Sir Ian McKellen has had a fruitful and very successful career for decades in both his work on the stage and screen. Ironically, McKellen’s popularity seemed to only heighten in his older years when he took on the role of Gandalf the Grey in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Magneto in the X-Men series.
Some actors need to choose between doing geek projects and Shakespearean adaptations, but McKellen has been able to do both! In addition to being a terrific actor with impeccable taste in projects, McKellen is also an icon in the LGBTQ community. These are the ten best Ian McKellen movies, ranked.
10 'The Shadow' (1994)
McKellen is at the peak of his villainy in the highly underrated 1994 superhero film The Shadow. The film follows the ancient drug lord Lamont Cranston (Alec Baldwin), who is gifted with the powers of immortality, invisibility, and telekinesis by a group of supernatural beings after his crimes are exposed.
Cranston continues to operate under his alter ego as a New York City business tycoon until he comes face to face with the nuclear scientist Dr. Reichardt (Ian McKellen), who has been caught under an evil spell by an evil warlord.
9 'The Good Liar' (2019)
Romance and trickery are ageless, and both McKellen and Helen Mirren reflect this in the underrated 2019 thriller The Good Liar. McKellen stars as the devious career criminal Ray Courtnay, whose attempt to swindle the inheritance of a wealthy woman (Mirren) goes disastrously awry when she reveals sordid details from his past.
A film with this many twists and turns needs two dynamic performances at its center, which Mirren and McKellen provide in spades. Instead of heightening the absurdity with action, director Bill Condon creates suspense by simply letting these two actors interact with each other for extended dialogue sequences.
8 'The Da Vinci Code' (2006)
Ron Howard’s 2006 adventure mystery The Da Vinci Code is one of the most controversial films ever made, as the films within the Robert Langdon series have been criticized for their fanciful (and occasionally fanciful) approach to both history and religion. Nonetheless, McKellen gives a strong performance in the film as the villainous Sir Leigh Teabing.
While both Howard and Tom Hanks make the mistake of taking the material a little too seriously, McKellen accepts the story’s inherent silliness and heightens the absurdity of the film with his goofy performance; some may argue he makes the film more watchable as a result.
7 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' (1982)
Nearly two decades before he played one of the most iconic comic book villains of all-time in the X-Men series, McKellen popped up in a very different sort of superhero-adjacent adaptation. 1982’s The Scarlet Pimpernel focuses on the French Revolutionary hero Sir Percy Blakeney (Anthony Andrews), whose heroic series of crimes attracts the persecution of the villainous aristocrat Paul Chauvelin (McKellen).
It’s another example of McKellen chewing the scenery with a villainous performance; he perfectly embodies the cruelty of the upper class in the historical context of the late 18th century.
6 'Richard III' (1995)
Although McKellen had starred in many Shakespearean plays when they were adapted for the stage, 1995’s Richard III took a much different approach to one of the Bard’s most infamous historical stories.
Instead of placing the story within the context of Shakespeare’s time, director Richard Loncraine’s version of Richard III is set within a fictionalized version of the 1930s, centering on the rise of the fascist military leader (McKellen). Regardless of the format, McKellen is absolutely sensational in the role; he commands attention with a manipulative, terrifying representation of the banality of evil.
5 'Apt Pupil' (1998)
Bryan Singer’s 1998 Stephen King adaptation Apt Pupil serves as further proof that McKellen is one of the greatest actors of all time; while in real life he seems like a very nice guy, it seems like McKellen is so often cast as Nazis and fascists. The film centers on the aging Nazi war criminal Kurt Dussander (McKellen), who escaped justice at the end of World War II in order to live a secret life in America.
Dussander’s secret is discovered by the clever high school student Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro), who blackmails the wicked fascist into becoming his mentor.
4 'X2' (2003)
2000’s X-Men made a bold statement when it began with a scene of a young Erik Lehnsherr being separated from his family during the Holocaust; it introduced the idea that in this Marvel adaptation, the term “mutant” would become a stand in for any disenfranchised groups that had been persecuted.
This quality became even more evident in the excellent 2003 sequel X2, which allows McKellen to show a more charismatic side to Magneto. Magneto’s proposal is intriguing to many mutants; he suggests that they should defend themselves by fighting their oppressors.
3 'Mr. Holmes' (2015)
McKellen worked with Condon once more with 2015’s Mr. Holmes, and single-handedly created one of the most iconic cinematic depictions of the infamous detective ever. The film centers on an aging version of Sherlock Holmes who has come to reflect upon the totality of his experience and ponders what good his mystery-solving ever did to anyone.
The film explores Holmes at his most vulnerable, as he can no longer trust his own memory and must rely on the help of others. McKellen brings out a very human side to a character that often feels impersonal.
2 'Gods and Monsters' (1998)
With all due respect to Roberto Benigni and his performance in Life is Beautiful, McKellen deserved to win the Best Actor trophy at the Academy Awards for his performance in Condon’s emotional 1998 biopic Gods and Monsters.
McKellen stars as an aging version of the beloved film director James Whale, whose work on the classic horror films Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, and The Invisible Man effectively launched the initial Universal Monsters cinematic universe. Whale reflects on his post-traumatic stress disorder from his service in World War I during the final days of his life.
1 'Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring' (2001)
It’s unfortunate that McKellen is the only actor in The Lord of the Rings trilogy who received an Academy Award nomination for their work, but that doesn’t make his debut appearance as the beloved wizard Gandalf any less terrific.
Compared to the other films within the series, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring shows a more playful side to the character. Gandalf the Gray is a lot more fun to be around than Gandalf the White, but the lessons he teaches Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) stick with him throughout the rest of the trilogy.