Happy Birthday Sir Ian McKellen! He has brought magic to our lives, but is esteemed as a theatrical actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company, I was fortunate enough to see his performance in Richard III at UCLA. He played the lead in David Copperfield, a 1966 television serial based on the Charles Dickens’ novel. McKellan was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1979. McKellan’s first film lead role was playing the author in D.H. Lawrence in the bio film, Priest in Love (1981). Mckellan was knighted in 1991. He was memorable as Death in Last Action Hero (1993). Then, McKellan portrayed Bill Kraus in the tv movie And the Band Played On (1993). He played Geoffrey in Six Degrees of Separation (1993) based on the John Guare play. One of my favorite roles was Sir Ian McKellan as the eccentric, but brilliant Reinhardt Lane in The Shadow (1994). In 1995, he again took the lead role in Richard III. Sir Ian McKellan played director James Whale in Gods and Monsters (1998). Then, he was in the Stephen King adaptation, Apt Pupil (1998). He had an iconic role as Magneto in X-Men (2000). Then, there was another iconic part as Gandalf the Grey in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001).
He continued as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) and also Magneto in X2: X-Men United (2003). Gandalf went into the west in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). McKellan played Sir Leigh Teabing in The Da Vinci Code (2006) based on the Dan Brown novel. Also in 2006, he played Magneto in X-Men: The Last Stand. He was the voice of Iorek Byrnison in The Golden Compass (2007) which adapted the Philip Pullman book. He reprised his part as Gandalf in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013). McKellan starred with Derek Jacboi in the television comedy Vicious (2013-2016). He played Magneto in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014). Then, completed Gandalf’s story with The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014). He played Sherlock Holmes in the drama Mr. Holmes (2015). Another incredible part was as Cogsworth in Beauty and the Beast (2017). McKellan plays Henry Wriothesley in All is True (2018) starring and directed by Kenneth Branagh who plays the retired Shakespeare. Last year was the movie musical, Cats (2019), where McKellen played Gus The Theatre Cat. Happy Birthday Sir Ian McKellan!
#SirIanMcKellan, #TheLordoftheRings, #X-Men, #AllisTrue, #CatsMovie
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