Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal, Haymarket in 2008. The production is Edward Bond's The Sea.
Address	The Haymarket
City	City of Westminster, London
Coordinates	51°30′31″N 0°07′54″W / 51.508611°N 0.131667°W / 51.508611; -0.131667Coordinates: 51°30′31″N 0°07′54″W / 51.508611°N 0.131667°W / 51.508611; -0.131667
Designation	Grade I listed
Architect	John Nash
Owned by	Crown Estate
Capacity	888 on 4 levels
Type	West End theatre
Opened	4 July 1821
Rebuilt	1879 proscenium and removal of pit 1904 auditorium - C. Stanley Peach 1994 Major refurbishment
Previous names	1720 Little Theatre (nearby) 1767 Theatre Royal
Production	One Man, Two Guvnors
www.trh.co.uk

The Theatre Royal Haymarket (also known as Haymarket Theatre or the Little Theatre) is a West End theatre in the Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use. Samuel Foote acquired the lease in 1747, and in 1766 he gained a royal patent to play legitimate drama (meaning spoken drama, as opposed to opera, concerts or plays with music) in the summer months. The original building was a little further north in the same street. It has been at its current location since 1821, when it was redesigned by John Nash. It is a Grade I listed building, with a seating capacity of 888. The freehold of the theatre is owned by the Crown Estate.^[1]

The Haymarket has been the site of a significant innovation in theatre. In 1873, it was the venue for the first scheduled matinée performance, establishing a custom soon followed in theatres everywhere. Its managers have included Benjamin Nottingham Webster, John Baldwin Buckstone, Squire Bancroft, Cyril Maude, Herbert Beerbohm Tree, and John Sleeper Clarke, brother-in-law of John Wilkes Booth, who quit America after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Famous actors who débuted at the theatre included Robert William Elliston (1774–1831) and John Liston (1776–1846).

History of the theatre[link]

Origins and early years[link]

Haymarket Theatre, ca. 1900

The First Haymarket Theatre or Little Theatre was built in 1720 by John Potter, carpenter, on the site of The King's Head Inn in the Haymarket and a shop in Suffolk Street kept by Isaac Bliburgh, a gunsmith, and known by the sign of the Cannon and Musket. It was the third public theatre opened in the West End. The theatre cost £1000 to build, with a further £500 expended on decorations, scenery and costumes. It opened on December 29, 1720, with a French play La Fille a la Morte, ou le Badeaut de Paris performed by a company later known as 'The French Comedians of His Grace the Duke of Montague'.^[2] Potter's speculation was known as The New French Theatre.^[3]

The theatre's first major success was a 1729 production of a play by Samuel Johnson of Cheshire, Hurlothrumbo, or The Supernatural, which ran for 30 nights – not as long as John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (62 performances), but still a long run for the time.^[4] In 1730, the theatre was taken over by an English company, and its name changed to the 'Little Theatre in the Haymarket'. Among the actors who appeared there before 1737 when the theatre was closed under the Licensing Act 1737 were Aaron Hill, Theophilus Cibber, and Henry Fielding.^[2] In the eight to ten years before the Act was passed, the Haymarket was an alternative to John Rich's Theatre Royal, Covent Garden and the opera-dominated Drury Lane Theatre. Fielding himself was responsible for the instigation of the Act, having produced a play called The Historical Register that parodied prime minister Robert Walpole, as the caricature, Quidam.^[3]

Playwright and Poet Laureate Colley Cibber, the first actor-manager

In particular, it was an alternative to the pantomime and special-effects dominated stages, and it presented opposition (Tory party) satire. Henry Fielding staged his plays at the Haymarket, and so did Henry Carey. Hurlothrumbo was just one of his plays in that series of anti-Walpolean satires, followed by Tom Thumb. Another, in 1734, was his mock-opera, The Dragon of Wantley, with music by John Frederick Lampe. This work punctured the vacuous operatic conventions and pointed a satirical barb at Walpole and his taxation policies. The piece was a huge success, with a record-setting run of 69 performances in its first season. The work debuted at the Haymarket Theatre, where its coded attack on Walpole would have been clear, but its long run occurred after it moved to Covent Garden, which had a much greater capacity for staging. The burlesque itself is very brief on the page, as it relied extensively on absurd theatrics, dances, and other non-textual entertainments. The Musical Entertainer from 1739 contains engravings showing how the staging was performed.^[5]

