Company man: Sir Ian McKellen
The Lord of the Rings star, 70, said he lamented the fact that he "did not get around" to telling his mother Margery or his father Denis, a lay preacher, before they died.
He made the admission while speaking to a group of pupils at Severn Vale School, a secondary in Quedgeley, near Gloucester.
He had been invited to take part in a drama workshop about homophobic bullying.
Saying he was impressed that the school was tackling the problem, he told pupils: "Being gay was a topic that was never mentioned when I was your age. We had not really invented the word gay - at school I used to be called Oscar, after Oscar Wilde.
"If you were gay there was nowhere to go and no one to talk to, there was no other gay person as far as I knew.
"So to come back to school for the first time in 50 years and see this is heartening, to see that as a nation we have so rapidly grown up.
"When I was 29 it was illegal for me to make love, I had a boyfriend and we slept together but the law said that we should be in prison.
"It was very hard to walk out in the street and say to him don't touch me or brush your hand against mine, there may be a police man around the corner."
He then said his greatest regret was never telling his parents.
"My mother died when I was 12 and my father died when I was 24, and I didn't get around to telling him," he explained.
Both his parents were religious but he has previously described them as "non-conformist Christians".
It took him decades to 'out' himself, he told the schoolchildren.
"At 49 I told my step-mother Gladys, she said she had known for 40 years."
He grew to be very close to his step-mother, who was a Quaker. In the past he said that she was "just glad for my sake that I wasn't lying any more" when he told her.
Sir Ian is touring schools across the country with Stonewall, the gay rights organisation that he helped found in 1989.
He also attacked Chris Moyles, the Radio 1 disc jockey, as "a careless lout" for using the word 'gay' in a derogatory fashion.
He added that it was "a worry that some Christians, Muslims, Jews and some religious people think that part of their faith is a need to believe that gay people are sinful, and in some sense not God's creatures".
Sir Ian has been a vocal supporter on gay rights ever since he 'came out' in 1988, and campaigned for the Conservative Party to abandon its support of Section 28 of the Local Government Act, which banned local authorities from promoting homosexuality as a family relationship.
Peter Rowland, head of Severn Vale School, said: "Having Sir Ian here is a wonderful opportunity, it also means that the message about tackling homophobic bullying is more powerful with someone of his stature." [rc]
© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2009
November 30, 2009
UK: 'Not telling parents I was gay remains my greatest regret,' says Sir Ian McKellen
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LONDON, England / The Telegraph / Culture / Film News / November 30, 2009
Sir Ian McKellen, the actor, has described not telling his parents that he was homosexual as the greatest regret of his life.
By Stephen Adams
Company man: Sir Ian McKellen
The Lord of the Rings star, 70, said he lamented the fact that he "did not get around" to telling his mother Margery or his father Denis, a lay preacher, before they died.
He made the admission while speaking to a group of pupils at Severn Vale School, a secondary in Quedgeley, near Gloucester.
He had been invited to take part in a drama workshop about homophobic bullying.
Saying he was impressed that the school was tackling the problem, he told pupils: "Being gay was a topic that was never mentioned when I was your age. We had not really invented the word gay - at school I used to be called Oscar, after Oscar Wilde.
"If you were gay there was nowhere to go and no one to talk to, there was no other gay person as far as I knew.
"So to come back to school for the first time in 50 years and see this is heartening, to see that as a nation we have so rapidly grown up.
"When I was 29 it was illegal for me to make love, I had a boyfriend and we slept together but the law said that we should be in prison.
"It was very hard to walk out in the street and say to him don't touch me or brush your hand against mine, there may be a police man around the corner."
He then said his greatest regret was never telling his parents.
"My mother died when I was 12 and my father died when I was 24, and I didn't get around to telling him," he explained.
Both his parents were religious but he has previously described them as "non-conformist Christians".
It took him decades to 'out' himself, he told the schoolchildren.
"At 49 I told my step-mother Gladys, she said she had known for 40 years."
He grew to be very close to his step-mother, who was a Quaker. In the past he said that she was "just glad for my sake that I wasn't lying any more" when he told her.
Sir Ian is touring schools across the country with Stonewall, the gay rights organisation that he helped found in 1989.
He also attacked Chris Moyles, the Radio 1 disc jockey, as "a careless lout" for using the word 'gay' in a derogatory fashion.
He added that it was "a worry that some Christians, Muslims, Jews and some religious people think that part of their faith is a need to believe that gay people are sinful, and in some sense not God's creatures".
Sir Ian has been a vocal supporter on gay rights ever since he 'came out' in 1988, and campaigned for the Conservative Party to abandon its support of Section 28 of the Local Government Act, which banned local authorities from promoting homosexuality as a family relationship.
Peter Rowland, head of Severn Vale School, said: "Having Sir Ian here is a wonderful opportunity, it also means that the message about tackling homophobic bullying is more powerful with someone of his stature." [rc]
© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2009
Company man: Sir Ian McKellen
The Lord of the Rings star, 70, said he lamented the fact that he "did not get around" to telling his mother Margery or his father Denis, a lay preacher, before they died.
He made the admission while speaking to a group of pupils at Severn Vale School, a secondary in Quedgeley, near Gloucester.
He had been invited to take part in a drama workshop about homophobic bullying.
Saying he was impressed that the school was tackling the problem, he told pupils: "Being gay was a topic that was never mentioned when I was your age. We had not really invented the word gay - at school I used to be called Oscar, after Oscar Wilde.
"If you were gay there was nowhere to go and no one to talk to, there was no other gay person as far as I knew.
"So to come back to school for the first time in 50 years and see this is heartening, to see that as a nation we have so rapidly grown up.
"When I was 29 it was illegal for me to make love, I had a boyfriend and we slept together but the law said that we should be in prison.
"It was very hard to walk out in the street and say to him don't touch me or brush your hand against mine, there may be a police man around the corner."
He then said his greatest regret was never telling his parents.
"My mother died when I was 12 and my father died when I was 24, and I didn't get around to telling him," he explained.
Both his parents were religious but he has previously described them as "non-conformist Christians".
It took him decades to 'out' himself, he told the schoolchildren.
"At 49 I told my step-mother Gladys, she said she had known for 40 years."
He grew to be very close to his step-mother, who was a Quaker. In the past he said that she was "just glad for my sake that I wasn't lying any more" when he told her.
Sir Ian is touring schools across the country with Stonewall, the gay rights organisation that he helped found in 1989.
He also attacked Chris Moyles, the Radio 1 disc jockey, as "a careless lout" for using the word 'gay' in a derogatory fashion.
He added that it was "a worry that some Christians, Muslims, Jews and some religious people think that part of their faith is a need to believe that gay people are sinful, and in some sense not God's creatures".
Sir Ian has been a vocal supporter on gay rights ever since he 'came out' in 1988, and campaigned for the Conservative Party to abandon its support of Section 28 of the Local Government Act, which banned local authorities from promoting homosexuality as a family relationship.
Peter Rowland, head of Severn Vale School, said: "Having Sir Ian here is a wonderful opportunity, it also means that the message about tackling homophobic bullying is more powerful with someone of his stature." [rc]
© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2009
