Ian McKellen

Overview

Known for
Acting
Gender
Male
Birthday
May 25, 1939 (86 years old)

Ian McKellen

Known For

Avengers: Doomsday
Movie 2026

Avengers: Doomsday

The Avengers, Wakandans, Fantastic Four, Thunderbolts, and X-Men all fight against Doctor Doom. Plot TBA.

Dragged Through Time
Movie 2025

Dragged Through Time

Touching on major moments for the LGBTQ community throughout history.

Ken Dodd: A Legacy of Happiness
1h 43m
Movie 2025

Ken Dodd: A Legacy of Happiness

A star-studded documentary revealing the private man behind one of Britain’s greatest comic geniuses, using home movies and extracts from notebooks that he wanted to be burnt after his death.

The Critic
1h 41m
Movie 2024

The Critic

Jimmy Erskine is the most feared theatre critic of the age. He lives as flamboyantly as he writes and takes pleasure in savagely taking down any actor who fails to meet his standards. When the owner of the Daily Chronicle dies, and his son takes over, Jimmy quickly finds himself at odds with his new boss and his position under threat. In an attempt to preserve the power and influence he holds so sacred, Jimmy strikes a Faustian pact with a struggling actress, entangling them and the boss in a thrilling but deadly web of desire, blackmail, and betrayal.

The Real Ken Dodd: The Man I Loved
3h 1m
Movie 2024

The Real Ken Dodd: The Man I Loved

Produced over four years with full access from Ken’s widow Lady Dodd, the film takes an in-depth look into Doddy’s private world, exploring the many secrets of his comic talent, revealing never-before-seen home-videos, stage performances and extracts from some of the thousands of Ken’s diary notebooks which he’d asked his wife to burn after his death. Wrestling with her conscience for quite some time, Lady Dodd, finally agrees with entertainment historians, museum curators and many of Ken’s admirers like Stephen K Amos, Harry Hill, Shaparak Khorsandi, Lee Mack, Paul O’Grady, Johnny Vegas, and Sir Ian McKellen to preserve Doddy’s notebooks for posterity. These stars explore their passion and memories of Ken in this candid, insightful film which takes you backstage behind the red curtain to reveal a far more intriguing man than the public or even his wife ever realised.

The Life and Death of Lily Savage
1h 4m
Movie 2024

The Life and Death of Lily Savage

Intimate documentary exploring how Paul O'Grady's creation, Lily Savage, took mainstream TV by storm. Unravel the real story of Lily with insights from Paul's daughter and famous pals.

Hamlet
1h 57m
Movie 2024

Hamlet

A tale of revenge that has stood the test of time, Shakespeare’s classic tragedy is reimagined for the modern day as a gripping psychological thriller! Transcending the confines of the stage, the film utilises nearly every room of the Theatre Royal Windsor to transform it into the immortal Elsinore Castle, from basement dungeon to roof-top battlement.

The One Note Man
0h 20m
Movie 2023

The One Note Man

A musical man lives a careful life. Each day is like the next, just how he likes it. One day, however, misfortune and fate collide, breaking his routine and rocking his world forever.

Quintessentially British
1h 37m
Movie 2022

Quintessentially British

This unique and cheeky documentary explores Britain and what makes our country great from our traditions to our self-deprecating sense of humour.

Freedom: 50 Years of Pride
1h 8m
Movie 2022

Freedom: 50 Years of Pride

This documentary reveals the surprising and overlooked history of Pride: its origins, its struggles and its triumphs. Made in creative and editorial collaboration with acclaimed filmmaker Stephen Daldry and playwright Joe Robertson, it tells the story of Pride primarily through first-person testimony and archive footage.

Biography

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, and he has been nominated 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), 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 co-founded Stonewall, an LGBT rights lobby group in the United Kingdom named after the Stonewall riots. He also patronises LGBT History Month, Pride London, Oxford Pride, GayGlos, LGBT Foundation and FFLAG.

Acting

2026
Avengers: Doomsday
2025
Dragged Through Time
2025
Ken Dodd: A Legacy of Happiness
2024
The Critic
2024
The Real Ken Dodd: The Man I Loved
2024
The Life and Death of Lily Savage
2024
Hamlet
2023
The One Note Man
2022
Quintessentially British
2022
Freedom: 50 Years of Pride
2022
Hamlet Within
2021
Hating Peter Tatchell
2021
Great British Theatre
2021
Infinitum: Subject Unknown
2020
Ian McKellen on Stage: With Tolkien, Shakespeare, Others and YOU
2020
Du Fu: China's Greatest Poet
2019
Cats
2019
The Good Liar
2019
On Broadway
2018
All Is True
2018
McKellen: Playing the Part
2017
Animal Crackers
2017
The Paul O'Grady Story
2017
How a Kite Flies
2017
Beauty and the Beast
2017
The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin
2017
Edmund the Magnificent
2016
Judi Dench: All the World's Her Stage
2016
Shakespeare on Stage, Screen and Elsewhere with Ian McKellen
2016
Play the Devil: Making Richard III
2016
Shakespeare on Film
2016
All the World's a Screen: Shakespeare on Film
2016
Shakespeare Live! From the RSC
2016
The Roof
2015
Knights of Classic Drama at the BBC
2015
The Dresser
2014
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
2014
Nelson Mandela Redrawn
2013
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
2013
The Wolverine
2013
Vicious
2012
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
2009
The Prisoner
2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2003
Churchill
2002
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
2001
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
1999
David Copperfield
1988
Windmills of the Gods
1985
Zina

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