Patrick Stewart, Stage Actor Who Won Fame as Picard and Professor X, Dies at 86
Seven Lights
Sir Patrick Stewart, the British actor who carried a classical stage career into the popular mainstream as Captain Jean-Luc Picard of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and Professor Charles Xavier of the “X-Men” films, died at his home in Los Angeles on October 28. He was 86.
A statement posted on his social media accounts said he had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia. A spokesperson described his death as following “a brief and poignant journey” with the illnesses. “His sonorous voice and singular talent will forever be synonymous with indelible performances in every genre,” the statement read.
Stewart left the theatre less often than his film and television credits might suggest. He “spent more time on stage than he did on screens,” CBS News noted, and built his reputation first in the classical repertory before Hollywood recognition arrived. On television he brought a Shakespearean gravity to the command of the starship Enterprise, and in the “X-Men” pictures he gave the telepathic Professor Xavier a patrician calm.
In a career that spanned seven decades he won multiple Emmy Awards and Golden Globe Awards, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. The honours tracked a rare double life: an actor at home in the classical theatre and in the multiplex, in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s house and in Hollywood’s biggest franchises.
Tributes came quickly from colleagues and fans. “A big loss,” readers told the BBC, which assembled retrospectives of his knighting and his memorable on-camera moments. The response measured a reach unusual for a stage-trained actor: generations raised on reruns of “The Next Generation” and the superhero films mourned him alongside theatregoers who knew him first in classical repertory.
No funeral arrangements were announced in the statement. A career that began on the British stage and ended as one of the most recognizable voices in English-language film and television closed with the family’s announcement in Los Angeles.
Update, Oct. 31: Tributes continued across science and entertainment. The New York Times reported that generations of scientists credited his portrayal of Captain Jean-Luc Picard with shaping their careers. CNET recalled that show creator Gene Roddenberry at first doubted the bald actor could play the “virile captain” he had envisioned; Stewart had his wife ship his toupee over from London and wore it for an audition scene, but executives saw him with both styles and chose the bald look. The full family statement, posted to his social media accounts, said he died “at his home in Los Angeles, in the care of his beloved wife Sunny,” adding: “We will forever cherish the peaceful ease and reflection on his face, an enduring reminder of his invincible grace.” He is survived by Sunny and two children. Gizmodo noted that he was born on July 13, 1940, and first appeared onstage as the Cutpurse in a 1959 production of “Cyrano de Bergerac,” a career that later ran from Galileo and the Dauphin of France on the stage to the skinhead-horror cast of “Green Room” and voice work in animation.