Ian McKellen

From Tolkien Gateway
Ian McKellen.jpg
Ian McKellen
LifetimeMay 25, 1939
PortrayedGandalf in:
 The Lord of the Rings (film series)
The Hobbit (film series)
IMDbProfile

Sir Ian Murray McKellen CBE, played Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film series.

He also wrote forewords to Alan Lee's The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook and Brian Sibley's The Lord of the Rings: The Making of the Movie Trilogy.

Quotes[edit | edit source]

"My final twentieth century job was X-Men and my first of the new millennium was The Lord of the Rings, playing two iconic men of power, Magneto the Master of Magnetism and J.R.R.Tolkien's wizard Gandalf. I was introduced to the multitudinous fans of both works via the Internet and was intrigued to enter the world of franchises and plastic dolls."
― Ian McKellen, August 2000, official website
"The Lord of the Rings is a mythology. It is a fairy tale. It's an adventure story. It never happened..except somewhere in our hearts. And yet, there was Hobbiton in three dimensions and smoke coming out of the holes where they live underground. And I believed."
― Ian McKellen, lordoftherings.net
"I am encouraged by the theatricality of [Tolkien's] readings -- full of rhythm and humour and characterisation. Without question Gandalf is like Tolkien but then so, I suspect, are Frodo and Aragorn."
― Ian McKellen
" 'Yes, it’s true,' he said. 'I spoke to Guillermo in the very room that Peter Jackson offered me the part and he confirmed that I would be reprising the role. Obviously, it’s not a part that you turn down, I loved playing Gandalf.'"
― Ian McKellen on portraying Gandalf in The Hobbit (film series).

Awards[edit | edit source]

Bibliography, selected[edit | edit source]

External Links[edit | edit source]