Sir Ian McKellen Didn’t Stop Fighting for Gay Rights, Even When an Idol Urged Him To

In another installment of British Celebrity Tiffs, let’s dive into this decades-old nugget of queer history, tackling the differing approaches to public life of two iconic, knighted actors—I’m talking the great Sir Ian McKellen and the late, great Sir Alec Guinness. Guinness, who McKellen described as “one of the best-known and respected actors,” gave him “the worst piece of advice” he had ever received: to stop his public advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community.

In a reader interview with The Guardian published Thursday, McKellen recalled Guinness treating him to lunch, where he pleaded with McKellen to withdraw his support for Stonewall, a LGBTQ+ lobby group co-founded by McKellen in 1989 after coming out in a BBC interview the year before.

“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.” McKlellan recalled, “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,” McKellen told The Guardian. “Advice from an older generation, which I didn’t follow.”

McKellen was reminded of the lunch after watching The Two Halves of Guinness, a show on Guinness’s life that “hints at Sir Alec’s latent bisexuality in a way that would have upset him, I suppose,” he added. Guinness, although married to Merula Salaman (Lady Guinness) for 62 years, is now understood to have lived as a closeted bisexual, and as a biography published after his death revealed, he was arrested in 1946 for “a homosexual act in a public bathroom,” discrimination that groups like McKellen’s were later fighting to end.

McKellen has made clear he has no regrets about ignoring Guinness’s advice, and last year he told The Times, “I have never met anybody who came out who regretted it. I feel sorry for any famous person who feels they can’t come out. Being in the closet is silly—there’s no need for it. Don’t listen to your advisers, listen to your heart. Listen to your gay friends who know better. Come out. Get into the sunshine.”

Perhaps the anecdote reflects a broader generational shift between Guinness’s and McKellen’s eras, a definite sign of progress if we’re looking for the silver lining, even though, as we’re reminded every day, the journey is still far from over.

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