Ian McKellen Made Oscar History in 1999—And Shamefully, No One Else Has Repeated It

Ian McKellen holds two surprising and, quite honestly, shameful Oscar records. In 1999, he became the first openly gay male actor to ever be nominated for an Oscar, nominated as best actor for his charismatic, heartbreaking turn in the indie Gods and Monsters. In 2002, he was nominated again for The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, making him also the last openly gay actor to be nominated. 

Bill Condon, who is also gay, won the best adapted screenplay Oscar for Gods and Monsters, a fictionalized take on the final days of James Whale, the director of the original Frankenstein and a fixture in the gay social circles of early Hollywood. By the time McKellen signed on to play Whale, he was a legendary Shakespearean actor and Tony winner, having played Antonio Salieri in the Broadway premiere of Amadeus. But he was not yet the pop culture icon “Sir Ian,” still a few years away from playing Magneto and then Gandalf. But for a production as tiny as Gods and Monsters, his participation made all the difference, Condon said at the time. “He was enough to be a magnet for the other actors,” Condon told Indiewire. “If Ian McKellen’s agreed to do it, who is somebody else to say…. And there was so many people that wanted to work with him. So, yeah, he was the biggest piece of the puzzle.”

Eventually, Lynn Redgrave, another British theater legend, would sign on to play Whale’s devoted housekeeper Hanna, while Brendan Fraser, putting his dopey hunk reputation toward something totally different, would play Clayton Boone, Whale’s gardener who becomes his friend. It’s a tiny film that presents the illusion of something bigger, with lavish flashbacks to Whale’s time on the set of Frankenstein, and his memories of the trenches of World War I interspersed between long conversations between Whale and Boone. “It was that early Merchant Ivory trick that you
save all your money for one or two scenes,” Condon explained, while admitting the tight budget didn’t always serve his star. “I do feel as though Ian deserved to always have that extra take […] but often, we didn’t get to do that. That was very frustrating, painful in that way, to know he’s earned and deserves that and actually have to say we can’t.”

Still, Gods and Monsters was a critical hit when it premiered at Sundance in early 1998 and, despite some hesitation from would-be buyers—“All of them used the same word that they thought it would be a difficult sale,” Condon said—it was picked up by the nascent Lionsgate, which also released the Oscar-winning Affliction the same year. The 1998 Oscar race, however, remains best remembered for the clash of the titans between DreamWorks—representing mega-hit Saving Private Ryan—and Miramax, which earned their reputation for strong-arming Oscar tactics with their successful last-minute push for Shakespeare in Love. 

McKellen wound up losing in best actor to another Miramax release, Life is Beautiful, directed by and starring the barnstorming Roberto Benigni. But he didn’t forget what he would have said if he’d won. On Oscar night in 2002, as Condon told Vanity Fair’s David Canfield last year, McKellen brought his would-be Gods and Monsters victory speech in which he dedicated his historic triumph to other young gay actors who might now feel more welcomed by the industry. During a commercial break in the telecast, McKellen stood up and read his speech from the front row anyway. “I’ll never forget it,” Condon, who was sitting right there, remembers. “It was about all the warnings he received when he was deciding to come out, all the things that would happen.”