Patrick Stewart, the English actor with impressive stage and screen credits best remembered for his roles as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and Professor Charles Xavier in the “X-Men” films, died Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 86 years old.
According to a statement on his Instagram account, Stewart died after a brief battle with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia.
“His sonorous voice and singular talent will forever be synonymous with indelible performances across genres. He explored the human condition in all its poetic complexity and brought hope not only to the far reaches of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but to science fiction’s most iconic final frontier aboard the Starship Enterprise,” the statement read. “His professional achievements were humbly matched by his philanthropy and activism in support of human rights, survivors of domestic violence, refugees worldwide, veterans’ mental health services and animal welfare, especially his beloved foster carers. He was a knight, chancellor, motorsport enthusiast and lifelong Huddersfield football fan. He will be remembered for the dignity, compassion and humanity he brought to every role – in his art and his life.
Stewart and his “Star Trek: TNG” co-stars took their characters to the big screen for several films before the “Star Trek” film franchise was rebooted by JJ Abrams with characters from the original series. He returned to the franchise for “Star Trek: Picard,” which ran from 2020 to 2023.
In the high-profile “X-Men” film franchise, Stewart played Professor Xavier opposite his good friend Ian McKellen as the villain Magneto. He reprises the role in December’s “Avengers: Doomsday” alongside McKellen.
In a 2008 article describing Stewart’s return to his roots in classical theater by starring in a production of “Macbeth,” the New York Times, in its mash-up headline, brilliantly referenced the two very different paths the actor had taken in his career: “Go boldly where Shakespeare calls.” »
In addition to being nominated for four Emmy Awards, Stewart has won three Olivier Awards for his theater work and was nominated for a Tony Award.
It’s hard to emphasize how dramatically Stewart’s life changed when he began starring in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” in 1987. For the previous two decades, he had been a mainstay of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He had found time to work in film and television, but was busy appearing in more than two dozen RSC stage productions, including the role of Astrov in “Uncle Vanya” in 1974, Oberon in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in 1977, Shylock in “The Merchant of Venice” in 1978 and in the title role in “Titus Andronicus” in 1981.
Stewart played Picard throughout the 1987-1994 run of “Star Trek: TNG,” then in the feature films “Star Trek: Generations” (in which he appeared with William Shatner), “Star Trek: First Contact,” “Star Trek: Insurrection” and “Star Trek: Nemesis.” He played Professor Xavier in “X-Men” (2000), “X-Men 2”, “X-Men: The Last Stand”, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”, “The Wolverine” and “X-Men: Days of Future Past”.
Evaluating Stewart’s contributions to “Star Trek: TNG,” The New York Times said: “With his stern-yet-righteous aura of authority and seriousness, Mr. Stewart made Captain Jean-Luc Picard the moral center of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” over the course of seven seasons, helping to keep him from slipping into camp or self-parody. Hollywood embraced him, and he took him to Hollywood.”
In general, Stewart seemed to keep a good sense of humor about his ties to popular culture, never publicly displaying the angst that Shatner and Leonard Nimoy each revealed at times. He did voice work on “The Simpsons,” “Family Guy” and “American Dad” and showed a willingness to make forays into comedy, playing a comically arrogant waiter in Steve Martin’s “LA Story” in 1991 and King Richard in Mel Brooks’ “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” in 1993, and hosting “Saturday Night Live” in 1994.
He recently played Sir Ritchfield in the animated film “Sheep Detectives.”
In a very different vein, he was the best thing in the 1995 gay comedy “Jeffrey”; The New York Times said Stewart “has some of the best lines and delivers them with a dignified brio that is only heightened when he wears a fuchsia beret, the uniform of an anti-gay-bashing group called the Pink Panthers.” Later, the actor would serve as narrator for Seth McFarlane’s scabrous comedy “Ted” and its sequel.
Stewart appeared in the 2015 film “Match,” based on the Stephen Belber play, in which the actor played a vain and flamboyant dance instructor, and — in a very different vein — in Jeremy Saulnier’s horror thriller “Green Room,” in which he played the leader of a group of neo-Nazis. He also starred in the Starz series “Blunt Talk,” about a drug-addicted English anchor who moves to Los Angeles to host a talk show.
Stewart continued his stage work even during the run of “Star Trek: TNG,” playing George in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” at the Young Vic in 1987 (he would reprise the role at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis in 2001) and appeared several times in seasonal Los Angeles and Broadway productions of a one-man version of “A Christmas Carol” that he himself adapted from the Dickens original.
After “TNG” ended, Stewart stepped up his theater work. He appeared on Broadway as Prospero in “The Tempest” in 1996, essayed the title role in a “photo-negative” staging of “Othello” at the Shakespeare Theater in Washington, D.C., in 1997 and returned to Broadway to star in “The Ride Down Mt. Morgan” in 2000. In Britain, his work on the stage, featured in “Antony and Cleopatra,” in “The Tempest” and soon triumphant in “Macbeth” won over critics who had dismissed him when he had ventured into the American television version of space years earlier. Also in 2008, Stewart played Claudius in a production of “Hamlet” starring David Tennant, which earned Stewart the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Stewart had had a productive association with McKellen. In addition to playing adversaries in the “X-Men” films, during which they developed a close friendship, the pair appeared on the West End in “Waiting for Godot” in 2009 and on Broadway in 2014 in this Beckett play and another existential classic, Harold Pinter’s “No Man’s Land.”
The actor made his first cinematic forays into fantasy and science fiction with John Boorman’s version of the Arthurian legend, 1981’s “Excalibur,” in which Stewart played Leondegrance, and director David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert’s “Dune,” in which he played Gurney Halleck, a senior officer of House Atreides who becomes Paul’s (Kyle MacLachlan) trusted lieutenant.
Previously, on British television, he starred in the 1975 BBC miniseries “North & South,” an adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel, and then played Sejanus in “I, Claudius.” In the BBC’s “Maybury” from 1981 to 1983, he played the role of a psychiatrist in a hospital.
Patrick Hewes Stewart was born in Mirfield, Yorkshire, acting as a youth in various amateur theater companies in the area and leaving school at 15. He worked as a journalist but ultimately chose acting over journalism. He lost his hair at 18.
Stewart began his acting career at the Library Theater in Manchester, after which he became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966.
The actor has lent his voice to numerous video games associated with the “Star Trek” and “X-Men” franchises.
He was married three times, the first time to choreographer Sheila Falconer, the second to Wendy Neuss, producer of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”.
Survivors include third wife Sunny Ozell, whom he married in a 2013 ceremony officiated by Ian McKellen, as well as a daughter, Sophie Stewart, and a son, actor Daniel Stewart, both from his marriage to Falconer.
Donations can be made to the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Fund and the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America Caregiver Resources.
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