Ian McKellen is famous for playing Gandalf the Grey in the ?Lord of the Rings? films, but could?ve played another famous movie wizard if certain opinions were different. McKellen was recently interviewed on BBC News? HARDTalk, and spoke about how he was approached to play Dumbledore in the later ?Harry Potter? movies, but declined. According to him, Richard Harris ? the actor who originated the role ? really didn?t like him. McKellen said, ?When they called me up and said would I be interested in being in the Harry Potter films, they didn?t say in what part". He continued on to explain, "I worked out what they were thinking, and I couldn?t? I couldn?t take over the part from an actor who I?d known didn?t approve of me." Harris had previously called McKellen's work "passionless".
