From the West End to Broadway to Hollywood (via Coronation Street and Widow Twankey), he has been hailed as one of the finest actors of his generation. Now he is taking on the role that could define his career – Lear. The most curious aspect of Ian McKellen’s long-awaited debut as King Lear this week, in a production directed by Trevor Nunn for the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford, is how obvious a part it is for him. For decades, McKellen, 67, had not done the obvious. While contemporaries such as Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt and Michael Gambon made their lives before the cameras, McKellen stuck, for the most part, to the stage. [More]