British Actors You Should Know: Ian McKellen

If you don’t know Sir Ian McKellen, hang your head and turn in your Anglophile card. McKellen is as synonymous with British stage and screen as fish and chips are with its cuisine. He has led numerous stage productions and has been a leading man on television since playing the titular David Copperfield in the 1966 BBC series. (His third TV role ever.) Yet, McKellen is probably best known for playing a wizard on the silver screen. McKellen has won a Tony, six Olivier Awards, and a Golden Globe, in addition to nominations for Oscars, BAFTAs, and Emmys. He even appeared in a Pet Shop Boys video. 

He is well-known off-screen as an out and proud gay man and a champion of LGBTQ+ rights; he came out during the Thatcher years to help highlight the AIDS crisis. He also has the most adorable public bromance with fellow British actor and X-Men alum Sir Patrick Stewart.

McKellen’s first theater work was in 1950 when he was in secondary school, and he has appeared on stage nearly every year since, with his most recent credit in 2024 as Falstaff in Player Kings. (His official website has an exhaustive list of his stage roles; bless him, the site is something of a design relic, but it does harbor some great gems, such as a 1969 recording of McKellen playing the title role in Richard II.*) Though his film credits are profuse, McKellen didn’t really break out until the 1995 adaptation of another Shakespeare title, Richard III, where he again played the titular character.

(*Ed Note: OMG, he’s a tiny baby!)

He commands the screen whether he’s a king, a detective, or a villain. Let’s break down some of his most notable performances to date.

McKellen has been in a laundry list of hit films, but perhaps one of his most important was in the 1993 HBO TV movie And The Band Played On. Based on the 1987 best seller by Randy Shilts, the film is an expansive view of the AIDS crisis from the first time it was recorded as "the Ebola hemorrhagic fever" in 1976 to the present day. The ensemble cast, many of them portraying real people who were instrumental in identifying and searching for a cure to the AIDS pandemic, was an all-star affair with Matthew Modine, Alan Alda, Lily Tomlin, Richard Gere, Steve Martin, BD Wong, Anjelica Houston, heck even Phil Collins is in it. 

McKellen (third on this incredible call sheet) played Bill Kraus, the real-life openly gay congressional aide who was the liaison between the San Francisco LGBTQ+ community and US Representative Phillip Burton and later to his successor, Sala Burton. Kraus died of AIDS-related complications in 1986.

And The Band Played On is streaming on Max.

Sporting a pencil-thin mustache that lends a markedly sinister air, McKellen plays the legendary titular Shakespeare villain in Richard III. This adaptation transports the story into an alternate universe version of the 1930s, where the U.K. has given in to fascism. In addition to leading the movie, McKellen was also one of the screenwriters. Richard is an obvious Hitler allegory, driving home the prevalence and pervasiveness of power-hungry men. Having first played Richard on stage in 1990 at the National Theatre, McKellen has a command and understanding of the character that helps him truly lean into the screen performance.

It's rare in literature to make a villain the central protagonist, but that’s exactly what the Bard does here. Richard’s fatal, bloodthirsty ambition to take the throne of England has him murdering nearly everyone in his wake and dying in battle at the end. McKellen uses this fatality to inform his portrayal, slithering around nefariously like the smoke from his ever-present cigarettes. Released in mainstream theaters, this is the film that made everyone sit up and take notice of McKellen, who grabs the audience and doesn’t let go. Also starring Dame Maggie Smith, Jim Broadbent, Annette Bening, and Robert Downey, Jr., you’ll still find it hard to tear your eyes from McKellen’s brilliant blend of seduction and revulsion.

Richard III is streaming on Amazon's MGM+ and Prime Video platforms.

Released in 1998, Apt Pupil is a dark and disturbing thriller based on the Stephen King novella. The film was directed by Bryan Singer, who would team up with McKellen again later for X-Men. Apt Pupil, like most King stories, is smart, nasty, and tightly wound. The plot involves McKellen as Kurt Dussander, a fugitive Nazi war criminal hiding under an assumed name in California, getting blackmailed when teenager Todd (Brad Renfro) discovers his true identity. 

