After falling off the stage

Ian McKellen: “I thought: This is the end!”

Ian McKellen spoke about his fall from the stage in an interview with BBC Radio. He screamed: "I'm dying."(Bild: APA/AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau, File)

Ian McKellen told BBC radio on Monday that he feared he would die when he fell from a London stage during a performance in June. 

The 85-year-old was playing the lead role in "Player Kings", a combination of Shakespeare's "Henry IV, Parts One and Two", in the capital's West End when he tripped during a fight scene and had to be taken to hospital. He had to be replaced on the subsequent tour.

Recovered, but the shock runs deep
McKellen broke his wrist and a vertebra in the fall, but said the padding of the suit he wore for the role of the overweight John Falstaff saved him from more serious injury. "I've absolutely recovered physically," said the actor. "Emotionally, I have some residue to deal with. When I fell off the stage, I thought: 'This is the end!' Those were the words in my head," he recalled.

He continued: "Apparently I was screaming: 'My neck is broken, I'm dying.' I don't remember saying that. So there was a lot going on in my head when my body reacted to the fall."

Doesn't think about quitting
In an interview with BBC television, McKellen, whose stage career dates back to 1961 and who is best known for his role of Gandalf in the film adaptations of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, said he has no plans to retire and doesn't want anyone else to play Gandalf in the next installment of the Lord of the Rings franchise, due out in 2026.

McKellen's latest film, "The Critic", which is based on the novel "Curtain Call" by Anthony Quinn and in which he plays the influential theater critic Jimmy Erskine in 1930s London, will be released at the end of the month.