A young Ian McKellen:

Wow. He is handsome.

Hmm...my reaction was he looks just as odd 50 years ago as he does now.

I've read some speculation that the photo's a fake. And considering what they did to hideously "youthen" Magneto in the last X-Men film, I guess you can't put anything past technology.

Why would it be fake? He was already a well known stage actor by that time, and they did have cameras.

Here is a page of photos of him from the early 60's from his web page.

Thought I totally understand why one might say that, I didn't see it that way. To me, it's ammo to use against the fundies when you talk to them face to face. Of course, they will never be won over (we must wait for them to die), but we can certainly use that to graciously rub their ignorance in their face and win the (polite) argument should we be unfortunate to encounter one in person. Like, for instance, at a family gathering.

The photo seems very current in style and composition.

If it is real, it's rad.

That's it, in a nutshell. At least, that's some of the opinions I've read which, on a very casual examination of that photo, seem to have some passing merit.

I certainly haven't examined the photos you linked to before assessing that merit, and I'll do so before I form any opinion of my own. I'd like the photo to be real. I'm quite taken with its portrait of young Ian.

Odd maybe in that his eyes seem so small. But, yes, CP, quite current in style/composition.

He looks, um, old saying 'GQ' here. And, those GQ models weren't always typically handsome. It was the way they were presented sometimes.

I do get what you are saying, iSm, um, did they have color back then? LOL How old is he? Kind of reminds me of the kid from 'Sixth Sense'.

Steve, could you provide me links to where people are saying it's a fake? I want to see people's reasonings, because I'm just not seeing why this couldn't have been taken in the early 60's. And why would anyone fake something like this?