GAY ICONS 6: “FUCK OFF I’M GAY”

[PeterRS]

This time an icon who fortunately remains with us even though now well into his 80s. On a visit to Scotland during my student years, I was exceedingly fortunate to catch a couple of plays being performed at the celebrated Edinburgh International Festival, Shakespeare's “Richard II” and Marlowe's “Edward II”. Playing the title role of each king was a young English actor about whom there was a considerable buzz in theatrical circles. The friend who accompanied me was then at drama school and madly in love with him. Unfortunately, he told me, the actor already had a steady boyfriend. That was the first time I knew Ian McKellen was gay.

The young McKellen as Shakespeare's "Richard II": Photo Prospect Theatre Company

Outside the theatre ‘business’ the public had little idea that this young man emerging as one of Britain's finest stage actors was anything other than a hot-blooded young alpha-male. Actors were never identified with their roles, which was just as well for one very much in the closet. The character of Edward II is not only bisexual – or possibly even gay, he comes to an especially nasty end when his enemies at court thrust a red-hot poker up his anus. The very conservative Edinburgh audience was shocked with elderly matrons walking out and many indignant letters sent to the press. 

 

A love scene between King Edward II and his favourite, Piers Gaveston, played by actor James Laurenson: Photo Central Press

Having been at Oxford University with several friends who were to become theatrical luminaries in their own right (the director of “CATS” and “Les Misérables” as well as future head of the National Theatre, Trevor Nunn, and fellow actor Derek Jacobi), Ian McKellen was already known in the business and marked for success. He joined both the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre where his roles included Macbeth and Iago in “Othello”. In tandem he worked on a host of contemporary commercial plays in London's West End and occasionally on Broadway. In New York he had a huge success as Salieri in the Peter Schaffer play “Amadeus” when he won every possible award. Back in England, he even took on a role in the very British Christmas pantomime entertainment, playing Widow Twanky in “Aladdin”.

As a gloriously camp Widow Twanky: Photo Manuel Harlan

Like many of his generation of British actors, he was late making the move to Hollywood. After a few smaller roles, he played the aging lead of a famously gay Broadway producer in "Gods and Monsters", a role for which he was nominated for an Oscar. Soon after, his movie career shot him to worldwide stardom through his roles in the “X-Men” series and Peter Jackson's “Lord of the Rings” Trilogy followed by “The Hobbit”. Before then, though, he had finally decided at age 49 to come out publicly. Violently opposed to a proposed policy of Margaret Thatcher’s government to prohibit city councils from promoting homosexuality, he made his own sexuality unexpectedly known in a radio programme. Around this time he claims he was visited by Britain’s Environment Secretary, Michael Howard. Howard refused to lobby against the new policy. He then had the cheek to ask McKellen if he would sign autographs for his children. McKellan agreed to do so, but added the words “Fuck off, I’m gay!”

Such an admission could have had a negative effect on his career. Not so for McKellen. Only three years later Queen Elizabeth conferred on him a knighthood for services to the Performing Arts. Since then, being an openly gay public figure Sir Ian has helped by lending his support to a host of gay causes and organizations, not limited to his native country. Invited to perform "King Lear" in Singapore in 2007, the city state which still had anti-gay laws on its statute books, he took part in a 'live' morning radio show. When asked what he would like to see in Singapore, he quipped, "Can you recommend a nice gay bar?" Allegedly the programme controller had a fit and pulled the plug on the rest of interview. Some years later, Sir Ian recorded a video message to be played prior to the Shanghai Gay Pride Parade. At home he is a co-founder of Stonewall UK.

An atheist, for a time he was especially concerned that copies of the Old Testament were placed in every hotel room in the USA. He particularly disliked the passages in Leviticus which warn men about “lying” with other men. Whether this is true or not, it was openly discussed that he would always rip out those pages before replacing the book back in its drawer!

Sir Ian has always had a wide variety of very close friends, far from all being gay. Perhaps the most famous is the actor he met in the 1970s when both were members of the Royal Shakespeare Company. McKellen was playing major roles. His friend describes himself at that time as “little more than a jobbing actor with a wife and two young children, always a little intimidated by Ian.” That friend was Patrick Stewart. In 2013 the two played on consecutive nights in Samuel Becket’s “Waiting for Godot” and Harold Pinter’s “No Man’s Land” on both Broadway and then on tour in the United Kingdom.

Stewart and McKellen in "Waiting for Godot": Photo Joan Marcus

When Hollywood beckoned, it was first for Stewart when cast in the hugely successful “Star Trek: The Next Generation” television series in 1987. It was another 11 years before McKellen landed his starring role as the ageing real-life gay movie director James Whale in “Gods and Monsters”.  

The friendship with Stewart was renewed a year later when both were selected to star in the first of the “X-Men” movies. So close have the two friends become that the tabloids call it “the most famous bromance in Hollywood”. For Stewart’s third marriage in 2013, McKellen flew from London to New York to officiate at the ceremony.

McKellen went on to even greater international success in Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy followed by “The Hobbit”. At the same time he has actively encouraged young gay men, especially well-known personalities, to sweep away the closet. In Gayety magazine earlier this year he was quoted as saying, “I have never met anybody who came out who regretted it. Being in the closet is silly. Don’t listen to your advisers, listen to your heart. Listen to your gay friends who know better. Come out. Get into the sunshine.”

At the venerable age of 85, there seems no stopping this modest knight, a gentle man for whom gay activism is as much part of his DNA as is the stage and screen.

 

[daydreamer]

Sir Ian McKellen has appeared on the US comedy show Saturday Night Live many times.  The short video below featuring Ian appearing as Dame Maggie Smith is one of the most memorable and priceless.

 

 

[Ruthrieston]

Thank you daydreamer for showing us this video of Sir Ian as Maggie Smith snogging the seriously cute Jimmy, I watched it yesterday and I still can't stop laughing! 

[BjornAgain]

1 hour ago, Ruthrieston said:

Thank you daydreamer for showing us this video of Sir Ian as Maggie Smith snogging the seriously cute Jimmy, I watched it yesterday and I still can't stop laughing! 

I remember when he joked about this on Graham Norton, but didn't understand the comment until I saw it yesterday. Had me absolutely in stitches. 

His recent Panto with John Bishop as his husband was an absolute hoot and sell out.