17 Facts About Sir Ian McKellen

1. Sir Ian McKellen is an honorary board member for the New York and Washington, DC based organization Only Make Believe.

2. In 2010, Sir Ian McKellen extended his support for Liverpool's Homotopia festival in which a group of gay and lesbian Merseyside teenagers helped to produce an anti-homophobia campaign pack for schools and youth centres across the city.

3. Sir Ian McKellen has taken his activism internationally, and caused a major stir in Singapore, where he was invited to do an interview on a morning show and shocked the interviewer by asking if they could recommend him a gay bar; the programme immediately ended.

4. In 2006, Sir Ian McKellen spoke at the pre-launch of the 2007 LGBT History Month in the UK, lending his support to the organisation and its founder, Sue Sanders.

5. Sir Ian McKellen is a co-founder of Stonewall, an LGBT rights lobby group in the United Kingdom, named after the Stonewall riots.

6. Sir Ian McKellen has continued to be very active in LGBT rights efforts.

7. Sir Ian McKellen became active in fighting the proposed law, and, during a BBC Radio 3 programme where he debated Section 28 with the conservative journalist Peregrine Worsthorne, declared himself gay.

8. Sir Ian McKellen was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters by Cambridge University on 18 June 2014.

9. In October 2015, Sir Ian McKellen appeared as Norman to Anthony Hopkins' Sir in a BBC Two production of Ronald Harwood's The Dresser, alongside Edward Fox and Emily Watson.

10. In November 2013, Sir Ian McKellen appeared in the Doctor Who 50th anniversary comedy homage The Fiv Doctors Reboot.

11. Sir Ian McKellen received a 2007 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor - Comedy Series nomination for his performance.

12. Sir Ian McKellen appeared in the 2006 BBC series of Ricky Gervais' comedy series Extras, where he played himself directing Gervais' character Andy Millman in a play about gay lovers.

13. Sir Ian McKellen has appeared in limited release films, such as Emile, Neverwas and Asylum.

14. In October 2017, Sir Ian McKellen played King Lear at Chichester Festival Theatre, a role which he said was likely to be his "last big Shakespearean part".

15. Sir Ian McKellen made his first professional appearance in 1961 at the Belgrade Theatre, 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.

16. Sir Ian McKellen's acting career started at Bolton Little Theatre, of which he is the patron.

17. Sir Ian McKellen was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1979 Birthday Honours, was knighted in the 1991 New Year Honours for services to the performing arts, and made a Companion of Honour for services to drama and to equality in the 2008 New Year Honours.