Sir Ian McKellen has done it all in a career spanning over six decades. The English actor started on stage at the Belgrade Theater in Coventry, England, and is still portraying his most iconic role, Gandalf, in The Lord of the Rings franchise in the upcoming film, The Hunt for Gollum.
McKellen's personality is often as good or better than that of the characters he plays. It makes him an incredible talk show guest, and he added to the canon of memorable appearances when he took to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert this week.
McKellen did a questionnaire with Stephen Colbert with a variety of inquisitions that ranged from lighthearted to more introspective, but fans were most fascinated by his answers to what happens when he dies.
Not to be morbid, but McKellen is turning 87 this month. I'm sure he thinks a lot about whether he'll live on in any way after he passes away. His thoughts on the subject were humbling and filled with wisdom, but what else would we expect from him?
Sir Ian McKellen on whether or not there is an afterlife. pic.twitter.com/zmuExgBfm8
— Tolkien World (@TolkienWorldG) May 8, 2026
"What happens when we die?" Colbert asked McKellen. The actor responded with his signature quick wit. "Well, I hope there will be a funeral." McKellen elicited laughs from the crowd and continued. "In my case, there won't be a funeral because everything is left to medical research, if they want it."
"And when they're finished with you, I think they grind you - your bones down and give the family something that is going to be thrown into the River Thames."
McKellen then got a little more serious with Colbert. "But what do you? Do you mean is there a life after death? Will I go on living in any sense after I die? No, I will not. Any more than before I was born, I wasn't alive. So this is just - life has just been a little interlude between absolute nothingness."
The Academy Award-nominated legend has always had a great perspective on both his career and the things that happen to him outside of his acting. He is an LGBTQ icon after coming out as gay in 1988. McKellen is the type of person who has such a zest for life that it's hard to imagine him not on this planet. It's nice to know, though, that he has accepted that what comes after this life is out of our control.
If life truly is an interlude between nothingness, McKellen has made a whole lot of something out of that interlude.
from Men's Journal https://ift.tt/6SZGCUp
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