Ian McKellen
Acting
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, as well as nominations 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), Flushed Away (2006), 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 is a cofounder of Stonewall, an LGBT rights lobby group in the United Kingdom, named after the Stonewall riots. He is also patron of LGBT History Month, Pride London, Oxford Pride, GayGlos, LGBT Foundation and FFLAG. Description above from the Wikipedia article Ian McKellen, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
TV Shows(51)
Billy & Dom Eat the World
Self
2025
ted
Narrator (voice)
2024
Amol Rajan Interviews
Self - Interviewed Guest
2021
Great British Theatre
2021
Reunited Apart
Self
2020
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Self - Guest
2015
Variety Studio: Actors on Actors
Self
2014
Trailblazer Honors
Self - Speaker
2014
Late Night with Seth Meyers
Self - Guest
2014
Vicious
Freddie Thornhill
2013
Perspectives
2011
The Prisoner
2 / Curtis
2009
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
Self - Guest
2009
The Graham Norton Show
Self - Guest
2007
The One Show
Self - Guest
2006
Extras
Ian McKellen
2005
Who Do You Think You Are?
Self
2004
The Paul O'Grady Show
2004
Churchill
Self - Narrator (voice)
2003
Real Time with Bill Maher
Self
2003
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Self
2003
Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway
Self
2002
David Copperfield
Creakle
1999
Family Guy
Dr. Cecil Pritchfield (voice)
1999
Parkinson
Self
1998
The View
Self - Guest
1997
HARDtalk
1997
Inside the Actors Studio
Self
1994
Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
Self
1994
Tales of the City
Archibald Anson Gidde
1993
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Self - Guest
1993
Late Show with David Letterman
Self - Guest
1993
Have I Got News for You
Self
1990
The Simpsons
Ian McKellen (voice)
1989
Windmills of the Gods
Chairman
1988
Playing Shakespeare
1984
Pillar of Fire
Narrator
1981
An Audience with...
Self
1978
Saturday Night Live
Self - Host
1975
Playhouse
Alexander
1974
Country Matters
David Masterman
1972
Sesame Street
Self
1969
Omnibus
Self - Reading Poetry
1967
ITV Playhouse
Tony
1967
David Copperfield
David Copperfield
1966
BBC Play of the Month
Captain Plume
1965
The Wednesday Play
Wolf
1964
Coronation Street
Mel Hutchwright
1960
Tony Awards
Self - Winner
1956
The Oscars
Self
1953
Golden Globe Awards
Self - Presenter
1944
Movies(161)
The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum
Gandalf
2027
Avengers: Doomsday
Magneto
2026
Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol
Jacob Marley
2026
The Christophers
Julian Sklar
2026
LS Lowry: The Unheard Tapes
L S Lowry
2026
Schadenfreude
Continuity Announcer
2025
A World War II Fairy Tale: The Making of Michael Mann's 'The Keep'
Self (archive footage)
2025
Dragged Through Time
2025
Ken Dodd: A Legacy of Happiness
2025
The Critic
Jimmy Erskine
2024
Dragfox
Ginger Snap the Fox (Speaking) (voice)
2024
The Real Ken Dodd: The Man I Loved
2024
The Life and Death of Lily Savage
Self
2024
Hamlet
Hamlet
2024
The One Note Man
Narrator (voice)
2023
Quintessentially British
Self
2022
Freedom: 50 Years of Pride
Self
2022
Hamlet Within
2022
Hating Peter Tatchell
Self
2021
Infinitum: Subject Unknown
Dr. Charles Marland-White
2021
Ian McKellen on Stage: With Tolkien, Shakespeare, Others and YOU
2020
Du Fu: China's Greatest Poet
2020
Cats
Gus, the Theatre Cat
2019
The Good Liar
Roy Courtnay
2019
On Broadway
Self
2019
All Is True
Earl of Southampton
2018
National Theatre Live: King Lear
King Lear
2018
Animal Crackers
Horatio P. Huntington (voice)
2018
McKellen: Playing the Part
Self
2018
The Paul O'Grady Story
Self
2017
How a Kite Flies
Mr. Kite (voice)
2017
Beauty and the Beast
Cogsworth
2017
The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin
Self
2017
Edmund the Magnificent
Self - Narrator (voice)
2017
Judi Dench: All the World's Her Stage
Self
2016
National Theatre Live: No Man's Land
Spooner
2016
Play the Devil: Making Richard III
2016
Shakespeare on Stage, Screen and Elsewhere with Ian McKellen
2016
Shakespeare on Film
2016
All the World's a Screen: Shakespeare on Film
Prospero's Speech Reader (voice)
2016
Shakespeare Live! From the RSC
Self - Performer
2016
The Roof
And Even Yet Another Fan
2016
Knights of Classic Drama at the BBC
Self (archive footage)
2015
The Dresser
Norman
2015
Mr. Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
2015
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Gandalf the Grey
2014
Nelson Mandela Redrawn
Self
2014
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Magneto
2014
Miss in Her Teens
The Prologue
2014
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Gandalf the Grey
2013
The Wolverine: Path of a Ronin
Self
2013
The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot
Self
2013
Muse of Fire
Self
2013
The Wolverine
Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto (uncredited)
2013
The Egg Trick
Magician
2013
Doctor Who: The Snowmen
The Great Intelligence (voice)
2012
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Gandalf the Grey
2012
London 2012: Paralympics Opening Ceremony
Self
2012
Looking for Lowry
Self
2011
The Betty Driver Story
Self
2011
Small-Time Revolutionary
Hamish Miller (voice)
2010
A Lost and Found Box of Human Sensation
Narrator (voice)
2010
Theatreland
Self
2009
King Lear
King Lear
2008
The Golden Compass
Iorek Byrnison (voice)
2007
Stardust
Narrator (voice)
2007
The Art of Breaking Character
Self
2007
For the Love of God
The Jackdaw
2007
Guerrilla Distribution
Self
2007
Flushed Away
The Toad (voice)
2006
X-Men: The Last Stand
Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto
2006
The Da Vinci Code
Sir Leigh Teabing
2006
Saint of 9/11
Narrator
2006
Doogal
Zebedee (voice)
2006
Neverwas
Gabriel Finch
2005
Asylum
Dr. Peter Cleave
2005
The Hobart Shakespeareans
Self
2005
The Magic Roundabout
Zebedee (voice)
2005
Ringers: Lord of the Fans
Self
2005
Eighteen
Jason Anders (voice)
2005
A Filmmaker's Journey: Making 'The Return of the King'
Self
2004
My First Time
Narrator
2004
Frodo Is Great... Who Is That?!!