Carey continued with Pasquin and others. Additionally, refugees from Drury Lane's and Covent Garden's internal struggles would show up at the Haymarket, and thus Charlotte Charke would act there in a parody of her father, Colley Cibber, one of the owners and managers of Drury Lane. The Theatrical Licensing Act, however, put an end to the anti-ministry satires, and it all but entirely shut down the theatre. From 1741 to 1747, Charles Macklin, Cibber, Samuel Foote, and others sometimes produced plays there either by use of a temporary licence or by subterfuge; one advertisement runs, "At Cibber's Academy in the Haymarket, will be a Concert, after which, will be exhibited (gratis) a Rehearsal, in the form of a Play, called Romeo and Juliet."^[2]

In 1749 a hoaxer billed as The Bottle Conjuror was advertised to appear at the theatre. The conjuror's publicity claimed that, while on stage, he would place his body inside an empty wine bottle, in full view of the audience. When the advertised act failed to appear on stage, the audience rioted and gutted the theatre. Although the identity of the hoax's perpetrator is unknown, several authors consider John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu, to have been responsible.^[6]

London's third patent theatre[link]

Samuel Foote

In 1754, John Potter, who had been rated (i.e. paid property tax) for the theatre since its opening, was succeeded by John Whitehead. In 1758 Theophilus Cibber obtained from William Howard, then the Lord Chamberlain, a general licence under which Foote tried to establish the Haymarket as a regular theatre. With the aid of the Duke of York he procured a royal licence to exhibit plays during four months in each year from May to September during his lifetime. He also bought the lease of the theatre from Potter's executors and, having added to the site by purchasing adjoining property, he enlarged and improved the building which he opened on May 14, 1767, as the Theatre Royal, the third patent theatre in London.^[7] Several successful seasons followed, with Foote producing numerous plays at the theatre, but Foote finally got himself into difficulties by his custom of caricaturing well-known persons on the stage and this, combined with increasing ill-health, resulted in his selling both the theatre and patent to George Colman, Sr. on 16 January 1777.^[7]

During the season of 1793–94 when Drury Lane Theatre was being rebuilt, the Haymarket was opened under the Drury Lane Patent. The season was notable for a 'Dreadful Accident' which occurred on 3 February 1794, 'when Twenty Persons unfortunately lost their lives, and a great Number were dreadfully bruised owing to a great Crowd pressing to see his Majesty, who was that Evening present at the Performance.'^[7] Amongst the dead was John Charles Brooke, Somerset Herald. Colman died in 1794, and the theatre descended to his son. George Colman Jr., though successful both as playwright and manager, dissipated his gains by his extravagance. For a time he lived in a room at the back of the theatre and he was finally forced to sell shares in the latter to his brother-in-law, David Morris. Monetary difficulties increased and for a while Colman managed the theatre from the King's Bench Prison, where he was confined for debt.^[7]

All the buildings on the east of the Haymarket from the theatre southward were rebuilt circa 1820 in connection with John Nash's schemes for the improvement of the neighbourhood. Nash persuaded the proprietors of the theatre to rebuild on a site a little south of the old one so that the portico should close the vista from Charles Street. The main front feature of Nash's elevation in the Haymarket was (and is) a pedimented portico of six Corinthian columns which extends in depth to the edge of the pavement and includes the whole frontage. It is sometimes stated that Nash rebuilt the theatre entirely, but there is evidence that he incorporated a house in Little Suffolk Street with the theatre, removed two shops which were in front, in the Haymarket, built a portico, increased the number of avenues and added a second gallery to the existing auditorium.^[7]

A lease dated 10 June 1821, was granted to David Edward Morris. The theatre was opened on 4 July 1821, with The Rivals.^[7] Benjamin Nottingham Webster became the theatre's manager from 1837 to 1853. He and his successor, John Baldwin Buckstone, established the theatre as a great comedy house, and the theatre hosted most of the great actors of the period.

