Editing Ian McKellen (section)

== Early life and education ==
McKellen was born on 25 May 1939 in [[Burnley]], Lancashire,{{sfn|Barratt|2006|p=1}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mckellen.com/life/per.htm|title=Sir Ian McKellen Personal Bio – Prior to launch of his website|first=Keith|last=Stern/CompuWeb|website=mckellen.com|access-date=23 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181109234900/http://www.mckellen.com/life/per.htm|archive-date=9 November 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> the son of Margery Lois (née Sutcliffe) and Denis Murray McKellen. He was their second child, with a sister, Jean, five years his senior.<ref name="from-the-beginning" /> Shortly before the outbreak of the [[Second World War]] in September 1939, his family moved to [[Wigan]]. They lived there until Ian was twelve years old, before relocating to [[Bolton]] in 1951 after his father had been promoted.<ref name="from-the-beginning" /><ref name=pierless>{{cite journal|title=Pierless Youth|url=http://www.mckellen.com/writings/pierless.htm|access-date=5 January 2014|journal=The Sunday Times Magazine|date=2 January 1977|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140327123012/http://mckellen.com/writings/pierless.htm|archive-date=27 March 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> The experience of living through the war as a young child had a lasting impact on him, and he later said that "only after peace resumed&nbsp;... did I realise that war wasn't normal".<ref name=pierless /> When an interviewer remarked that he seemed quite calm in the aftermath of the [[11 September attacks]], McKellen said: "Well, darling, you forget—I slept under a [[Morrison shelter|steel plate]] until I was four years old".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Steele |first1=Bruce C. |title=The Knight's Crusade |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DGMEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA40 |access-date=31 August 2020 |work=The Advocate |issue=853 |publisher=Liberation Publications Inc. |date=25 December 2001}}</ref>

McKellen's father was a civil engineer<ref>{{cite web|title=Sir Ian McKellen|url=https://www.biography.com/actor/ian-mckellen|website=biography.com|access-date=1 December 2021|archive-date=1 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211201154406/https://www.biography.com/actor/ian-mckellen|url-status=live}}</ref> and [[lay preacher]], and was of [[Protestant Irish]] and [[Scottish Reformation|Scottish]] descent.<ref>''Ian McKellen: an unofficial biography'', Mark Barratt, Virgin Books, 2005, p. 2</ref> Both of McKellen's grandfathers were preachers, and his great-great-grandfather, James McKellen, was a "strict, evangelical [[Protestantism in Ireland|Protestant]] minister" in [[Ballymena, County Antrim]].<ref name=Ballymena>{{cite web|title=Ian McKellen traces roots to Ballymena|url=http://www.u.tv/entertainment/Ian-McKellen-traces-roots-to-Ballymena/71222a03-8837-41ce-863b-a53974c8dddb|publisher=[[UTV (TV channel)|UTV]]|access-date=3 February 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130204050036/http://www.u.tv/entertainment/Ian-McKellen-traces-roots-to-Ballymena/71222a03-8837-41ce-863b-a53974c8dddb|archive-date=4 February 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> 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".<ref name="advocate-2001">{{cite news |last=Steele |first=Bruce C. |title=The Knight's Crusade |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1589/is_2001_Dec_25/ai_83451265 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080914105120/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1589/is_2001_Dec_25/ai_83451265 |work=The Advocate |date=11 December 2001 |archive-date=14 September 2008 |pages=36–38, 40–45 |access-date=16 February 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref> When he was 12, his mother died of breast cancer; his father died when he was 25. After his [[coming out]] as gay to his stepmother, Gladys McKellen, who was a [[Quaker]], 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 any more".<ref>{{cite news |last=Adams |first=Stephen |title=McKellen about his stepmother |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/6694627/Sir-Ian-McKellen-Not-telling-parents-I-was-gay-remains-my-greatest-regret.html |url-status=live |work=The Daily Telegraph |location=London |date=30 November 2009 |access-date=8 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140301232139/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/6694627/Sir-Ian-McKellen-Not-telling-parents-I-was-gay-remains-my-greatest-regret.html |archive-date=1 March 2014}}</ref> His great-great-grandfather Robert J. Lowes was an activist and campaigner in the ultimately successful campaign for a [[Workweek and weekend|Saturday half-holiday]] in Manchester, the forerunner to the modern five-day work week, thus making Lowes a "grandfather of the modern weekend".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/15/sir-ian-mckellensgreat-great-grandfather-helped-invent-weekend/|title=Sir Ian McKellen's great-great-grandfather helped invent the weekend |last=Furness |first=Hannah |date=15 January 2017|work=The Daily Telegraph|access-date=22 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171124090228/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/15/sir-ian-mckellensgreat-great-grandfather-helped-invent-weekend/|archive-date=24 November 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

