Ian McKellen talks coming out at the age of 49 with author Gary O’Connor for his new book Ian McKellen: A Biography.
McKellen, 80, tells O’Connor, who first met the actor in 1958 when they were both students, “I didn’t really know who I was—a closeted gay.”
The actor, who came out as gay in 1988 during a debate about homosexuality on a radio broadcast, adds, according to the biography, “Cambridge [University] was great for me… all the many parts I had played there, as I loved for the first time going out in public and displaying my emotions.
“I enjoyed disguising myself as a closeted gay boy,” he shares, according to People.
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McKellen’s close friends and those in the theatre world knew about his sexuality but the biography states he didn’t talk about it publicly because for most of his life homosexuality had been illegal or criminalized in England.
O’Connor writes: “Would audiences take his acting seriously, as Romeo for instance, if they knew that in real life he fancied Mercutio rather than Juliet?”