The latter half of the 19th century[link]

Scene from The Wicked World in The Illustrated London News, February 8, 1873

In 1862, the theatre was host to a 400-night run of Our American Cousin, with Edward Sothern as Lord Dundreary. The play's success brought the word "dreary" into common use. Robertson's David Garrick was a hit in 1864, also with Sothern in the title role. Sothern also starred in H. J. Byron's An English Gentleman at the theatre in 1871.^[8] W. S. Gilbert premiered seven of his plays at the Haymarket. The first was his early burlesque, Robinson Crusoe; or, The Injun Bride and the Injured Wife (1867, written with Byron, Tom Hood, H. S. Leigh and Arthur Sketchley). Gilbert followed this with a number of his blank verse "fairy comedies", the first of which was The Palace of Truth (1870), produced by Buckstone. These starred William Hunter Kendal and his wife Madge Robertson Kendal and also included Pygmalion and Galatea (1871), and The Wicked World (1873). Gilbert also produced here his dramas, Charity (1874), Dan'l Druce, Blacksmith (1876), and his most famous play outside of his Savoy Operas, Engaged, an 1877 farce. Buckstone's ghost has reportedly often been seen at the theatre, particularly during comedies and "when he appreciates things" playing there.^[9] In 2009, The Daily Telegraph reported that the actor Patrick Stewart saw the ghost standing in the wings during a performance of Waiting for Godot at the Haymarket.^[9]

Engaged, Gilbert's most famous play outside of his works with Sullivan, premièred at the Haymarket in 1877.

In 1873, scheduled matinées were introduced, for the first time in London, starting at 2.00pm.^{[citation needed]} In May 1875, Sullivan's The Zoo transferred to the Haymarket.^[10] In 1879 the house was taken over by the Bancrofts, who re-opened the theatre with a revival of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Money, followed by Victorien Sardou's Odette (for which they engaged Madame Helena Modjeska) and Fedora, and Arthur Wing Pinero's Lords and Commons, with other revivals of previous successes. The auditorium was reconstructed, and the stage enclosed in a complete picture frame proscenium, the first in London.^{[citation needed]} The abolition of the pit by the introduction of stalls seating divided by plain iron arms caused a small riot.^{[citation needed]}

Herbert Beerbohm Tree transferred from the Comedy Theatre with The Red Lamp in 1887. He took over upon the retirement of the Bancrofts and installed electric light in the theatre. Under Tree's management, Oscar Wilde premiered his first comedy A Woman of No Importance in April 1893. In January 1895 Wilde's An Ideal Husband was first performed. Tree's next notable hit was George du Maurier's Trilby, later in 1895. This ran for over 260 performances and made such profits that Tree was able to build Her Majesty's Theatre and establish RADA.

In 1896 Cyril Maude and Frederick Harrison became lessees, opening with Under the Red Robe, an adaptation of Stanley Wyman's novel. In 1897 The Little Minister by J. M. Barrie ran for 320 performances.

The 20th century[link]

1900 to 1950[link]

In 1904, the auditorium was redesigned in Louis XVI style by C. Stanley Peach.^[11] The following year, Maude acquired the Playhouse Theatre by Charing Cross Station, leaving Harrison in sole control. In 1909, Herbert Trench produced Maurice Maeterlinck's The Blue Bird. Productions from then to the end of World War I included Bunty Pulls the Strings (1911), a Scottish comedy by Graham Moffat, which ran for 617 performances with Jimmy Finlayson in the lead; Ibsen's Ghosts (1914); Elegant Edward, with Henry Daniell as P. C. Hodson (1915);^[12] The Widow's Might (1916), a comedy by Leonard Huskinson and Christopher Sandeman, with Henry Daniell.^[12][13] and General Post, a comedy by J. E. Harold Terry, which opened on 14 March 1917 and ran for 532 performances, again with Daniell.^[12]

John Gielgud in 1936

In 1920, J. M. Barrie's Mary Rose had a run of 399 performances. Another long-running production was Yellow Sands, in which Ralph Richardson gave 610 performances in 1926–27. In 1926 Harrison died, and Horace Watson became General Manager under a Trust. His presentations included 632 performances of The First Mrs Fraser, by St. John Ervine, starring Marie Tempest in 1929. In 1939, under Watson's management, work began on excavating a stalls bar, but it was not completed until 1941 owing to the breakout of World War II. Wartime presentations included the London premiere of Noël Coward's Design for Living (1939) and John Gielgud's repertory season of The Circle (Somerset Maugham), Love for Love (Congreve), Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Duchess of Malfi.

