Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen: A friendship that surpassed the stage and screen
To many, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen represent a formidable mutant rivalry in the “X-Men” films or two of theater’s pre-eminent Shakespearean actors, but behind the curtain the pair shared something even more enduring: a friendship that spanned decades.
Stewart died Wednesday at age 86 following a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia. McKellen, Stewart’s artistic brother-in-arms, remembered him Thursday as “the most respected and beloved actor of his generation on either side of the Atlantic.”
“He wore his heart on his sleeve, which made him a man to rely on, to admire and in my case, love,” McKellen said in a statement on social media.
The pair — about a year apart in age — met at England’s esteemed Royal Shakespeare Company, with Stewart joining in 1966 and McKellen in 1974.
“We first met as ambitious young actors with the Royal Shakespeare Company half a century ago but we weren’t in the same productions,” McKellen, 87, said Thursday.
They starred in Tom Stoppard’s play “Every Good Boy Deserves Favour” in 1977 in collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company but weren’t close at the time.
“I had admired him from the start of his career,” Stewart told The Guardian in 2019. “When he joined the RSC, I was frankly intimidated.”
Still, Stewart later sought McKellen’s advice about taking on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” in a role that he later billed as life-changing. McKellen advised him against it.
“My first strong memory was a few years later, meeting him in the street in central London when he told me about an offer to take over a leading part in ‘Star Trek,’” McKellen said in the statement.
“‘But Patrick think of your stage career in the UK. Do you really want to risk — getting lost in Hollywood for years and years?’” he recalled.
In a 2014 SAG-AFTRA Foundation conversation with the two actors, Stewart joked, “The only person who advised me not to do it is sitting to my left,” to the laughter of the crowd. “That … changed my life. Every single corner of it has not been unaffected by that,” he added.
McKellen said in his tribute that he was grateful Stewart took the role, nonetheless.
“Well, he took the risk and thank goodness for us all that he did for not just his devoted Trekkies but film and theatre audiences, who marvelled at his using international celebrity to star in a string of cinema successes (‘X-Men’ of course) and in great classical plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Arthur Miller, Peter Shaffer, Pinter and Beckett at Stratford-upon-Avon, in London’s West End and on Broadway,” McKellen said.
“X-Men” left a mark on both of their Hollywood careers.
It started with the first “X-Men” blockbuster in 2000, with Stewart playing the powerful mutant telepath Professor Charles Xavier, also known as Professor X, and McKellen portraying the antihero Erik Magnus Lehnsherr, or Magneto, with the daunting power to manipulate metal and magnetic fields.
The subsequent franchise films highlighted the complex bond between the characters, ideologically at odds over how to protect mutantkind.
On screen they sparred, but off set they bonded.
“We have to thank ‘X-Men’ for the two of us really getting to know one another, because every day on an ‘X-Men’ movie you spend far more time sitting in your trailer than you do on the set doing a drop of work — and those trailers are extremely luxurious. And we had adjoining ones, so we sat around and talked and reminisced,” Stewart said on the 2014 panel. “And I discovered a lot about this chap and he about me, and we found that there were many, many overlaps in our careers and many areas where we had little in common.”
The rest is history. The two shared a friendship adored by fans, often seen greeting each other with an affectionate kiss on the lips whether on TV programs or on the red carpet.
Stewart told The Guardian that McKellen is “very close” to his wife, singer-songwriter Sunny Ozell, and that she was the one who suggested McKellen officiate their wedding. In 2013, he did just that.
Stewart was also a supporter of the LGBTQ+ community and praised activists like McKellen, who is gay.
“I think this is where the theater is such an appealing world, because it embraces everything and always has. So there was never a moment where I made an intellectual choice that I would be a supporter of gay civil rights. It was always a natural and uncomplicated choice,” he told The Advocate in 2015. “Then later in life, as I got to know well-known activists like Ian McKellen, I was only too happy to join campaigns, march, and support in whatever way I could because it always seemed to me to be something that much too much fuss was being made about.”
Both men built separate and successful legacies in cinema — McKellen as the beloved wizard Gandalf in the “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” films and Stewart as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard of the long-running “Star Trek” franchise.
They were also both honored with knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II — McKellen in 1991 and Stewart in 2010.
Through it all, they remained devoted to their first love of theater and co-starred in two productions, to much acclaim.
In Samuel Beckett’s play “Waiting for Godot,” Stewart was the optimistic Vladimir and McKellen the weary Estragon. Their performances — at London’s West End in 2009 and on New York’s Broadway in 2013-14 — were praised for their humor and comedy.
They also starred in Harold Pinter’s “No Man’s Land” in 2013 at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and on Broadway and again in 2016 in the West End. Stewart played Hirst and McKellen Spooner.
Speaking to The Guardian about their friendship and onstage charisma, Stewart said, “Sometimes I feel we’re enjoying it too much and the audience don’t quite understand why we’re having so much fun.”
During the SAG-AFTRA Foundation panel, Stewart spoke about his theater career success and the joy of sharing the stage with McKellen.
“And that I get to spend six nights a week and three afternoons on stage with this chap is still …,” he said before stopping, overcome with emotion. McKellen, next to him, held his hand. “Because I was a fan!” Stewart said, gesturing to McKellen.
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