McKellen attended [[Bolton School]] (Boys' Division),<ref>{{cite web|title=Famous Old Boltonians |url=http://www.boltonschool.com/senior-boys/old-boys/famous-old-boltonians |publisher=Bolton School |access-date=14 June 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119083833/http://www.boltonschool.com/senior-boys/old-boys/famous-old-boltonians |archive-date=19 January 2012 }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.blt.org.uk|title=Bolton Little Theatre|publisher=Bolton Little Theatre|access-date=14 June 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090303161956/http://blt.org.uk/|archive-date=3 March 2009|url-status=live}}</ref> An early fascination with the theatre was encouraged by his parents, who took him on a family outing to ''[[Peter Pan]]'' at the [[Manchester Opera House|Opera House]] in Manchester when he was three.<ref name="from-the-beginning">{{cite web|title=Ian McKellen From the Beginning|url=http://www.mckellen.com/life/per.htm|work=Ian McKellen Official Website|access-date=5 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181109234900/http://www.mckellen.com/life/per.htm|archive-date=9 November 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> When he was nine, his main Christmas present was a fold-away wood and bakelite Victorian theatre from [[Pollock's Toy Museum|Pollocks Toy Theatres]], with cardboard scenery and wires to push on the cut-outs of Cinderella and of [[Laurence Olivier]]'s reenactment of Shakespeare's "Hamlet".<ref name="from-the-beginning"/>

His sister took him to his first Shakespeare play, ''[[Twelfth Night]]'',<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/theatre/pantos-grandest-dame-7280733.html|title=Panto's grandest Dame|last=Curtis|first=Nick|date=9 December 2005|work=[[Evening Standard]]|access-date=7 February 2010|location=London|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213191654/http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/theatre/pantos-grandest-dame-7280733.html|archive-date=13 December 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> 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]], with the role of Bottom played by Jean McKellen, who continued to act, direct, and produce amateur theatre until her death.<ref>J. W. Braun, ''The Lord of the Films'' (ECW Press, 2009)</ref>

In 1958, McKellen, at the age of 18, won a scholarship to [[St Catharine's College, Cambridge]], where he read English literature.<ref name="actors">''[[Inside the Actors Studio]]''. Bravo. 8 December 2002. No. 5, season 9</ref> He has since been made an [[List of Honorary Fellows of St Catharine's College, Cambridge|Honorary Fellow]] of the college. While at Cambridge, McKellen was a member of the [[Marlowe Society]], where he appeared in 23 plays over the course of 3 years. At that young age he was already giving performances that have since become legendary such as his Justice Shallow in ''[[Henry IV, Part 2|Henry IV]]'' alongside [[Trevor Nunn]] and [[Derek Jacobi]] (March 1959), ''[[Cymbeline]]'' (as Posthumus, opposite [[Margaret Drabble]] as Imogen) and ''[[The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus|Doctor Faustus]]''.<ref name="trowbridge">{{cite book|title=Stratfordians|last=Trowbridge|first=Simon|year=2008|publisher=Editions Albert Creed|location=Oxford, England|isbn=978-0-9559830-1-6|pages=338–343}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.societies.cam.ac.uk/marlowe/chronology.html |title=Marlowe Chronology |publisher=Cambridge University Marlowe Dramatic Society |access-date=31 July 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615072500/http://www.societies.cam.ac.uk/marlowe/chronology.html |archive-date=15 June 2011 }}</ref><ref name="Drabble">{{cite book|last=Drabble|first=Margaret|author-link=Margaret Drabble|editor=Novy, Marianne|title=Cross-cultural performances: differences in women's re-visions of Shakespeare|year=1993|publisher=University of Illinois Press|location=Urbana|isbn=0-252-06323-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/crossculturalper00novy/page/130 130]|chapter=Stratford revisited|chapter-url-access=registration|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/crossculturalper00novy/page/130}}</ref> During this period McKellen had already been directed by [[Peter Hall (director)|Peter Hall]], [[John Barton (director)|John Barton]] and [[Dadie Rylands]], all of whom would have a significant impact on McKellen's future career.{{sfn|Barratt|2006|p=21}}