In 1940, Gielgud directed The Beggar's Opera, with Michael Redgrave as Macheath.^[14] In 1945, two Coward plays, Present Laughter and This Happy Breed, alternated. They were followed by Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan and The Importance of Being Earnest in 1948, and Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie directed by Gielgud, starring Helen Hayes;^[15] and The Heiress, an adaptation of Henry James's Washington Square, directed by Gielgud and starring Ralph Richardson and Peggy Ashcroft, who was succeeded by Wendy Hiller (1949–50).^[16]

1950–80[link]

In 1951–52 Waters of the Moon by N. C. Hunter starred Sybil Thorndike, Edith Evans and Wendy Hiller. For the Coronation season in 1953, Coward gave a rare performance in a play not written by him, The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw, with Margaret Leighton as his co-star. To Coward, the Haymarket was "the most perfect theatre in the world".^[17] In 1956, Stuart Watson died and was succeeded by his son, Anthony. Productions under the new management included Flowering Cherry by Robert Bolt (1957) starring Ralph Richardson and Celia Johnson; Ross by Terence Rattigan (1960) and John Gielgud's production of The School for Scandal, with Ralph Richardson and Margaret Rutherford. In the 1960s, notable presentations included The Tulip Bee by N. C. Hunter starring Celia Johnson and John Clements and Thornton Wilder's Ides of March directed by Gielgud (both 1963).

In 1971, Louis I. Michaels became the lessee of the theatre. Productions of the decade included a revival of Enid Bagnold's The Chalk Garden, with Gladys Cooper (1971); the long-running A Voyage Round My Father (John Mortimer) starring Alec Guinness, succeeded by Michael Redgrave (1971–72); and, in 1972, Crown Matrimonial by Royce Ryton, starring Wendy Hiller as Queen Mary. Later productions were Edith Evans and Friends (1974); a revival of On Approval (Frederick Lonsdale) with Geraldine McEwan and Edward Woodward (1975); The Circle, with Googie Withers and John McCallum (1976); Rosmersholm (Ibsen) with Claire Bloom and Daniel Massey (1977); The Millionairess (Shaw), with Penelope Keith; Waters of the Moon again, starring Wendy Hiller and Ingrid Bergman in her last stage role (both 1978);^[18] and Keith Michell and Susan Hampshire in The Crucifer of Blood (1979).^[19]

1980–2000[link]

The theatre then presented Make and Break (Michael Frayn), with Leonard Rossiter (1980). The following year, Louis Michaels died, and the theatre passed to a company, Louis I Michaels Ltd, with President, Enid Chanelle and Chairman, Arnold M Crook.^[18] They presented Overheard, by and starring Peter Ustinov; and Virginia, with Maggie Smith (1981). In 1982, the Haymarket staged a repertory season including Hobson's Choice, starring Penelope Keith; Captain Brassbound's Conversion (Shaw); Uncle Vanya (Chekhov); Rules of the Game (Luigi Pirandello); and Man and Superman (Shaw), starring Peter O'Toole.^[18] In 1983, productions included The School for Scandal, starring Donald Sinden; Heartbreak House (Shaw), starring Rex Harrison; Ben Kingsley in a one-man show about Edmund Kean; A Patriot for Me (John Osborne); The Cherry Orchard (Chekhov); and The Sleeping Prince (Terence Rattigan).^[19]

Productions in 1984 were The Aspern Papers by Henry James, starring Christopher Reeve, Vanessa Redgrave and Wendy Hiller; Aren't We All? (Frederick Lonsdale) starring Rex Harrison and Claudette Colbert; and The Way of the World (Congreve). In 1985, Lauren Bacall starred in Sweet Bird of Youth (Tennessee Williams), followed by Harold Pinter's Old Times. In 1986 the theatre presented Antony and Cleopatra, starring Vanessa Redgrave; Breaking the Code (Hugh Whitmore), starring Derek Jacobi as Alan Turing; Long Day's Journey Into Night, starring Jack Lemmon; and The Apple Cart, starring Peter O'Toole. In 1988, another Tennessee Williams play, Orpheus Descending, starred Vanessa Redgrave. Later productions that year were You Never Can Tell (Shaw); The Deep Blue Sea (Rattigan); and The Admirable Crichton (J. M. Barrie).^[18] The 1980s ended at the Haymarket with Veterans' Day (Donald Freed) and A Life in the Theatre (David Mamet).^[19]

