LONDON (AP) — Actor Ian McKellen said Tuesday he is looking forward to returning to work after he toppled off a London stage mid-performance and was hospitalized.
McKellen, 85, said he was "hugely indebted" to medics who treated him after the tumble on Monday night during a performance of “Player Kings” at London's Noel Coward Theatre.
“They have assured me that my recovery will be complete and speedy and I am looking forward to returning to work,” he said on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Performances on Tuesday and Wednesday were canceled after the accident and are scheduled to resume on Thursday.
The stage and screen veteran, who played Gandalf in the “Lord of the Rings” films, cried out in pain after the fall, according to a BBC journalist at the theater. McKellen was playing the roguish John Falstaff in “Player Kings,” an adaptation of William Shakespeare's two “Henry IV” history plays, directed by Robert Icke.
Theatergoers were startled when McKellen lost his footing and fell off the stage in a fight scene involving Toheeb Jimoh's Prince Hal and Henry Percy, played by Samuel Edward-Cook.
“Sir Ian seemed to trip as he moved downstage to take a more active part in the scene,” audience member Paul Critchley told the PA news agency, saying it was a shock. “He picked up momentum as he moved downstage which resulted in him falling off the stage directly in front of the audience.”
Staff and two doctors in the audience helped the actor, the theater said in a statement. The theater was evacuated and the performance was canceled.
McKellen played Magneto in the “X-Men” films and is one of Britain's most acclaimed Shakespearean actors, with roles including Richard III, Macbeth and King Lear.
He has won a Tony Award — for “Amadeus” — several Olivier Awards, and has been nominated for two Academy Awards, five Emmys and several BAFTA awards.
FILE - British actor Ian McKellen poses in front of beach huts, on the Deauville promenade during the 41st American Film Festival, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2015, in Deauville, western France. McKellen has been hospitalized Monday, June 17, 2024, after toppling off a London stage during a fight scene in a play. The 85-year-old actor known for playing Gandalf in the “Lord of the Rings” films and his many stage roles was playing John Falstaff in a production of Player Kings at the Noel Coward Theatre. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau, File)
A sign for Player Kings at the Noel Coward Theatre in London, starring Sir Ian McKellen, who has been taken to hospital after he fell from the stage during a West End performance, Monday, June 17, 2024. The 85-year-old actor known for playing Gandalf in the “Lord of the Rings” films and his many stage roles was playing John Falstaff in a production of Player Kings at the theater. (Jacob Freedland/PA via AP)
FILE - Actor Sir Ian McKellen speaks during the press conference for the film "Mr. Holmes" at the 2015 Berlinale Film Festival in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2015. McKellen has been hospitalized Monday, June 17, 2024, after toppling off a London stage during a fight scene in a play. The 85-year-old actor known for playing Gandalf in the “Lord of the Rings” films and his many stage roles was playing John Falstaff in a production of Player Kings at the Noel Coward Theatre. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, File)
FREEHOLD, N.J. (AP) — Fighting brain cancer, little Giada Demma was lying in her pediatric hospital bed, her tiny body virtually swimming in a drab green hospital gown.
Her cousin Giuliana Demma remembers looking at the 1-year-old and thinking how sad the scene was: a small child awash in an ugly gown several sizes too big for her.
“I thought to myself,' ‘Why does she have to wear this? Why can't she wear something nicer?'” Giuliana said.
Inspired by that moment, Giuliana Demma, 13, and her 11-year-old sister Audrina have sewn and donated more than 1,800 brightly colored, playfully patterned gowns to hospitalized children in 36 states. They've even sent them to Uganda, with three other African nations set to get them in the fall.
“I wanted to do something to help kids like (Giada) and give them hospital gowns that have nice patterns, that are colorful, that they can feel comfortable in while they’re going through a rough time,” Giuliana said.
Their family hired a seamstress to make a custom Disney princess gown for little Giada, who was hospitalized in 2017 and is doing well now. But as Giuliana grew over the next four or five years, she developed an interest in sewing, and remembered how lost her little cousin looked in a drab, ill-fitting gown years earlier.
Once Giuliana learned to sew, her cousin was no longer hospitalized. But she started making cheerful gowns for other sick kids. Her first creations were gowns with flamingos and Paris-themed patterns for a child with cancer that her aunt knew.
No child is ever charged for one of her gowns, which are paid for by donations of money and material. The Starbucks Foundation gave the project a $3,000 grant this year. A hospital linen company, ImageFIRST in Clifton, New Jersey, cleans all the garments for free before they are sent to hospitals, and a women's group at a nearby housing development and a church youth group help out with about 40 volunteers cutting fabric for the girls.
Giuliana gets help from her sister, who also loves sewing. Audrina will pitch in when Giuliana has homework to do, heading to the basement of their home in Freehold, New Jersey, not far from the Jersey Shore, that has been taken over by the sewing operation.
