{"id":899705,"date":"2026-10-30T08:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T08:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/899705\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T08:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T08:32:12","slug":"patrick-stewart-and-ian-mckellen-a-friendship-that-surpassed-the-stage-and-screen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/899705\/","title":{"rendered":"Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen: A friendship that surpassed the stage and screen"},"content":{"rendered":"

The subsequent franchise films highlighted the complex bond between the characters, ideologically at odds over how to protect mutantkind.<\/p>\n

On screen they sparred, but off set they bonded.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to thank \u2018X-Men\u2019 for the two of us really getting to know one another, because every day on an \u2018X-Men\u2019 movie you spend far more time sitting in your trailer than you do on the set doing a drop of work \u2014 and those trailers are extremely luxurious. And we had adjoining ones, so we sat around and talked and reminisced,\u201d Stewart said on the 2014 panel. \u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a> or on the red carpet.<\/p>\n

Stewart told The Guardian that McKellen is \u201cvery close\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Stewart was also a supporter of the LGBTQ+ community and praised activists like McKellen, who is gay.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d he told The Advocate<\/a> in 2015. \u201cThen 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both men built separate and successful legacies in cinema \u2014 McKellen as the beloved wizard Gandalf in the \u201cLord of the Rings\u201d and \u201cThe Hobbit\u201d films and Stewart as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard of the long-running \u201cStar Trek\u201d franchise. <\/p>\n

They were also both honored with knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II \u2014 McKellen in 1991 and Stewart in 2010. <\/p>\n

Through it all, they remained devoted to their first love of theater and co-starred in two productions, to much acclaim.<\/p>\n

In Samuel Beckett\u2019s play \u201cWaiting for Godot,\u201d Stewart was the optimistic Vladimir and McKellen the weary Estragon. Their performances \u2014\u00a0at London\u2019s West End in 2009 and on New York\u2019s Broadway in 2013-14 \u2014\u00a0were praised for their humor and comedy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The subsequent franchise films highlighted the complex bond between the characters, ideologically at odds over how to protect…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":899706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88],"class_list":["post-899705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}