You. Shall not. Pass.
Seriously, Sir Ian McKellen, you’re too darn friendly and talented and charming and totally awesome as Gandalf the Grey to ever pass!
The 73 year-old British icon revealed sad news recently: he has prostate cancer!
And the X-Men/Lord of the Rings has battled it for the better part of a decade!
Thankfully, the man is a trooper and he wont let the terrifying C-word get him down!
Ian revealed:
├óΓé¼┼ôI├óΓé¼Γäóve had prostate cancer for six or seven years,.When you have got it you monitor it and you have to be careful it doesn├óΓé¼Γäót spread. But if it is contained in the prostate it├óΓé¼Γäós no big deal. Many, many men die from it but it├óΓé¼Γäós one of the cancers that is totally treatable. I am examined regularly and it├óΓé¼Γäós just contained, it├óΓé¼Γäós not spreading. I├óΓé¼Γäóve not had any treatment.”
As much as we’d love for the wizard to cast a spell and make his life-threatening disease go away, we know that isn’t possible!
And we are proud of how well he is coping!
His thought process evolved quite a bit from when he first heard the tragic news.
He admitted:
├óΓé¼┼ôYou do gulp when you hear the news. It├óΓé¼Γäós like when you go for an HIV test, you go ├óΓé¼╦£arghhh is this the end of the road?├óΓé¼Γäó”
Ian is a role model to survivors everywhere. His newest film, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey comes out in the States on Friday!
[Image via Warner Bros./Twitter.]