It almost seemed like a joke of fate. British actor Ian McKellen, 85, resisted for decades playing one of William Shakespeare’s most complex characters: Falstaff, the friendly and drunken scoundrel. This Monday, McKellen accidentally fell from the stage of the London Nöel Coward theater during a scene in the play. Player Kings andIn which Henry IV and Henry Percy appear in battle and Falstaff—McKellen, finally—mocks the concept of nobility’s honor. “Ian is in good spirits” and the doctors assure that he “will recover completely and quickly,” a spokesperson for the theater explained shortly afterwards.
The actor, who achieved universal fame with his interpretation of the wizard Gandalf in the trilogy of The Lord of the rings, he screamed in pain at the foot of the stage. Although at first the audience came to believe that what happened was part of the play, it became clear that it was a spectacular accident when the lights in the venue were immediately turned on and everyone was forced to vacate the room.
Lesley Pritchard @lpvancou….1m
We are vacationing in London UK where we were shocked to hear as we walked past the Noel Coward Theater that legendary actor Sir lan McKellen had just been injured and taken by @Ldn_Ambulance paramedics to hospital. Hoping him a swift recovery! pic.twitter.com/ycB9L31x9V— Lesley Pritchard (@lpvancouver) June 17, 2024
“Sir Ian appeared to stumble as he moved across the stage to take a more active role in the scene. He accelerated as he approached the stage and ended up falling in front of the audience,” Paul Critchley, one of the spectators who witnessed the accident, wrote on the social network X (formerly Twitter). “It was immediately announced by the theater management that the play had been suspended, that Sir Ian was being treated and that an ambulance was already on the way,” he said. McKellen was immediately taken to a nearby hospital.
It is expected that the actor will be able to rejoin the play, a compilation of the two parts of Shakespeare’s Henry IV that has been performed in London’s West End since April, this Wednesday. McKellen has been on stage or behind the cameras for more than six decades. He has played numerous characters from the ‘Shakespearean’ universe and has accumulated seven Olivier Awards, the most prestigious award in British theatre.
Born in Lancashire in 1939, the son of an engineer and a housewife, he studied at Cambridge and forged his career in the theaters of London’s West End, precisely where he suffered this fall. He was part of the legendary Royal Shakespeare Company and founded his own theater company, the Actors Company, in 1972. Fame came to him at the age of 56 with Richard III, and his film career also includes performances in Gods and monsters (for which he received his first Oscar nomination) or as Magneto in the franchise X Men, but it was with the character of Gandalf, which he played in six films about Middle Earth, that he became a star.
McKellen has been very active in defending LGTBI rights. In 1988 he spoke openly about his homosexuality in an interview with the BBC, becoming one of the few actors who addressed this issue without reservation. In 2016 he confessed that he had returned a million-dollar advance that he had received from a publisher to write his memoirs when he felt unable to revisit his life.
Just witnessed Ian Mckellan severely injure himself after falling off stage at Noel Coward Theatre. Sir Ian could be heard screaming in pain as ushers rushed to his aid. Show canceled as he is treated by ambulance crews. Wish him all the best. #playerkings #ianmckellan pic.twitter.com/gjUJNyhxF9
— johnothejourno (@CEJohnson99) June 17, 2024
Outside the NoelCoward Theater in central London after reports of an accident during tonight’s production of Player Kings. pic.twitter.com/IVFW2xRCPu
— Chi Chi Izundu (@blondeafro) June 17, 2024
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