Ian McKellen Biography

Ian McKellen won acclaim as a member of Laurence Olivier's National Theater Company in the 1960s and later as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company. On film his best-known appearances have included the title role in Richard III (1995, with Annette Bening) and as Magneto in X-Men (2000, with Hugh Jackman). He won a 1981 Tony Award as Salieri in the Broadway production of Amadeus. He played Gandalf the wizard in director Peter Jackson's 2001-03 feature film trilogy of J.R.R. Tolkien's book The Lord of the Rings. He landed another high-profile role in 2006, as the Holy Grail-obsessed historian Sir Leigh Teabing in the movie version of Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code.