In 1990, the Haymarket revived London Assurance (Dion Boucicault). This was followed by An Evening with Peter Ustinov and Gasping (Ben Elton). The next year, the theatre presented Silly Cow (Ben Elton); John Sessions' Travelling Tales; and Jean Anouilh's Becket, starring Derek Jacobi and Robert Lindsay. Lindsay also starred in a revival of Cyrano de Bergerac in 1992.^[18] This was succeeded by new productions of Heartbreak House with Vanessa Redgrave and A Woman of No Importance.^[19]

In 1994 the theatre closed for a £1.3 million refurbishment, re-opening later that year with An Evening with Peter Ustinov, followed by Arcadia (Tom Stoppard). Burning Blue (1995), a new play by the first time playwright David Greer, was followed by the veteran director Peter Hall's revival of Ibsen's The Master Builder, starring Alan Bates. Hall also directed the 1996 An Ideal Husband (Oscar Wilde) 100 years after its première at the Haymarket; the new production featured Martin Shaw as Lord Goring. Another production of 1996 was Neil Simon's The Odd Couple, starring Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. Hall was in charge again for the 1997 production of A Streetcar Named Desire (Tennessee Williams), starring Jessica Lange; Lady Windermere's Fan; and An Ideal Husband (returning after touring). The last production of that year was A Delicate Balance (Edward Albee), starring Maggie Smith, John Standing, Annette Crosbie and Eileen Atkins.^{[citation needed]}

In 1998, Shakespeare's Villains a one-man play, created and performed by Steven Berkoff at the theatre was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment. Later that year, Tom Stoppard's The Invention of Love, starring John Wood, transferred from the National Theatre. In 1999, Fascinating Aida's comic revue was followed by Neil Simon's The Prisoner of Second Avenue, with Richard Dreyfuss and Marsha Mason; Love Letters, by A. R. Gurney, with Charlton Heston; and a transfer of the Chichester Festival's The Importance of Being Earnest, starring Patricia Routledge.^{[citation needed]}

The 21st century[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2012)

Productions at the Haymarket in 2000 included Collected Stories (Donald Marguiles), starring Helen Mirren, and August Strindberg's Miss Julie, followed in 2001 by The Blue Room by David Hare; Japes by Simon Gray, directed by Peter Hall; and The Royal Family (Edna Ferber), starring Judi Dench. In 2002 the theatre presented Lady Windermere's Fan, directed by Peter Hall starring Vanessa Redgrave and Joely Richardson; Rose Rage, an adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry VI plays, directed by Edward Hall; and Judi Dench and Maggie Smith appeared on stage together for the first time in over 40 years in The Breath of Life by David Hare.^[20] Productions in 2003 were The Rat Pack: Live From Las Vegas, Brand (Ibsen) directed by Adrian Noble, starring Ralph Fiennes, and A Woman of No Importance, with Rupert Graves, Samantha Bond and Prunella Scales, also directed by Noble.

In 2004, the theatre presented a stage adaptation of the film, When Harry Met Sally, starring Luke Perry and Alyson Hannigan, during which the house closed for two nights after bits of the ceiling fell down during a performance injuring about 13 people. It was followed by Singular Sensations, a season of performances by Barbara Cook, Michael Feinstein, Michael Ball and Joshua Rifkin. The last production of 2004 was a revival of Becket by Anouilh. 2005 productions were Victoria Wood's Acorn Antiques The Musical, starring Julie Walters, Celia Imrie and Duncan Preston, directed by Trevor Nunn; The Genius of Ray Charles; and A Few Good Men, starring Rob Lowe, Suranne Jones and Jack Ellis. 2006 featured three revivals: A Man for All Seasons, starring Martin Shaw; Coward's Hay Fever, with Judi Dench and Peter Bowles; and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, starring Dave Willetts and Shona Lindsay. The last production of that year was Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, starring Claire Bloom and Billy Zane.

