Sir Ian McKellen has revealed that a legendary Hollywood figure once begged him not to campaign for gay rights. The 86-year-old star of X-Men and Lord of the Rings is a founding member of the LGBTQ+ rights charity Stonewall UK, established in 1989. He came out while fighting against Section 28, a law that prohibited the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in schools. Since then, he has been a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and remains one of the most high-profile figures in the field.
In a new interview, McKellen said that Star Wars actor Sir Alec Guinness once urged him to back down from his work with Stonewall, attributing this advice to the thespian’s own ‘latent bisexuality.’ McKellen described this recommendation as the ‘worst’ he ever received.
McKellen’s Encounter with Guinness
Answering readers’ questions for The Guardian, Sir Ian recounted how he was taken out to lunch by the Obi-Wan Kenobi star, who had an ulterior motive for the invitation. ‘He had heard about my work to establish Stonewall – a lobby group to present to the government and the world at large the case for treating UK lesbians and gays equally under the law with the rest of the population,’ McKellen said. The screen legend continued: ‘He thought it somewhat unseemly for an actor to dabble in public or political affairs and advised me, sort of pleaded with me, to withdraw.’ It was advice – ‘from an older generation’ – that he duly ignored.
McKellen said he was reminded of this exchange while watching the stage play Two Halves of Sir Alec, which, in his words, ‘hints at Sir Alec’s latent bisexuality in a way that would have upset him.’
Guinness’s Hidden Past
In 2001, three biographies alleged that Sir Alec, who died in 2000, hid a ‘homosexual side’ from the public. This included a claim that he was arrested, charged, and fined in 1946 for a ‘homosexual’ act in a public lavatory. According to The Guardian, this went unreported because Sir Alec gave a false name (Herbert Pocket, of Great Expectations fame) to keep his secret buried. Author Sheridan Morley told the newspaper that if news of the conviction had come out, ‘it would have traumatised him.’
Written by Mark Burgess, the one-person play Two Halves of Guinness explores the life and career of Sir Alec, including the subject of his sexuality. ‘There is an understated undercurrent of gay sex,’ reads The Reviews Hub’s coverage of the play, ‘but it is an overwhelmingly affectionate portrayal of a great actor.’
McKellen’s Coming Out Journey
In 2023, McKellen reflected on his own coming out journey, describing it as ‘life-changing.’ ‘Almost overnight, everything in my life changed for the better – my relationships with people and my whole attitude toward acting changed,’ he told Variety. ‘The kind of acting that I had been good at was all about disguise – adopting funny voices and odd walks. It was about lying to the world. I was no longer in the situation where I was running alongside the character, explaining it to the audience. I just became the character.’
He went on to discuss how difficult it might be for non-gay people to relate to his struggles, speaking of how ‘people who are not gay just simply don’t know how it damages you to be lying about what you are and be ashamed of yourself. I was brought up at a time when it was illegal for me to have sex with a man. And that was not that long ago.’
