Longtime actor who became immortalized as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings franchise. He played the misanthropic mutant Magneto in the X-Men movies and narrated the 2007 fantasy film Stardust. He was cast as Cogsworth in the 2017 film Beauty and the Beast.
After receiving a scholarship for St. Catharine's College, he became a member of the Marlowe Society. He debuted as Plowden in The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling in 1964.
He earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his role in the 1998 film Gods and Monsters and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for portraying Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in 2002.
He was in a relationship with Brian Taylor from 1964 to 1972. He had a ten-year relationship with actor Sean Mathias that ended in 1988.
He starred alongside Viggo Mortensen in the celebrated Lord of the Rings films.
