Some very sad news to report this evening as it has been announced that the beloved British actor Sir Patrick Stewart has passed away aged 86, with a statement released on his social media accounts reading: “We announce with great sorrow the passing of Sir Patrick Stewart yesterday at his home in Los Angeles, in the loving care of his beloved wife Sunny, following a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s Disease and Lewy Body Dementia.”
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Known to millions of fans worldwide for his roles as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Professor Charles Xavier in Marvel’s X-Men films, Stewart began his career on stage in 1959 after attending the prestigious Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and he became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966. Making his screen debut the following year with an appearance in Coronation Street, he would mix his theatre work with a number of film and television roles across the next two decades, with feature credits including John Boorman’s Excalibur, David Lynch’s Dune and Tobe Hooper’s Lifeforce.
His international breakthrough came in 1987, when aged 47, he took the lead role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, commanding the U.S.S. Enterprise-D. Running for seven seasons, Stewart returned to the role for the feature films Star Trek Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002), as well as 2020’s Paramount+ series Star Trek: Picard, which concluded by reuniting the TNG cast in its third season in 2023.
With Star Trek winding down, Stewart found himself at the forefront of another huge property when he was cast as Professor Charles Xavier, leader of the X-Men, in 20th Century Fox’s blockbuster 2000 movie adaptation of the Marvel Comics series. He would return as Professor X a further six times for Fox – X2: X-Men United, X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Wolverine, X-Men: Days of Future Past and Logan – and also became the first of Fox’s mutants to make an appearance in the Disney-owned Marvel Cinematic Universe with a surprise cameo in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. He will be seen one final time this December as he returns alongside the original X-Men in Marvel Studios’ hotly-anticipated Avengers: Doomsday.
Outside of Star Trek and X-Men, Stewart’s other memorable credits include the 1998 TV miniseries Moby Dick, 1999 made-for-TV movie A Christmas Carol, 2009 TV adaptation of the RSC’s Hamlet, and long-running role on the animated series American Dad!, as well as films such as Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), Jeffrey (1995), and Green Room (2015).