The two engage in a psychological battle that winds each of them up, awakening/reawakening bloodlust for them both. Here, McKellen reminds us he can be absolutely terrifying – as well as charming. It’s a heady, unsettling mix of emotions and not an easy watch. 

(Animal lovers beware: there’s a scene where Dussander tries and fails to kill a cat. No, the cat does not die.)

Apt Pupil is streaming on the Roku Channel.

McKellen may be best known for his role as a certain Grey-to-White Wizard. However, before his name became forever associated with Gandalf, he was already a household name from his career-defining role as Magneto in the original 2000-era cast of The X-Men movies made by 20th Century Fox. 

Armed with a poignant backstory, McKellen’s Magneto came into his mutant powers as a teenager when he and his family were taken to a Nazi concentration camp. His villainy is rooted in enduring those horrors and adopting an aggressive “never again” ideology, which he carries out through a dubious but (almost) well-intentioned plan. Like all the best villains, Magneto is the hero of his own story, seeing his actions as necessary for the survival and unity of his mutant brethren. Director Singer confirmed the mutants in X-Men and X2 are LGBTQ+ allegories, and McKellen puts a quiet but distinct gay flavor into his portrayal. It’s kind of hard not to when your wardrobe includes a fabulous cape.

All the X-Men films are available to stream on Disney+.

Released the same year as Apt Pupil, Gods & Monsters is one of the earliest of many pairings with director Bill Condon. McKellen plays the real-life old Hollywood director James Whale, who helmed 1931's Frankenstein and the 1935 followup, Bride of Frankenstein. The 1998 film covers Whale’s final days, including his relationship with his loyal live-in aid Hanna (Lynn Redgrave) and a fictionalized friendship with his gardener (played by Brendan Fraser). 

Whale was openly gay throughout his career, which was a bold move for that time. In the movie, several strokes have left Whale with some diminished abilities, as well as plaguing him with unpleasant memories and phantom smells. McKellen depicts Whale as a tragic figure but infuses his characterization with heart and a wicked sense of humor. He is particularly adept at playing men who present strong yet are quite fragile. The film, and McKellen’s portrayal, explores waning fame, personal relevance, legacy, depression, PTSD, and mortality. It is a masterful performance for which McKellen was nominated for an Oscar.

Gods and Monsters is streaming on Amazon's Prime Video.

In what is arguably his best-known role, McKellen took up Gandalf's staff in Peter Jackson's deeply ambitious The Lord of the Rings trilogy in 2001 (and then returned to it a decade on in The Hobbit series). A central figure of Tolkien’s beloved blockbuster fantasy saga, Gandalf wields incredible power in Middle Earth, leading a mission to save their world from ultimate evil. Although a hero, McKellen plays the wizard with complexity – Gandalf is tempted by dark power and defeated by his own naivete when his mentor betrays him to serve the evil forces. After delivering a fiery ultimatum to a creature of the deep and possibly the most memorable line in the movies (“You shall not pass!”), Gandalf sacrifices himself so the rest of the fellowship can escape, returning later in the story, resurrected to help defeat their enemies.

McKellen brings a warmth to the wizard, a fatherly aspect that exhibits loving-kindness and a ferocious protectiveness. Despite McKellen’s lifetime on stage, this is the part he’ll be remembered for – as much for his acting prowess as for the explosive popularity of the movies and the fandom that perpetuated them. (Fun fact! Fellow powerhouse actor Christopher Lee, who plays Gandalf’s mentor Saruman, initially wanted the role of Gandalf – which would have been such a different take!) 

The Lord of the Rings franchise films are streaming on Max.

Fully leaning into the stereotype of a bitchy old queen, McKellen stars as Freddie opposite Derek Jacobi’s Stuart in Vicious, a riotously funny ITV sitcom that ran from 2013-2016 with two full seasons and two separate specials. (They aired on PBS in the States, but in the pre-PBS Passport era.) Freddie and Stuart are an aging gay couple who have been together for decades yet seem to despise each other. 

