I debated whether to write this or not but thought it was something all of us movie fans would like to know. Sir Ian McKellen, otherwise known as Gandalf and Magneto, told Entertainment Weekly that he is currently battling prostate cancer.
Before you get worried, McKellen explained that he has been fighting the cancer for almost seven years. During that span of time he has continued to act and has even returned to Middle Earth for THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY. Prostate cancer is cancer, which is never good, but McKellen is positive about his prognosis.
“When you have got it, you monitor it, and you have to be careful it doesn’t spread,” the two-time Oscar nominee explained to the Mirror. “But if it is contained in the prostate it’s no big deal. Many, many men die from it, but it’s one of the cancers that is totally treatable … I am examined regularly, and it’s just contained, it’s not spreading. I’ve not had any treatment. I have heard of people dying from prostate cancer, and they are the unlucky ones, the people who didn’t know they had got it and it went on the rampage. But at my age if it is diagnosed, its not life threatening.”
While McKellen tells us it is not life threatening, it is always sad to hear that someone has to suffer through any kind of illness, especially an actor as respected as he is. With all of the upcoming projects he still has on the horizon, here is to hoping we get to see all of them come to fruition.
THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY opens December 14th.