Wizards and war criminals, Shakespeare's tyrant and an elderly Sherlock: McKellen's screen career swings between blockbuster franchises and small, sharp character studies. Some of these parts won him Oscar nominations, others just stuck with audiences.
1Gandalf (Lord of the Rings)The wizard McKellen played in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003), earning an Oscar nomination for The Fellowship of the Ring.1000pts
2Sherlock Holmes (Mr. Holmes)A 93-year-old retired Sherlock Holmes struggling with failing memory in Bill Condon's 2015 film.731pts
3Roy Courtnay (The Good Liar)A con man targeting a wealthy widow played by Helen Mirren in Bill Condon's 2019 thriller.500pts
4Magneto (X-Men)The mutant leader Erik Lehnsherr, first played by McKellen in Bryan Singer's X-Men (2000) and again in X2, X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: Days of Future Past.409pts
5James Whale (Gods and Monsters)The ageing Frankenstein director James Whale in Bill Condon's 1998 drama, a role that earned McKellen an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.409pts
6Leigh Teabing (Da Vinci Code)The British Holy Grail historian Sir Leigh Teabing in Ron Howard's 2006 adaptation of Dan Brown's novel.409pts
7Toad (Flushed Away)The voice of the villainous Toad of the sewer city beneath London in the 2006 Aardman and DreamWorks animated film.409pts
8John Profumo (Scandal)The British Secretary of State for War at the centre of the Profumo affair in Michael Caton-Jones's 1989 film Scandal.300pts
9Kurt Dussander (Apt Pupil)A Nazi war criminal hiding in a California suburb in Bryan Singer's 1998 adaptation of the Stephen King novella.300pts
10Richard III (1995 film)Shakespeare's murderous king in Richard Loncraine's 1995 adaptation set in a fascist 1930s Britain, which McKellen co-wrote.0pts