Audrina's specialty is sewing small pillows for young patients. They are sent with boxes of markers so that the recipients can color them as they like while they're in the hospital.
Audrina made 100 pillows as part of an effort to earn her Girl Scout Bronze award, packaged them and sent them off to hospitals. She makes seasonally themed pillows for St. Patrick's Day, Valentine's Day and other special times; last winter she made 100 snowman pillows.
They are often part of packages the girls create that include rubber duckies and other toys, and a local pediatric cancer charity, LIV Like a Unicorn, includes them in boxes they send to children battling cancer. The Minnesota charity Children’s Surgery International took 60 of the gowns to hospitals in Uganda in February with more headed to Gambia, Liberia and Ethiopia in the fall.
Some of the recipients write back to thank the girls for the gowns and pillows.
“I like seeing the smiles on the kids' faces, even though they're going through such a hard time,” said Audrina, who wants to be a veterinarian.
The girls have recently begun sewing zippers into brightly colored T-shirts to accommodate infusion ports for chemotherapy or other drugs that could allow young patients not to have to wear a gown at all while hospitalized.
Samantha DiSimone's son Vito was hospitalized in January in New York for a heart valve ailment at 9 months old. Hospital staff brought in a sealed package with a gown Giuliana made from material with a pattern from the “Cars” movie.
He broke out in a big smile when they unpackaged the garment.
“I was so emotional,” Samantha DiSimone said. “You're in a hospital praying that your child will make it through the surgery, and to see him in the gown with a big smile on his face is an amazing thing.”
Soft-spoken yet entirely at ease recounting her efforts, Giuliana has the poise and maturity of someone beyond her years, though she just graduated from middle school. She wants to be a cancer surgeon, and said she loves hearing from recipients of the gowns.
“I'm really happy I can help make a difference for them during this tough time,” she said. “I want them to feel confident and know that they're an inspiration, they're loved and they're strong and they're brave. They can wear these gowns and have something to cheer them up.”
Melissa Demma, Giada's mother, said the drive by her child's young cousins to make and give away gowns “blows me away and touches me each and every day."
“They're young girls and this is what they choose to do, spending their time helping others,” she said. “If everyone could be like this, our world would be a better place. It makes me feel better for the future and what this world could be.”
Follow Wayne Parry on X at www.twitter.com/WayneParryAC
Nurse Ellen Reynolds of Children’s Surgery International gives a lollipop to patient Ategeka, whose last name they are keeping confidential to protect his privacy, in a bed at Holy Innocents Children's Hospital in Mbarara, Uganda on Feb. 2, 2024. Ategeka is wearing a Harry Potter-themed gown made by Giuliana Demma, a New Jersey girl who, with her sister Audrina, have sewn and donated 1,800 brightly colored, kid-themed hospital gowns to sick children across the U.S. and Africa. (Amy Smith/Children's Surgery International via AP)
Giada Demma, 1-year-old, sits in a pediatric hospital bed at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York on Oct. 17, 2017, the last day she was scheduled to undergo chemotherapy for cancer. Her family had a seamstress make the Disney hospital gown Giada is wearing. But seeing the child wearing a drab hospital issued-gown on a different date helped inspired Giada’s cousin Guiliana Demma to learn to sew and make brightly colored, kid-themed hospital gowns for hospitalized children. Since 2021, Giuliana Demma and her sister Audrina have made and donated 1,800 hospital gowns and several hundred kid-sixed pillows to children in hospitals in 36 states and Uganda. (Melissa Demma via AP)
Giada Demma, 1-year-old, sits in a pediatric hospital bed at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York in August 2017. Seeing the child wearing a drab hospital issued-gown on a different date helped inspired Giada’s cousin Guiliana Demma to learn to sew and make brightly colored, kid-themed hospital gowns for hospitalized children. Since 2021, Giuliana Demma and her sister Audrina have made and donated 1,800 hospital gowns and several hundred kid-sixed pillows to children in hospitals in 36 states and Uganda. (Melissa Demma via AP)
Audrina Demma sews a pediatric hospital gown in the basement of her Freehold, N.J., home on June 19, 2024. Giuliana and Audrina Demma have sewn and donated 1,800 hospital gowns to sick children in 36 states plus Africa. Giuliana was inspired by seeing her baby cousin wearing an ugly, ill-fitting gown while hospitalized with brain cancer in 2017. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
Audrina Demma holds a pillow she sewed in the basement of her Freehold, N.J., home on June 19, 2024. Audrina and her sister Giuliana have sewn and donated 1,800 hospital gowns to sick children in 36 states plus Africa. Giuliana was inspired by seeing her baby cousin wearing an ugly, ill-fitting gown while hospitalized with brain cancer in 2017. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
