Ian Mckellen Fun Facts, Quotes and Tweets
15th May 2016
Fact: Sam Smith and Sir Ian McKellen were among those honoured at the British Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Awards in London on Friday (13May16). Smith won the award for Music Artist of the Year, while MCKellen was given the Global Icon Award for his activism on behalf of the LGBTQ community.
21st October 2015
Quote: "If I'd done that movie, which was delayed and delayed and delayed, I would have missed out on doing the first X-Men movie and I would have missed out on doing Lord of the Rings." Sir Ian McKellen has no regrets about dropping out of the first Mission: Impossible sequel.
18th August 2015
Fact: SIR Patrick Stewart recreated his same-sex lip-lock with gay, "intimate" friend SIR Ian McKellen on U.S. TV chat show Conan on Monday (17Aug15) by puckering up and planting a kiss on host Conan O'Brien. Stewart confessed he'd like to lock lips with another British knight, Sir Sean Connery, adding, "Maybe a bit of tongue there".
16th July 2015
Quote: "I love accents and I've always refused to do American accents. Although, in the first X-Men movie, I thought I was being rather trans-Atlantic and I was sort of slurring a little bit, sort of American. And then we came to do the second movie, and the director said, 'What are you doing with your voice, Ian? I want you to be precisely English like you were in the first movie.' So he didn't even realise I was doing an American accent!" British acting icon Sir Ian McKellan admits he isn't great at putting on different accents.
3rd February 2015
Fact: Actor Sir Ian McKellen will be the new voice of Britain's Speaking Clock service in support of charity Comic Relief. The service tells callers the exact time when they dial 123. The Lord of the Rings star will provide the voice until 13 March (15).
13th January 2015
Fact: Sir Anthony Hopkins and Sir Ian McKellen are teaming up for the first time in a Tv adaptation of classic play The Dresser. The veteran actors will star in the small screen version of Ronald Harwood's play for a joint production between the Bbc and U.S. network Starz.
23rd October 2014
Quote: "I fall in love with the place immediately, and then I walk into the kitchen and Gandalf is sitting at the kitchen counter, in his pyjamas. It was magnificent. I was like, 'I'm buying it. Does he come with it?'" Taylor Swift recently purchased Sir Ian McKellen's old home in New York, and glimpsed The Lord of the Rings star while she was viewing it.
17th October 2014
Fact: Singer George Ezra has recruited beloved thespian Sir Ian McKellen to star in his new video. The 75-year-old actor appears in the promo for Listen To The Man.
11th August 2014
Fact: Sir Ian McKellen helped South African director Brett Best propose to his boyfriend in a YouTube.com video. Best originally wanted MCKellen's good friend Patrick Stewart to film the part but The Lord of the Rings actor stepped in when Stewart became unavailable. In the clip, he talks to the camera while holding a clapperboard that reads "Will you marry me?"
14th April 2014
Fact: The white horse which featured alongside Sir Ian McKellen in the Lord Of The Rings movies has died. Blanco, who played Gandalf's steed Shadowfax in the film franchise, had to be euthanised this week (ends13Apr14) after falling ill.
2nd March 2014
Fact: Sir Ian McKellen fulfilled his dream of becoming a U.S. talk show host on Friday (28Feb14) after taking charge of Late Night With Seth Meyers. The British acting icon briefly swapped places with new presenter Seth Meyers after admitting the idea of hosting his own programme had always appealed to him. He confessed, "I've been coming to the States since 1967 and I cannot avoid watching the late shows, I think they're all wonderful... The idea of coming out and having your own tune, your own music, your own band..." His pal and Broadway co-star Sir Patrick Stewart, who was also a guest on the show, joined in the fun by playing conductor to the house band.
4th December 2013
Quote: "I was born in 1939 and we lived in the north of England; we were fairly safe from bombs... but I slept under a metal table until I was five years old in case there was a bomb and the house fell on top of us... It became a fact of life." Sir Ian McKellen on his wartime experiences.
31st October 2013
Quote: "I've never filmed there (New Zealand). They did all the Lord of the Rings films there and I actually wasn't in them. It is not me behind that beard. It is someone else. It could've been me." Sir Ben Kingsley is often mistaken for Sir Ian McKellen, who played Galdalf in the Lord of the Rings films.
6th September 2013
Tweet: "Working again with Bill Condon? Playing Sherlock Holmes? Elementary. Couldn't be happier." Sir Ian McKellen is excited to start work as a veteran version of the detective in forthcoming movie A Slight Trick of the Mind, based on the novel by Mitch Cullin.
26th August 2013
Quote: "The joke is that you start in the company playing Barnardo in the first act of Hamlet, then you graduate to play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, then it’s Horatio, then maybe Laertes and possibly Hamlet. Then you start playing Claudius and then Polonius - and then you play the skull, though we’re not quite there yet." Sir Ian McKellen links the ages of the thespian to the characters in Shakespeare's classic Hamlet.