They live in a gorgeous flat and entertain frequent visits from their friend Violet (Frances de la Tour) and their attractive young neighbor Ash (Iwan Rheon). To truly appreciate this show, you must enjoy insult comedy, as most of the humor is gleaned from Freddie and Stuart sniping at each other and exchanging hostile barbs. None of this can be called good-natured and that’s what makes it fun.

Vicious is streaming on Tubi.

Shakespeare’s tragic tale of a king who undoes his own kingdom by dividing it amongst his three daughters is a story that rests on the performance of its central figure. In McKellen’s masterful grip, King Lear is both powerful and diminished, pitiable and fierce. The theater run began in 2007 and was directed by Trevor Nunn, whom McKellen has collaborated with multiple times over his stage career. A version of this production was filmed for television, airing on PBS’s Great Performances and earning McKellen an Emmy nomination.

Where the 2008 incarnation is relatively straightforward, McKellen reprised the role ten years later in a version that sets the story in the modern day, and seems somehow all the more bleak. This production ran in cinemas as part of National Theatre Live.

National Theater Live: King Lear is streaming via the National Theater at Home service. The 2008 version of King Lear is streaming on BroadwayHD.

McKellen is still collaborating with Bill Condon decades on; just before the pandemic, the two collaborated on 2019's The Good Liar. McKellen played the lead role of con artist Roy Courtnay opposite Helen Mirren’s Betty, his latest target. Betty quickly trusts Roy after they meet online and IRL, but her grandson Stephen (Russell Tovey) is incredibly suspicious and warns his grandmother against him. Meanwhile, Roy casually kills another man he'd been trying to scam when his quarry gets wise to his tricks and threatens his current ruse with Betty. 

McKellen and Mirren have electric chemistry in a film that sometimes lacks suspense but is consistently enjoyable due to their performances.

The Good Liar is streaming on VIX.

In 2015, McKellen stepped into another famous franchise role, in this case, the most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, in another collaboration with director Bill Condon, Mr. Holmes. Now retired at age 93, Holmes is agitated by his final case, the one which made him step down thirty years ago, as he cannot remember its events or details as his mind is now deteriorating. It is the story of someone who will not go gentle into that good night, raging against his failing faculties, and cannot reconcile what he is losing. 

In this telling, Watson has written books about his cases with Holmes, which in turn became a movie, making Holmes a household name in his world. Holmes strikes up a friendship with his housekeeper’s son Roger (Milo Parker) to try piecing together the case he solved decades ago. It’s sad, moving, and sweet, with McKellen as the pillar of this house.

Mr. Holmes is streaming on Pluto TV.

Based on the Anthony Quinn novel Curtain Call, The Critic, which arrived in U.S. theaters in 2024, is set in the ‘30s, showcasing McKellen as Jimmy Erskine, a newspaper critic who delights in skewering plays. His poison pen has riled and nearly ruined actress Nina Land (Gemma Arterton), but he enlists her help in a revenge plot against his former employer when his homosexuality costs him his job at the paper. 

Things quickly spin out of control around him as the other characters are drawn into plots of blackmail and murder. McKellen chews the scenery as the wicked Erskine, with a great supporting cast in Arterton, Mark Strong, and Lesley Manville. It’s a reminder that McKellen still commands the screen well into his 8th decade.

The Critic is available as a streaming rental on Fandango Now and is expected to debut on Starz in the spring of 2025.

• Ian McKellen as John Profumo is worth a British history lesson in 1989's Scandal (Free on Roku)
• The movie itself is bad, but McKellen is excellent as Sir Leigh Teabing in 2006's The Da Vinci Code (Streaming on Starz) 
• Also, in 2024, McKellen took a fourth turn as the central character in Hamlet in an interesting sort of blind casting. Whether you buy the octogenarian playing a character who may be thirty at most is a question for you to decide. Still, the gravitas McKellen adds to any Shakespeare performance is enough to give this at least one viewing. (Free on Roku)