The first production of 2007 was Pinter's People, a compilation of Harold Pinter sketches of the past 40 years, staged by a company of four, led by Bill Bailey; later productions of that year were The Lady from Dubuque (Albee), starring Maggie Smith; David Suchet in The Last Confession; and The Country Wife, starring Toby Stephens, Patricia Hodge and David Haig. The following year's productions were The Sea (Bond), starring David Haig, Eileen Atkins and Russell Tovey; Marguerite, a new musical starring Ruthie Henshall and Alexander Hanson;^[20] Girl with a Pearl Earring, a stage adaptation by David Joss Buckley of Tracy Chevalier's novel; and Keith Allen in Treasure Island.

Banner for The Tempest in August 2011

In 2009 the theatre presented On the Waterfront; Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Simon Callow and Ronald Pickup starred in Waiting for Godot; followed by Breakfast at Tiffany's, starring Anna Friel, Joseph Cross, James Dreyfus and Suzanne Bertish.^[20] Godot and Tiffany's were featured, along with the staff and history of the Haymarket Theatre itself, in a 2009 eight-part Sky Arts documentary, Theatreland.^[21] In 2010 Waiting for Godot was staged again with McKellen, Roger Rees, Matthew Kelly and Pickup; followed by a transfer of Sweet Charity from the Menier Chocolate Factory. The next show was The Rivals starring Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles.

Trevor Nunn was Artistic Director for the year 2011. His productions included a revival of Flare Path, as part of the playwright Terence Rattigan's centenary year celebrations, starring Sienna Miller, James Purefoy and Sheridan Smith; the Chichester Festival Theatre's revival of Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard; Ralph Fiennes as Prospero in The Tempest; and, from November 2011 to January 2012, Robert Lindsay and Joanna Lumley in The Lion in Winter.^[20] From March 2012, the Haymarket hosted the National Theatre production One Man, Two Guvnors, which transfers from the Adelphi Theatre with a new cast including Owain Arthur and Jodie Prenger.^[22]

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Earl, John and Sell, Michael Guide to British Theatres 1750-1950, pp. 116 (Theatres Trust, 2000) ISBN 0-7136-5688-3
• Gater, Sir George and Walter H Godfrey (ed): Survey of London, Vol XX, Greater London Council, London 1940
• Gielgud, John, (ed Richard Mangan): Gielgud's Letters, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 2004, ISBN 0-297-82989-0
• Goodman, Andrew: Gilbert and Sullivan's London, Spellmount Ltd, London, 1988, ISBN 0-946771-31-6
• Lesley, Cole: The Life of Noel Coward, Jonathan Cape, London, 1976, ISBN 0-224-01288-6
• Maude, Cyril and Ralph Maude. The Haymarket Theatre: Some Records & Reminiscences, E. P. Dutton, 1903
• Plantamura, Carol, The Opera Lover's Guide to Europe, New York: Citadel Press, 1996. ISBN 0-8065-1842-1
• Sinden, Donald: A Touch of the Memoirs, Futura, London 1983, ISBN 0-7088-2285-1
• Theatre History and Archive Material
• Profile of the theatre and other Victorian theatres

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Haymarket Theatre

• Theatre Royal Haymarket homepage
• bbc.co.uk Theatre shuts after ceiling fall (published 2004-05-17)
• New York Times obituary, of J. B. Buckstone, November 1, 1879, describing numerous plays that he produced at the Haymarket

Sir Ian McKellen CBE CH
McKellen at the premiere of The Return of the King in Wellington, New Zealand, 1 December 2003
Born	Ian Murray McKellen (1939-05-25) 25 May 1939 (age 73) Burnley, Lancashire, England
Alma mater	Cambridge University
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1959–present
Partner	Brian Taylor (1964–1972) Sean Mathias (1978–1988)
Website
http://www.mckellen.com/

Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH CBE (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. He has won multiple Laurence Olivier Awards, a Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. He is known for film roles such as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Magneto in the X-Men films, and as Sir Leigh Teabing in The Da Vinci Code.

