Ian McKellen celebrates his 75th birthday today

One of Britain’s most popular actors, Sir Ian McKellen, turns 75 today (May 25).

McKellen was born on May 25, 1939, in Burnley, Lancashire. At the age of 18, he won a scholarship to St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, where he studied English Literature.

Having amassed considerable acting experience at University, he made his first West End appearances in the early 1960s and went on to become one of the most acclaimed stage actors of the 1970s and 1980s, performing regularly with the Royal Shakespeare Company and at the Royal National Theatre.

In recent decades, McKellen has become a household name thanks to big screen roles in Bryan Singer’s X-Men series and Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies. He was seen on TV last year opposite Derek Jacobi, one of his acting friends from his Cambridge days, in ITV sitcom Vicious, which will return for a second series later this year.

Over his near 50-year career, McKellen has won five Olivier Awards, a Tony and a Golden Globe – and twice been nominated for an Oscar. He was knighted in 1991 for services to the performing arts.

After coming out as gay in a radio interview in 1988,  McKellen became a well-known LGBT rights activist, and is a co-founder of British gay rights group Stonewall.

Speaking in 2008 about his equal rights work, McKellen said:

“Since coming out in 1988, I’ve been asked, almost expected, to speak and write about gay issues. I have been reluctant to lobby on other issues I most care about – nuclear weapons (against), religion (atheist), capital punishment (anti), AIDS (fund-raiser) because I don’t want to be forever spouting, diluting the impact of addressing my most urgent concern: legal and social equality for gay people worldwide.”

In addition to his acting and campaigning work, McKellen has become a popular figure online over the last couple of years thanks to his much tweeted about friendship with fellow actor Patrick Stewart. The pair can be seen together in X Men: Days of Future Past , which opened in cinemas this Friday (May 23).

Wish this legendary actor and tireless LGBT rights campaigner a happy birthday on Twitter here.