It is with great sadness that we report the news that legendary actor Sir Patrick Stewart, a stalwart of stage and screen for several decades, has died at the age of 86. The venerated actor, a two-time Olivier Award winner and multiple-time Tony, Golden Globes, and SAG Awards nominee, passed away on Wednesday October 28, after what his spokesperson Kelly Bush Novak described in a statement posted on Stewart’s Instagram account as a “brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia”.
Having had a copy of the works of Shakespeare thrust into his hand by an English teacher at Crowlees Junior and Infant School in his hometown of Mirfield, West Riding of Yorkshire as a young lad, Patrick Stewart was bound for the thespian life from a young age. And, having scored a grant to attend Bristol Old Vic Theatre School as a young man (Stewart was, notably, the first non-Oxbridge candidate ever to have done so), that is precisely the life that he led.
Before ever setting foot on the Starship Enterprise or founding a certain school for gifted youngsters, Sir Patrick Stewart had a rich and illustrious career on stage and screen. In the mid-1960s, Stewart became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, starring in productions of everything from A Midsummer Night’s Dream to Uncle Vanya, by way of Antony And Cleopatra, Hedda Gabler, and The Winter’s Tale between 1966 and 1982. On the box and at the pictures, Stewart was no slouch either, appearing in the likes of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Hamlet on TV while popping up memorably in such films as John Boorman’s Excalibur and David Lynch’s Dune. To most film and TV fans though, Sir Patrick Stewart was a sci-fi icon — playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek, and Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men movies.
Both roles spanned significant portions of Stewart’s life. He first played Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, charting new adventures of the Starship Enterprise across seven seasons, airing between 1987 and 1994. The character crossed over into several big-screen outings too, including 1994’s Star Trek: Generations, 1996’s Star Trek: First Contact, 1998’s Star Trek: Insurrection and 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis. In recent years, as Hollywood entered its ‘legacy sequel’ era, Stewart reprised the role for three seasons of Star Trek: Picard – also starring several of his The Next Generation cast-mates – on which he also served as an executive producer.
His Star Trek life crossed over with his entry into the Marvel universe. He first played Charles Xavier in 2000’s X-Men, followed by its two sequels, X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand. It was an indelible role for Stewart, bringing warmth and sturdiness as the head of the titular mutant group – and when the franchise moved around in terms of its timeline, Stewart often still made an appearance. He reprised the role in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine for a cameo, as well as 2013’s The Wolverine, before the diverging paths of the X-Men franchise converged in 2014’s Days Of Future Past. He was also a major figure in 2017’s critically-acclaimed Logan – a swansong for Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, which also acted, for a time at least, as a poignant farewell to Xavier, who in the film was facing dementia.
In the multiverse era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Stewart has reprised the role of Xavier for a brief stint in Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, and is officially set to make his final screen appearance in The Russo Brothers’ upcoming Avengers: Doomsday.
While Sir Patrick Stewart’s time boldly going as Captain Jean-Luc Picard and guiding mutants with gravitas and grace as Professor Charles Xavier — two roles that spanned decades of his life and which he always held in as high esteem as any part the Bard ever penned — will surely be what most fans will remember him best by, they by no means encapsulate the totality of the man’s talents. Want cantankerous and wickedly witty Sir Patrick? Try Extras, The Sheep Detectives, or The Kid Who Would Be King. Want to see Stewart as a miser whose heart we see thaw in real time? Check out his massively underappreciated turn as Scrooge in the 1989 A Christmas Carol. You like it darker? Give Green Room a revisit, where Stewart is on scintillating form as whisper-quiet white supremacist club owner Darcy Banker. For every mood, every tone, every flavour of dramatic performance you may be in the mood for, there’ll be a Patrick Stewart film, TV show, or even video game (Elder Scrolls‘ Emperor Uriel Septim VII, we won’t forget you) to accommodate.
In the hours since news broke of Sir Patrick Stewart’s passing, there has been no shortage of tributes flooding in from around the world and across the entertainment industry. From Marvel Studios as a collective to his fellow X-Man Hugh Jackman, and from William Shatner to Terry Matalas to George Takei, the outpouring of admiration, respect, sadness, and abiding love for the man has been emphatic and effusive. We’ve collated just some of those tributes to be seen and read below;
A man whose presence could be known by voice alone, who treaded the boards and boldly went and made us believe in mutants, who was the embodiment of gravitas, kindness, and compassion in his life and in his work, Sir Patrick Stewart has left an indelible mark on this world. And when we sit in our nearest multiplex for Avengers: Doomsday in just a few short weeks’ time, it can be guaranteed that there will not be a dry eye in the house as we bid farewell a true titan of the form. Our thoughts are with Sir Patrick Stewart’s friends, families, and loved ones at this incredibly difficult time.
