I had the pleasure of seeing mckellen play Richard III live, the show that became the film. Absolutely incredible!

Not in the same category of greatness, but apropos of this thread, I also saw Patrick Stewart playing Othello (in a reverse-race production), and that’s when I realized how good an actor he actually was.

a few years ago i watched all the versions of Macbeth that I could find. His was by far the best, with most of the others being awful (and Denzel's being by far the worst, though quite beautiful).

Everyone has to watch it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZnaXDRwu84