Sir Alec Guinness, the actor who portrayed Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi in the three original Star Wars films, allegedly discouraged gay actor Ian McKellen from publicly campaigning for LGBTQ+ civil rights, McKellen recently told The Guardian.
When asked the worst piece of advice he’d ever been given, McKellen said that Guinness – who he described as “one of Britain’s best-known and respected actors” – came to visit him backstage after a 1979 performance of Martin Sherman’s Bent, a drama about the Nazi’s inhumane treatment of gay people in labor camps during the Holocaust.
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“Alec Guinness sat rather primly in my dressing room, enthusing about the play before inviting me out to supper,” McKellen said. “I stupidly declined, but a decade later was given a second chance to meet up with the great man.”
The two had an Italian lunch at Pimlico, where they chatted “until he brought up the real reason for his invitation,” McKellen said.
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Guinness reportedly mentioned McKellen’s work to establish Stonewall UK. The group still advocates for LGBTQ+ rights, but at the time, was protesting ardently against Section 28 of the Local Government Act, a 1988 law enacted by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government, which prohibited local authorities from “promoting” homosexuality or teaching its acceptability as a “pretended family relationship.”
The law impacted schools and LGBTQ+ organizations across the U.K., and to draw attention to the law’s anti-gay persecution, McKellen’s partner Sean Mathias directed a one-night benefit performance of Bent with McKellen reprising his performance of the play’s tragic lead character, Max.
While McKellen championed the group so that U.K. lesbians and gays might be treated “equally under the law with the rest of the population,” Guinness “thought it somewhat unseemly for an actor to dabble in public or political affairs and advised me, sort of pleaded with me, to withdraw,” McKellen said, calling Guinness’ plea “advice from an older generation, which I didn’t follow.”
McKellen said, “This all came back [to me] watching the current tour of Two Halves of Guinness, a solo show which hints at Sir Alec’s latent bisexuality in a way that would have upset him.”
At least two books allege that Guinness was arrested and fined for cruising for gay sex in public bathrooms. The books claim that Guinness was bisexual, but kept his sexuality private from everyone except his closest friends and family. Guinness married the artist, playwright, and actress Merula Silvia Salaman; they remained married until Guinness’ death on August 5, 2000.
Guinness was also reportedly not a fan of the dialogue in his original Star Wars films (despite being impressed at their special effects mastery). He agreed to appear in the films only if his character was killed off and he didn’t have to help promote them, one biographer wrote. However, his 2.25% profit-sharing agreement from the films brought him comfortable wealth. This, along with the worldwide fame that the role gave him, allowed him to pick only roles that appealed to him.
Later in the Guardian interview, McKellen admitted, “Quakers are the religious society I most admire, for their adherence to the sixth commandment [“You shall not murder”] and for being the first Christians to support gay rights in the UK.”
Elsewhere, a fan asked McKellen if he still does “warm-up yoga” in a jockstrap before his theater performances. McKellen replied that he was “not sure about the jockstrap,” but added, “I still like to join the other actors who warm up body and mind before a show.”
When asked who would win in a magic duel between Gandalf, the iconic wizard he portrayed in Lord of the Rings, and Dumbledore, the warlock headmaster from transphobic author J.K. Rowling’s beloved Harry Potter series, McKellen responded, “Why on earth would they be fighting? But Gandy, of course, would win. The original wizard.”
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