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It’s not difficult to find dirty ol’ tramps in Australia (rude!); however, it might be more challenging to find one who’s a British Knight and a world famous movie star.
Such was the case when a generous Australian citizen recently encountered a vagrant in Melbourne and donated an Australian dollar to him without realizing the bloke was the famous actor, Sir Ian Mckellen.
The X-Men star is down under as part of Theatre Royal Haymarket’s international touring production of Waiting for Godot, in which he plays the lead role of Estragon, a drifter.
The British actor was sitting outside the Melbourne Comedy Theatre, in his disheveled costume (full beard and all) on break from rehearsal, when someone put a dollar in his hat.
The British actor even tweeted: “During the dress rehearsal of Godot, I crouched by the stage door of the Comedy Theatre, getting some air, my bowler hat at my feet [and] seeing an unkempt old man down on his luck, a passer-by said, ‘Need some help, brother?’ and put a dollar in my hat.”
The star now keeps the dollar as a good luck charm.
Regarding the reception of his play, Mckellen added: “I hope the Melbourne audiences will be as generous.”
I don’t know which is more serendipitous… that someone was ignorant enough to mistake the celebrity for a tramp or that Ian’s costume was that convincing. Either way I guess it’s great publicity for the play. Break a leg ol’ chap!
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