Patrick Stewart, the British actor known for playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek” and Professor Charles Xavier in the “X-Men” films, has died at the age of 86. He died on Wednesday in Los Angeles, according to a statement issued on Thursday by his spokesperson, Kelly Bush Novak.
The statement said Stewart’s death followed what it called “a brief and poignant journey” with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia.
A stage career built on Shakespeare and the classics
Although audiences knew him mainly from film and television, Stewart spent much of his working life on stage, performing Shakespeare and other classic works. His theatre roles included Claudius and Macbeth, a one-man version of “A Christmas Carol”, and productions in London’s West End and on Broadway of Harold Pinter’s “No Man’s Land” and Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot”. He appeared in the Beckett play alongside his longtime friend Ian McKellen.
His 2007 performance as Macbeth won some of the strongest reviews of his career and earned him his only Tony Award nomination. The Times of London described the performance as “an enthralling creation of frailty, appetite, egotism and grim humour”.
Stewart once explained how long he had carried the role. “Nearly 50 years I’ve waited,” he told the Associated Press in 2008. He said he first learned the part at 14, and that he had memorised the soliloquies simply because he admired them, so he never had to study those passages again.
Early life in Mirfield and a difficult childhood
Stewart was raised in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, a working-class area in northern England, and his family home had no bathroom. He joined an amateur drama group at 12 and, as a teenager, learned Shakespeare for pleasure. A scholarship to the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School helped start his professional career.
He developed alopecia at a young age and had been bald since he was 19. His childhood was also marked by domestic violence. His father, a former regimental sergeant major in the British Army, was prone to outbursts of “repeated violence against my mother”, Stewart wrote in a newspaper article. Later in life, he became a patron of Refuge, a charity that supports survivors of domestic abuse.
From the Royal Shakespeare Company to Star Trek and X-Men
Stewart spent 14 years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, taking on a wide range of parts, from Mark Antony and Henry IV to Shylock and Oberon. He eventually left the company and appeared in the 1981 film “Excalibur”. In 1987, shortly after appearing in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, he was offered a role in a science fiction series.
“I found myself in Hollywood shooting a syndicated science fiction series, which I was assured would fail,” he said. The show, “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, ran for seven seasons and 178 episodes. Stewart became known around the world as Captain Picard, whose catchphrase “Make it so” became one of the series’ most recognised lines.
He also played Professor Charles Xavier, leader of the X-Men, beginning with the 2000 film “X-Men”. He returned to the role in several sequels, including “Logan” in 2017, alongside Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Stewart’s death came just days after that of Walter Koenig, who played Ensign Pavel Chekov in the original “Star Trek” series, which aired from 1966 to 1969.
Honours and charity work
Queen Elizabeth II knighted Stewart in June 2010. He also served as an ambassador for the International Rescue Committee.
