Ian McKellen

Sir Ian McKellen is an English actor known for playing Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Magneto in the X-Men films, following a distinguished stage career built on Shakespeare and modern theatre. He earned his first Academy Award nomination for playing pioneering gay director James Whale in Gods and Monsters (1998), a performance that also won him the British Independent Film Award for Best Actor. He came out as gay live on BBC Radio 3 in January 1988 during a debate over Section 28, the Thatcher-era law restricting the "promotion" of homosexuality in schools, becoming one of the first major British stars to publicly come out. The following year, he co-founded the LGBTQ+ rights charity Stonewall UK, and he has remained one of the world's most prominent queer activists for over four decades. He was in a long-term relationship with director Sean Mathias, whom he met in 1978, and has spoken extensively about how coming out liberated him as both a person and a performer.