26th August 2013
Quote: "All my friends hate it. Audiences who like it, like it enormously. It’s very old fashioned, and Derek and I, we act something shamelessly in it." Sir Ian McKellen on his new British sitcom Vicious, in which he stars alongside Derek Jacobi.
23rd April 2013
Quote: "My life has been one of increasing self-confidence. One of the reasons I became an actor was because I wasn't self-confident. That was compounded by the fact that being gay was illegal in this country (Britain) until I was 28 years old. That doesn't do much for your self-confidence." Veteran actor Sir Ian McKellen, 73, has gained a sense of self-assurance over the years.
23rd March 2013
Quote: "He's a dear friend; he's the best man for the job.There was only one choice, and it was my fiancee Sunny's idea." Sir Patrick Stewart reveals why his pal Sir Ian McKellen will be officiating his upcoming wedding to jazz singer Sunny Ozell.
22nd March 2013
Quote: "I was quite shaken and moved by it. It's a real jewel on Broadway." Sir Ian McKellen enjoyed the Broadway production of Breakfast at Tiffany's despite the poor reviews from critics after opening night this week (beg18Mar13).
4th December 2012
Quote: "It's a bit of New Zealand. This is green stone and the Maori people there carve it into shapes and good luck tokens, but this is just a bit of old rock and I thought as I was talking about The Hobbit, I want to have a piece of New Zealand around my neck. I love it!" Sir Ian McKellen is keeping New Zealand close to his heart during promotion for the The Lord of the Rings prequel after spending 18 months there shooting the project.
3rd December 2012
Quote: "I don't get it. I've got enough friends as it is, and enough associates, and then that's it. I mean, to start pretending the whole world is my friend, I'm not that good an actor... Tweeting is for tarts!" Veteran actor Sir Ian McKellen isn't a huge fan of Twitter.com, despite having an account on the social networking blog.
25th August 2011
Quote: "Oh god, if I'm with people my own age, we talk about it all the time - 'How's your back? So and so's going blind.' You're constantly aware of it." Actor Sir Ian McKellen, 72, is feeling his age.
11th May 2011
Quote: "A young woman celebrating her 21st birthday asked for my autograph. 'Where do you want it?' 'On my boobs please.' I declined but signed her wrist." Sir Ian McKellen was targeted by an eager autograph hunter on a recent night out.
4th October 2010
Quote: "I have lots of fans, they are mostly under the age of 12, boys and girls. And for someone who doesn't have children, to have bountiful grandchildren all over the world is lovely." SIR Ian McKellen appreciates his young fans.
21st June 2010
Quote: "I would die to have him up there... I think that he's a good time Charlie. He could get into it. (We could) get him a wizard costume made out of rubber." Scissor Sisters star ANA MATRONIC hopes SIR Ian McKellen will join the band onstage at this weekend's (25-27Jun10) Glastonbury Festival in England. MCKellen performs on a track on the group's new album.
7th May 2010
Quote: "I was crouched by the stage door, getting some air, my bowler hat at my feet. Seeing an unkempt old man down on his luck, a passerby said, 'Need some help brother?' and put $1 in my hat." SIR Ian McKellen was mistaken for a tramp during a break from starring in Waiting for Godot in Australia.
4th May 2010
Quote: "That should have started in April but they didn't contact me about a contract until a few weeks ago and we're in negotiation... I've read the script, or as much as had been written, they sent it to me, which was very accomplished and good, I thought, and a wonderful part. But I don't have a contract and I don't have a start date, so there we are. We're in a bit of limbo at the moment." SIR Ian McKellen on the slow progress of Lord Of The Rings prequel, The Hobbit, in which he hopes to reprise his Gandalf character.
11th April 2010
Quote: "At my age why am I working so hard, people ask? Three or four years ago I was constantly saying to myself, 'You don't need to act, there are other things in life - relationships, the weather, books, travel.'" SIR Ian McKellen has no plans to slow down his acting career, despite turning 71 next month (May10).
17th March 2010
Quote: "The Hobbit, two films, start shooting in New Zealand in June. Filming will take over a year. Casting in Los Angeles, New York City and London has started. The first draft (of the script) is crammed with old and new friends, again on a quest in Middle Earth. The director Guillermo del Toro is now living in Wellington, close to the Jacksons' and the studio in Miramar." SIR Ian McKellen updates fans on the progress of The Lord Of The Rings prequel THE HOBBIT in a post on his website.
17th November 2009
Quote: "I have gone beyond worrying about getting awards for acting. I deserve an award for just being alive." Veteran British actor SIR Ian McKellen isn't fussed about prize-giving ceremonies now he is in his seventies.