Self
2004
The Making of 'The Return of the King'
Self
2004
Peter Tatchell: Just Who Does He Think He Is?
2004
The Quest Fulfilled: A Director's Vision
Self
2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Gandalf
2003
Beyond the Movie: The Return of the King
Self
2003
The Second Uncanny Issue of X-Men! Making X2
Self
2003
X2
Eric Lehnsherr / Magneto
2003
The Making of 'The Two Towers'
2003
Evolution X - The Making of X-Men
2003
X-Men: Premieres Around the World
Self
2003
Emile
Emile
2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Gandalf
2002
Beyond the Movie: The Fellowship of the Ring
Self
2001
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Gandalf
2001
Passage to Middle-Earth: The Making of 'The Lord of the Rings'
Self
2001
Quest for the Ring
Self
2001
Larry & Vivien: The Oliviers in Love
Narrator (voice)
2001
Now You See Him: 'The Invisible Man' Revealed!
Self
2000
X-Men
Magneto
2000
X-Men: The Mutant Watch
Self - 'Magneto'
2000
Cirque du Soleil: Journey of Man
Narrator (voice)
2000
The World of Gods and Monsters: A Journey with James Whale
Self
1999
After Stonewall
Self
1999
Apt Pupil
Kurt Dussander
1998
Gods and Monsters
James Whale
1998
Swept from the Sea
Dr. James Kennedy
1998
Bent
Uncle Freddie
1997
Surviving Friendly Fire
1997
A Bit Of Scarlet
Narrator
1997
An Evening with Lily Savage
Self
1996
Rasputin
Tsar Nicholas II
1996
Richard III
Richard III
1995
Restoration
Will Gates
1995
Jack & Sarah
William
1995
Cold Comfort Farm
Amos Starkadder
1995
To Die For
Quilt Documentary Narrator (voice)
1994
Stonewall 25: Global Voices of Pride and Protest
Self
1994
Age of Dissent
Self
1994
The Shadow
Dr. Reinhardt Lane
1994
David Macaulay: Roman City
Augustus Caesar (voice)
1994
I'll Do Anything
John Earl McAlpine
1994
Camp Christmas
1993
Six Degrees of Separation
Geoffrey
1993
And the Band Played On
Bill Kraus
1993
The Ballad of Little Jo
Percy Corcoran
1993
Armistead Maupin Is a Man I Dreamt Up
Narration (voice)
1993
Last Action Hero
Death
1993
Gladio
Aldo Moro (voice)
1992
Othello
Iago
1990
Countdown to War
Adolf Hitler
1989
Scandal
John Profumo
1989
Scarfe's Follies
1988
Süleyman the Magnificent
Narrator
1987
Zina
Kronfeld
1985
Plenty
Sir Andrew Charleson
1985
The Keep
Dr. Theodore Cuza
1983
Walter and June
Walter
1983
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Chauvelin
1982
Walter
Walter
1982
Ian McKellen: Acting Shakespeare
1982
Priest of Love
D.H. Lawrence
1981
Dying Day
Antony Skipling
1980
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
Alexander Ivanov
1979
Macbeth
Macbeth
1979
Graceless Go I
Tony
1974
Hedda Gabler
George Tesman
1972
Craven Arms
David Masterman
1972
Hamlet
Hamlet
1970
Edward II
King Edward
1970
The Tragedy of King Richard II
King Richard II
1970
The Promise
1969
Alfred the Great
Roger
1969
A Touch of Love
George
1969
The Trial and Torture of Sir John Rampayne
Wolf
1965
Richard II
Richard II
Untitled Anthony Hopkins Documentary
Self
No Man's Land
Spooner
Frank and Percy
Percy