Parker, who Forbes magazine estimate is worth $1.8 billion, married the singer Alexandra Lenas in a Tolkien-themed wedding in 2013, which, according to Vanity Fair magazine, featured a nine-foot-tall wedding cake and "fur-pelt-strewn beds in the lounge area".

The wedding, which took place in California, reportedly cost $7.5 million and was attended by Sting and Emma Watson. Sadly for the couple, McKellen was not present.

"I was offered $1.5 million to marry a very famous couple in California, which I would perhaps have considered doing but I had to go dressed as Gandalf," the 77-year-old, who conducted the 2013 civil wedding of Star Trek actor Sir Patrick Stewart and Sunny Ozell, told the Mail on Sunday. "So I said, 'I am sorry, Gandalf doesn’t do weddings'."

Speaking last night outside the Theatre Royal in Newcastle, where he is performing in Harold Pinter's No Man's Land, McKellen said: "He was a very rich man, that's all I know... I don’t go dressing up – except in plays and things at places like this."