Actor Sir Ian McKellen has recalled an interaction with fellow actor Sir Alec Guinness where the older thespian warned him off campaigning for gay rights.
McKellen came out publicly as gay in 1988 and was involved in founding UK LGBTIQA+ rights group Stonewall. In an interview with The Guardian, he recalled that Sir Alec Guinness was not approving of his move.
McKellen recalled that in 1979 when he performed in Martin Sherman’s groundbreaking play Bent, Sir Alec Guinness had come backstage to his dressing room. The play highlighted the ill-treatment of gays in Nazi labour camps.
“Alec Guinness sat rather primly in my dressing room, enthusing about the play before inviting me out to supper. I stupidly declined, but a decade later was given a second chance to meet up with the great man.” McKellen recalled.
“He took me for an Italian lunch in Pimlico, where we chatted about this and that until he brought up the real reason for his invitation. He had heard about my work to establish Stonewall – a lobby group to present to the government and the world at large the case for treating UK lesbians and gays equally under the law with the rest of the population.
“He thought it somewhat unseemly for an actor to dabble in public or political affairs and advised me, sort of pleaded with me, to withdraw. Advice from an older generation, which I didn’t follow.” McKellen said.
The actor shared that he was reminded of the interaction when he saw the production Two Halves of Guinness, in which actor Zeb Soanes gives an immaculate impersonation of Sir Alec. The play also hints at the late actors bisexuality which he only shared with his closest friends. McKellen said the inclusion of his personal life would have been upsetting to Guinness.
Sir Alec Guinness is largely remembered for playing Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars, and the cameo appearances he made in its sequels The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. But before he headed into space he was already revered as one of Britain’s greatest actors.
He appeared in many memorable films including The Bridge of the River Kwai, Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia. He later received high praise for his portrayal of spy George Smiley in the television adaptations of John le Carre’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley’s People, and his role in 1984’s A Passage to India.
Sir Ian McKellen has also played some very memorable characters on screen including Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films, Magneto in the X-Men franchise, Sherlock Holmes and Gus the Theatre Cat in the film version of the musical Cats.
Sir Alec Guinness died in August 2000, he had been treated for prostate and liver cancer. He was 86. He was married to the playwright and actress Merula Salaman from 1938 until his death, she died two months after his passing, her death also attributed to liver cancer.
Guinness wrote three volumes of his memoirs Blessings in Disguise came out in 1985, he followed it up with My Name Escapes Me in 1996, and A Positively Final Appearance in 1999. He never spoke about his bisexuality in his autobiographies, choosing to keep the information private.
