Actor Ian McKellen is resting, taking light exercise and undergoing physiotherapy after spending three nights in the hospital after he toppled off a London stage during a fight scene earlier this week.
The 85-year-old veteran actor thanked the public for their many messages of support following his fall at the Noel Coward Theatre on Monday. An understudy, David Semark, will take his place in "Player Kings" during the production's final London dates, a statement sent on McKellen's behalf by his publicist Clair Dobbs said Thursday.
The play is an adaptation of William Shakespeare's two "Henry IV" history plays, directed by Robert Icke. Several performances were canceled after the incident.
"The many messages of love and support will, I am sure, aid the speedy recovery that my doctors have promised me," the statement said.
McKellen, who played Gandalf in the "Lord of the Rings," is one of Britain's most acclaimed Shakespearean actors, with roles including Richard III, Macbeth and King Lear.
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults — two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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