Short answers, pulled from the story.
Ian McKellen was knighted in the 1991 New Year Honours for services to the performing arts. He had previously been appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1979 Birthday Honours, and was later made a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in the 2008 New Year Honours for services to drama and to equality.
Ian McKellen won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1981 for his performance as Antonio Salieri in the Broadway production of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus. The production also starred Tim Curry as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Jane Seymour as Constanze Mozart.
McKellen came out publicly in 1988 while appearing on the BBC Radio programme Third Ear, motivated by the parliamentary debate over Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988, which proposed prohibiting local authorities from promoting homosexuality. He has credited the advice and support of friends, including author Armistead Maupin, as influential in that decision.
Ian McKellen is a co-founder of Stonewall, the LGBT rights lobby group in the United Kingdom, which was named after the Stonewall riots. He is also patron of Pride London, Oxford Pride, LGBT History Month, GayGlos, LGBT Foundation, and FFLAG.
Ian McKellen has won six Olivier Awards: for Pillars of the Community (1977), The Alchemist (1978), Bent (1979), Wild Honey (1984), Richard III (1991), and Ian McKellen on Stage: With Tolkien, Shakespeare, Others and YOU (2020). He has received twelve Olivier Award nominations in total.
On the 17th of June 2024, during a performance of Player Kings at the Noel Coward Theatre in London's West End, McKellen fell off the front of the stage during a fight scene and called for assistance. The performance was cancelled and he subsequently withdrew from the remaining West End and touring performances on medical advice. He was later reported to be in good spirits and recovering.