<P> In the BBC Radio dramatizations, Gandalf has been voiced by Norman Shelley in The Lord of the Rings (1955--1956), Heron Carvic in The Hobbit (1968), Bernard Mayes in The Lord of the Rings (1979) and Sir Michael Hordern in The Lord of the Rings (1981). </P> <P> John Huston voiced Gandalf in the animated films The Hobbit (1977) and The Return of the King (1980) produced by Rankin / Bass . William Squire voiced Gandalf in the animated film The Lord of the Rings (1978) directed by Ralph Bakshi . Gandalf was portrayed by Vesa Vierikko in the Finnish television miniseries Hobitit (1993). </P> <P> Sir Ian McKellen portrayed Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings film series (2001--2003) directed by Peter Jackson, after Sean Connery and Patrick Stewart both turned down the role . The make - up and costumes were based on designs by John Howe and Alan Lee . According to Jackson, McKellen based his performance as Gandalf on Tolkien himself: </P> <P> We listened to audio recordings of Tolkien reading excerpts from Lord of the Rings . We watched some BBC interviews with him--there's a few interviews with Tolkien--and Ian based his performance on an impersonation of Tolkien . He's literally basing Gandalf on Tolkien . He sounds the same, he uses the speech patterns and his mannerisms are born out of the same roughness from the footage of Tolkien . So, Tolkien would recognize himself in Ian's performance . </P>

Who played gandolf in the lord of the rings