McKellen was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1979, was knighted in 1991 for services to the performing arts,^[1] and was made a Companion of Honour for services to drama and to equality, in the 2008 New Year Honours.^[2]

Early life[link]

McKellen was born in Burnley, Lancashire, England, though he spent most of his early life in Wigan. Born shortly before the outbreak of World War II, the experience had some lasting impact on him. In response to an interview question when an interviewer remarked that he seemed quite calm in the aftermath of the 11 September attacks, he said: "Well, darling, you forget — I slept under a steel plate until I was four years old."^[3]

McKellen's father, Denis Murray McKellen, a civil engineer, was a lay preacher, and both of his grandfathers were preachers. At the time of Ian's birth, his parents already had a five-year-old daughter, Jean. His home environment was strongly Christian, but non-orthodox. "My upbringing was of low nonconformist Christians who felt that you led the Christian life in part by behaving in a Christian manner to everybody you met."^[3] When he was 12, his mother, Margery Lois (née Sutcliffe), died; his father died when he was 24. Of his coming out of the closet to his stepmother, Gladys McKellen, who was a member of the Religious Society of Friends, he said, "Not only was she not fazed, but as a member of a society which declared its indifference to people's sexuality years back, I think she was just glad for my sake that I wasn't lying anymore."^[3]

McKellen attended Bolton School (boys division),^[4] of which he is still a supporter, attending regularly to talk to pupils. McKellen's acting career started at Bolton Little Theatre, of which he is now the patron.^[5] An early fascination with the theatre was encouraged by his parents, who took him on a family outing to Peter Pan at the Opera House in Manchester when he was three.^{[citation needed]} When he was nine, his main Christmas present was a wood and bakelite, fold-away Victorian theatre from Pollocks Toy Theatres, with cardboard scenery and wires to push on the cut-outs of Cinderella and of Laurence Olivier's Hamlet.^{[citation needed]} His sister took him to his first Shakespeare play, Twelfth Night,^[6] by the amateurs of Wigan's Little Theatre, shortly followed by their Macbeth and Wigan High School for Girls' production of A Midsummer Night's Dream with music by Mendelssohn and with the role of Bottom played by Jean McKellen. (Jean continued to act, direct, and produce amateur theatre up to her death.)^[7]

He won a scholarship to St Catharine's College, Cambridge, when he was eighteen, where he developed an attraction to Derek Jacobi.^[8] He has characterised it as "a passion that was undeclared and unrequited".^[3]

Career[link]

Theatre[link]

While at Cambridge McKellen was a member of the Marlowe Society, appearing in Henry IV (as Shallow) alongside Trevor Nunn and Jacobi (March 1959), Cymbeline (as Posthumus, opposite Margaret Drabble as Imogen) and Doctor Faustus.^[9][10][11] His first professional appearance was in 1961 at the Nottingham Playhouse, as Roper in A Man for All Seasons, although an audio recording of the Marlowe Society's Cymbeline had gone on commercial sale as part of the Argo Shakespeare series.^[9][11] After four years in regional repertory theatres he made his first West End appearance, in A Scent of Flowers, regarded as a "notable success".^[9] In 1965 he was a member of Laurence Olivier's National Theatre Company at the Old Vic, which led to rôles at the Chichester Festival. In the 1970s and 1980s McKellen became a well-known figure in British theatre, performing frequently at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre, where he played several leading Shakespearean roles, including the titular part in Macbeth (which he had first assayed for Trevor Nunn in a "gripping...out of the ordinary" production, with Judi Dench, at Stratford in 1976), and Iago in Othello, in award-winning productions directed by Nunn.^[9] Both of these productions were adapted into television films, also directed by Nunn.

In 2007 he returned to the Royal Shakespeare Company, in productions of King Lear and The Seagull, both directed by Trevor Nunn. In 2009 he appeared in a very popular revival of Waiting for Godot at London's Haymarket Theatre, directed by Sean Mathias and playing opposite Patrick Stewart.^[12][13]

McKellen is also President and Patron of the Little Theatre Guild of Great Britain, an association of amateur theatre organisations throughout the UK.^[14]

Popular success[link]

McKellen had taken film roles throughout his career — beginning in 1969 with his role of George Matthews in A Touch of Love, but it was not until the 1990s that he became more widely recognised in this medium, through several roles in blockbuster Hollywood films.^[8]

In 1993, McKellen had a supporting role as a South African tycoon in the critically acclaimed^[15] Six Degrees of Separation, in which he starred with Stockard Channing, Donald Sutherland, and Will Smith. In the same year, he appeared in minor roles in the television miniseries Tales of the City (based on the novel by his friend Armistead Maupin) and the film Last Action Hero, in which he played Death. The same year, McKellen appeared in the television film And the Band Played On, about the discovery of the AIDS virus, for which McKellen won a CableACE Award for Supporting Actor in a Movie or Miniseries and was nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie.^[16]