his acting career started at Bolton Little Theater. His folks and sister energized his initial enthusiasm for acting, taking him to numerous dramatic productions, including Shakespearean plays. McKellen was a solid student. At 18 years old, he won a scholarship to study at the University of Cambridge's St. Catharine's College, where he became a close acquaintance with actor Derek Jacobi.

Relationships

McKellen is a prominent gay man and gay rights lobbyist. He announced that he was a gay man on BBC Radio in 1988. McKellen helped to establish Stonewall, a LGBT rights campaigning bunch in the United Kingdom named after the 1969 Stonewall riots. In June 2015, soon after the U.S. Supreme Court sanctioned same-sex marriage, McKellen and Jacobi filled in as the grand marshals of the annual New York City Gay Pride Parade.

Career and Net Worth

While studying at Cambridge, McKellen joined the Marlowe Society, appearing in such productions as Henry IV and Doctor Faustus. In 1961, he appeared in his first professional production, A Man for All Seasons. McKellen moved from territorial theaters toward the West End, gaining recognition for the wide scope of his performances. He was knighted in 1991 for his accomplishments on the stage. McKellen turned out to be generally perceived for his work on the cinema during the 1990s, after a few roles in Hollywood and TV projects. In 1993, McKellen assumed a supporting role as a South African head honcho in Six Degrees of Separation. The same year, he appeared in the TV film And the Band Played On, about the AIDS plague, for which he gathered an Emmy Award nomination. In 2000, he featured in the first of a few X-Men motion pictures as the miscreant Magneto. In 2006, he appeared in the film adaptation of the top of the line book The Da Vinci Code. While taping X-Men, McKellen was cast as the wizard Gandalf in Peter Jackson's set of three The Lord of the Rings.

In November 2019, The Good Liar was released in theaters. Ian has a leading role in the film.