17th November 2009
Quote: "You're closer to death and you better make sure you don't waste too much of your time doing things you don't want to do." Veteran British actor SIR Ian McKellen on turning 70.
16th November 2009
Quote: "When I've been asked what should be on my gravestone, I've said, 'Here lies Gandalf. He came out. Two big achievements.'" SIR Ian McKellen hopes to be remembered for his Lord Of The Rings role and his homosexuality.
6th November 2009
Quote: "Are you coming back to Harry Potter?" Whoopi Goldberg slips up interviewing SIR Ian McKellen on her talk show The View. MCKellen starred in the Lord of the Rings franchise and not Harry Potter.
30th October 2009
Quote: "It's of the number nine in elvish, because there are nine members in The Fellowship of the Ring... Elijah Wood was holding my hand the entire time." SIR Ian McKellen on his lone tattoo.
29th October 2009
Quote: "It's all nonsense really, but if you live in a society where there are civilian awards, it seems a little bit churlish to say, 'I don't want it'. I'm just trying to think of one advantage and I don't think there is one." Actor SIR Ian McKellen on his knighthood.
28th October 2009
Quote: "I'm aware that when I go, the billboard is going to say Gandalf dies. It's fine." SIR Ian McKellen contemplates the headlines on the day he dies.
14th October 2009
Quote: "You know you're getting older when the first thing you read in the newspaper is the obituaries to check they were older than you." SIR Ian McKellen on turning 70 earlier this year (09).
9th April 2009
Quote: "I am a bit of a slogger. Kenneth Branagh sprang from the cradle fully formed. I have to work at it. Every single part I have ever played has been difficult." Veteran thespian SIR Ian McKellen still finds acting hard.
9th January 2009
Quote: "I often get, 'Hi, Dumbledore,' and I say, 'No, that's Michael Gambon. I play the real wizard.' Of course, there's a confusion because Ms. Rowling (Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling) has announced that Dumbledore is gay, so maybe that's the confusion." SIR Ian McKellen can understand why movie fans mistake him for HARRY POTTER's Gambon.
21st October 2008
Quote: "In hotels I always find the Gideon Bible and rip out Leviticus 18:22, which is directed against homosexuals. No one vulnerable to what I consider Leviticus' pornography should read that. I've ripped out hundreds of those pages." British actor SIR Ian McKellen on his personal triumphs as a gay rights activist.
1st July 2008
Fact: SIR Ian McKellen has signed up to star in a remake of cult 1960s TV show THE PRISONER. The show is due to hit the small screen in 2009.
20th February 2008
Quote: "If you're wondering what I'm doing at the Brits, I'm here to meet Mika!" Gay actor SIR Ian McKellen presenting the Brit Award for British Group.
15th October 2007
Quote: "I feel like a dreadful old geezer, in whose company I don't want to be." The Lord Of The Rings star SIR Ian McKellen upon catching his reflection in shop windows.
15th October 2007
Quote: "I'd never set eyes on him before." SIR Ian McKellen was stunned when acting great Jack Lemmon once introduced him at a 1992 dinner as "my own personal friend".
15th October 2007
Quote: "There's a good argument for not doing it - it's distracting. How can an audience not look at genitalia on display when they have the license to do it in a darkened theatre." SIR Ian McKellen on why he opted not to follow his Lord Of The Rings co-star SIR Ian Holm's example and bare all for a 20 minute sequence of SHAKESPEARE tragedy King Lear. Instead, MCKellen briefly strips in his role as Lear, offering just a glimpse of his naked form.
30th July 2007
Quote: "Hugh Jackman can sing and dance for real and actually Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen are all very good singers, so X-Men 4 could be THE MUSICAL." X-MEN star James Marsden hopes to follow his HAIRSPRAY success with another quirky movie musical.
9th November 2006
Quote: "I've played some tough bullies before but this character really takes the prize. He's horrid." SIR Ian McKellen is no fan of his odious character TOAD in new animated movie FLUSHED AWAY.
4th August 2006
Fact: Gay star SIR Ian McKellen is appearing in a one-man show in Los Angeles entitled A KNIGHT OUT IN LA.
29th May 2006
Quote: "I'm not yet as old as people think I am. GANDALF was 7,000-years-old." SIR Ian McKellen fears his LORD OF THE RING wizard has aged him unfairly.
4th May 2006
Quote: "We corrected a little error that Dan Brown had made - that we don't have identity cards in the UK and if we did, I wouldn't use the title on mine." SIR Ian McKellen on helping get all aspects of The Da Vinci Code correct in the movie adaptation. The British knight plays SIR LEIGH TEABING in the much-anticipated film.
2nd May 2006
Quote: "I'm amazed at how good-looking I seem to be in some of the old photographs." SIR Ian McKellen mourns his youthful looks.
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