An early fascination with the theatre was encouraged by his parents, who took him on a family outing to Peter Pan at the Opera House in Manchester when he was three. McKellen's acting career started at Bolton Little Theatre, of which he is now the patron. McKellen attended Bolton School (Boys' Division), of which he is still a supporter, attending regularly to talk to pupils. Lowes was an activist and campaigner in the ultimately successful campaign for a Saturday half-holiday in Manchester, the forerunner to the modern five-day work week, thus making Lowes a "grandfather of the modern weekend". After his coming out as gay to his stepmother, Gladys McKellen, who was a Quaker, he said, "Not only was she not fazed, but as a member of a society which declared its indifference to people's sexuality years back, I think she was just glad for my sake that I wasn't lying any more". When he was 12, his mother died of breast cancer his father died when he was 25. "My upbringing was of low nonconformist Christians who felt that you led the Christian life in part by behaving in a Christian manner to everybody you met". His home environment was strongly Christian, but non-orthodox. Both of McKellen's grandfathers were preachers, and his great-great-grandfather, James McKellen, was a "strict, evangelical Protestant minister" in Ballymena, County Antrim. McKellen's father was a civil engineer and lay preacher, and was of Protestant Irish and Scottish descent. When an interviewer remarked that he seemed quite calm in the aftermath of the 11 September attacks, McKellen said: "Well, darling, you forget-I slept under a steel plate until I was four years old". The experience of living through the war as a young child had a lasting impact on him, and he later said that "only after peace resumed . They lived there until Ian was twelve years old, before relocating to Bolton in 1951 after his father had been promoted. Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, his family moved to Wigan. He was their second child, with a sister, Jean, five years his senior. McKellen was born on in Burnley, Lancashire, the son of Margery Lois (née Sutcliffe) and Denis Murray McKellen. He is also patron of LGBT History Month, Pride London, Oxford Pride, GAY-GLOS, LGBT Foundation and FFLAG.
McKellen is a co-founder of Stonewall, an LGBT rights lobby group in the United Kingdom, named after the Stonewall riots. He was awarded the Freedom of the City of London in October 2014. McKellen came out as gay in 1988, and has since championed LGBT social movements worldwide. Other notable film roles include A Touch of Love (1969), Plenty (1985), Six Degrees of Separation (1993), Restoration (1995), Mr. 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, and Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003) and The Hobbit (2012–2014) trilogies. He returned to Broadway in Wild Honey (1986), Dance of Death (1990), No Man's Land (2013), and Waiting for Godot (2013), the latter being a joint production with Patrick Stewart. He was further nominated for Ian McKellen: Acting Shakespeare (1984). He went on to receive the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role as Antonio Salieri in Amadeus (1980). McKellen made his Broadway debut in The Promise (1965). 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). In the 1970s, McKellen became a stalwart of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre of Great Britain. 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 1965, McKellen made his first West End appearance. McKellen made his stage debut in 1961 at the Belgrade Theatre as a member of their repertory company. 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. He is regarded as a British cultural icon and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1991. With a career spanning over six decades, he is noted for his roles on the screen and stage in genres ranging from Shakespearean dramas and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. Sir Ian Murray McKellen CH CBE (born ) is an English actor.
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