Legendary actor Sir Ian McKellen has been rushed to the hospital after he fell off the stage during the battle scene in The Player Kings at the Noël Coward theatre in London, the BBC reported.

The 85-year-old actor was in the middle of a fight scene when he fell. It has not been reported if he sustained injuries. After the accident, the audience was asked to leave the theater and told the evening show cancelled. Sources also state that he is set to make a speedy recovery.

The Player Kings is an adaptation William Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Parts One and Two. The play started its West End run in April and is expected to run for 12 weeks. McKellen plays John Falstaff, companion to Prince Hal, the future King Henry V.

He fell during the battle scene between the Prince of Wales (Ted Lasso’s Toheeb Jimoh) and Henry Percy. When the house lights came up, the actor cried out which prompted the staff to rush to his aid.

Sir Ian McKellen falls 

An audience member told the BBC that the accident was “very shocking.”

“I really hope he is going to be alright,” he added.

“As far as I saw, he was conscious because he was asking for assistance,” the audience member continued.

On film, McKellen was last seen in the 2023 British period thriller The Critic. He also voiced the narrator in Ted. He has been more active in the theater, most notably in Waiting for Godot/No Man’s Land, where he starred opposite his long-time friend Sir Patrick Stewart.

McKellen has been nominated twice for an Academy Award: the first in 1999 for best actor for Gods and Monsters and the second in 2002 for best supporting actor for Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

He won a Tony Award in 1981 for best actor in a leading role in a play for Amadeus. The actor also has six Olivier Awards: three of them he won consecutive from 1979 to 1979. He won the fourth in 1984 for actor of the year in a revival — the same award he won the first time — for Wild Honey. His fifth was for best actor in a leading role in 1991 for Richard III. His latest was a Special Award in 2020 for Ian McKellen on Stage. He also won a Golden Globe in 1997 for best supporting actor — television for Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny.

Before his iconic role as Gandalf in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films, he was better known as a stage actor. His Shakespearean credits include playing Richard II, Coriolanus, Iago, King Lear and MacBeth. He is yet to star as another Shakespearean character in a new film adaptation of Hamlet directed by Sean Mathias.

His lifelong friendship with Stewart also echoed on screen as they played the friends-turned-enemies-turned-allies in the X-Men movies, with McKellen as the antihero Magneto and Stewart the leader of the X-Men, Professor X.

In 2018, the actor had to cancel a King Lear showing at London’s Duke of York theater when he injured his leg as he was running to catch a train. However, he made sure that the audience still got their money’s worth by appearing on stage and answering their questions.

Get well soon, Sir Ian. You did say you aren’t retiring any time soon.