McKellen, Sir Ian Murray

McKellen, Sir Ian Murray (1939– ), English actor, who made his first appearance at the Belgrade Theatre as Roper in Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons (1961). After major roles in the provinces, such as Henry V, he made his début in London in James Saunders's A Scent of Flowers (1964), which was followed by a season with the National Theatre. He then gave a remarkable performance as the young hero of Donald Howarth's A Lily in Little India (1966), wrestling with his nascent sexuality. After Arbuzov's The Promise (London and NY, 1967) he was excellent in Peter Shaffer's double bill White Liars and Black Comedy (1968). He set the seal on his growing reputation by playing Richard II (1968) and Marlowe's Edward II (1969) with the Prospect Theatre Company, showing Richard gradually coming to terms with his own vulnerability and Edward as a wayward and impetuous youth hungering for sensual contacts. He played both parts on tour and in London, as he did Hamlet with the same company in 1971, and in 1972 he helped to found the Actors' Company, in which the actors chose their own plays and shared equal pay, billing, and leading roles. Joining the RSC in 1974, he laid claim to be Olivier's successor with his performances as Marlowe's Dr Faustus, as Romeo and Macbeth (both 1976), and in Ibsen's Pillars of the Community (1977). In 1979 he was seen at the Royal Court and in the West End in Martin Sherman's play Bent, about two homosexuals in a Nazi prison camp, and in 1980 he scored a big success in New York as Salieri in Shaffer's Amadeus. Later roles at the National Theatre included Coriolanus (1984) and Platonov in Chekhov's Wild Honey (also 1984; LA and NY, 1986–7). After playing in Ayckbourn's Henceforward … (1988) he was highly praised as Iago in Nunn's intimate Othello (1989) for the RSC and as Richard III at the National (1990). He was also seen intermittently, in the USA, London, and elsewhere, in his one-man entertainment ‘Acting Shakespeare’.