Giuliana Demma holds a pediatric hospital gown she had just finished sewing in the basement of her Freehold, N.J., home on June 19, 2024. She and her sister Audrina have sewn and donated 1,800 hospital gowns to sick children in 36 states plus Africa. Giuliana was inspired by seeing her baby cousin wearing an ugly, ill-fitting gown while hospitalized with brain cancer in 2017. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
Giuliana Demma, left, and her sister Audrina, right, sew pediatric hospital gowns in the basement of her Freehold, N.J., home on June 19, 2024. The sisters have sewn and donated 1,800 hospital gowns to sick children in 36 states plus Africa. Giuliana was inspired by seeing her baby cousin wearing an ugly, ill-fitting gown while hospitalized with brain cancer in 2017. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
Giuliana Demma, left, and her sister Audrina sew pediatric hospital gowns in the basement of her Freehold, N.J., home on June 19, 2024. The sisters have sewn and donated 1,800 hospital gowns to sick children in 36 states plus Africa. Giuliana was inspired by seeing her baby cousin wearing an ugly, ill-fitting gown while hospitalized with brain cancer in 2017. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
Giuliana Demma, left, and her sister Audrina, right, sew pediatric hospital gowns in the basement of their Freehold, N.J., home on June 19, 2024. The sisters have sewn and donated 1,800 hospital gowns to sick children in 36 states plus Africa. Giuliana was inspired by seeing her baby cousin wearing an ugly, ill-fitting gown while hospitalized with brain cancer in 2017. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
Giuliana Demma irons a pediatric hospital gown she had just sewn the basement of her Freehold, N.J., home on June 19, 2024. Giuliana and her sister Audrina have sewn and donated 1,800 hospital gowns to sick children in 36 states plus Africa. Giuliana was inspired by seeing her baby cousin wearing an ugly, ill-fitting gown while hospitalized with brain cancer in 2017. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
Giuliana Demma sews a pediatric hospital gown in the basement of her Freehold, N.J., home on June 19, 2024. Giuliana and her sister Audrina have sewn and donated 1,800 hospital gowns to sick children in 36 states plus Africa. Giuliana was inspired by seeing her baby cousin wearing an ugly, ill-fitting gown while hospitalized with brain cancer in 2017. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
Giuliana Demma holds a pediatric hospital gown she had just finished sewing in the basement of her Freehold, N.J., home on June 19, 2024. Giuliana and her sister Audrina have sewn and donated 1,800 hospital gowns to sick children in 36 states plus Africa. Giuliana was inspired by seeing her baby cousin wearing an ugly, ill-fitting gown while hospitalized with brain cancer in 2017. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
Audrina Demma sews a pediatric hospital gown in the basement of her Freehold, N.J., home on June 19, 2024. She and her sister Giuliana have sewn and donated 1,800 hospital gowns to sick children in 36 states plus Africa. Giuliana was inspired by seeing her baby cousin wearing an ugly, ill-fitting gown while hospitalized with brain cancer in 2017. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
Audrina Demma sews a pediatric hospital gown in the basement of her Freehold, N.J., home on June 19, 2024. Audrina and her sister Giuliana have sewn and donated 1,800 hospital gowns to sick children in 36 states plus Africa. Giuliana was inspired by seeing her baby cousin wearing an ugly, ill-fitting gown while hospitalized with brain cancer in 2017. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
1-year-old Vito DiSimone holds a card that came with the special hospital gown he was given during a stay at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York on Jan. 11, 2024. The gown was made by two New Jersey sisters, Giuliana and Audrina Demma, who have sewn and donated 1,800 brightly-colored and kid-themed hospital gowns to sick children in 36 states and Uganda since 2021. (Samantha DiSimone)
Giuliana Demma holds a pediatric hospital gown she had sewn in the basement of her Freehold, N.J., home on June 19, 2024. Giuliana and her sister Audrina have sewn and donated 1,800 hospital gowns to sick children in 36 states plus Africa. Giuliana was inspired by seeing her baby cousin wearing an ugly, ill-fitting gown while hospitalized with brain cancer in 2017. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
Giuliana Demma, left, and her sister Audrina, right, sew pediatric hospital gowns in the basement of her Freehold, N.J., home on June 19, 2024. The sisters have sewn and donated 1,800 hospital gowns to sick children in 36 states plus Africa. Giuliana was inspired by seeing her baby cousin wearing an ugly, ill-fitting gown while hospitalized with brain cancer in 2017. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
Audrina Demma, left, and her sister Giuliana hug in the basement at the sewing station of their Freehold, N.J., home on June 19, 2024. The sisters have sewn and donated 1,800 hospital gowns to sick children in 36 states plus Africa. Giuliana was inspired by seeing her baby cousin wearing an ugly, ill-fitting gown while hospitalized with brain cancer in 2017. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
