Ian McKellen was born in England in 1939 into a family of lay preachers.  His father was a civil engineer as well as a lay preacher; and both of his grandfathers were lay ministers.  While his home life, including older sister Jean, was Christian, it was non-orthodox.  At the age of 12, his mother passed away.  His father remarried, but then died when McKellen was 24.

McKellen attend Bolton School for Boys, which is where his acting career started in the Bolton Little Theatre.  His family encouraged his fascination with theatre, taking him to see Peter Pan when he was just three.  The family, including Jean, continued to support his aspirations by taking him to Shakespearean productions and gifting him with theatre scenery.

At 18, McKellen attended St. Catharine’s College at the University of Cambridge on scholarship.  It was during this time that McKellen came out as homosexual to his stepmother and began relationships with young men in college, including Derek Jacobi and Brian Taylor.  However, he did not come out publicly and his relationships were clandestine.

In 1961, McKellen made his debut in Coventry; and then in West End in 1964.  However, it wasn’t until his role as King Edward II in 1969 that McKellen knew fame.  He went on to play leading roles in Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and The Alchemist for the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1974 through 1978.  In 1978, McKellen began a tempestuous, decade-long relationship with Sean Mathias.

In 1979, McKellen starred on Broadway in Bent, about gay men in Nazi death camps, but was able to perform without indicating his own sexual orientation.  Also, during this year, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).  In 1980, he landed the role of Salieri in Amadeus on Broadway, for which he received a Tony Award.  In 1984, he performed a one-man recital called Acting Shakespeare, for which he was nominated for a Tony.  McKellen publicly came out as gay in 1988 and founded Stonewall, one of Britain’s most influential LGBT rights groups.  In 1990, McKellen reprised his role in Bent for former beau, Mathias.  And then, in 1991, McKellen was knighted by the Queen for his contributions to theatre.

Despite his success and popularity in his home country, McKellen was still relatively unknown in the United States.  However, in the 1990’s he started taking parts in American films, such as 1993’s Six Degrees of Separation and Last Action Hero.  He also appeared in the miniseries Tales of the City and the TV movie And the Band Played On, about the AIDS virus.  His breakthrough role in America came, though in Stephen King’s Apt Pupil.  In 1998, he starred in Gods and Monsters, a role for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.

Global recognition came when he reteamed with Apt Pupil director, Bryan Singer, as Magneto in the smash hit, X-Men.  He reprised this role in the two sequels as well.  While filming X-Men, McKellen was tapped by Peter Jackson to play Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  The Screen Actors Guild honored McKellen with a Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture award for the first of the trilogy; McKellen received a nomination for the same role and award by the Academy Awards as well.

Sir Ian has hosted Saturday Night Live, appeared on The Simpsons, and fulfilled a lifelong ambition to do a stint on Granada Television’s soap opera, Coronation Street.  He has also done voice work for Richard Bell’s Eighteen.  He also appeared in The Da Vinci Code with Tom Hanks.  He received an Emmy nomination in 2007 for his performance as himself in Ricky Gervais’ comedy, Extras.

In 2007, McKellen returned to the Royal Shakespeare Company to perform in The Seagull and the title role in King Lear.  In the 2008 New Year Honors, he was made a CH (Companion of Honor) for services to Drama and Equality.