Culture 4 min read By Callum Montgomery
Patrick Stewart, Star of Star Trek and X-Men, Dies at 86 in Los Angeles
British actor Patrick Stewart, who played Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Professor Charles Xavier, died in Los Angeles after a prolonged illness.
British actor Patrick Stewart, a classically trained performer who brought Shakespearean gravitas to the "Star Trek" and "X-Men" franchises, has died at the age of 86. His spokeswoman, Kelly Bush Novak, said Stewart died on Wednesday in Los Angeles after a "brief and painful journey" with Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia. The actor's diagnoses had not been previously disclosed.
His "X-Men" co-star Hugh Jackman wrote on social media: "Today we lost one of the greatest masters of stage and screen." Best known as Professor Charles Xavier in "X-Men" and Captain Jean-Luc Picard in "Star Trek: The Next Generation", Stewart devoted far more of his time to the theatre than to the Enterprise or the X-Men's Xavier School. He played Claudius and Macbeth, frequently performed a one-man show based on Dickens's "A Christmas Carol", and, in the West End and on Broadway, appeared in Harold Pinter's "No Man's Land" and Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" alongside his longtime friend Ian McKellen.
Stewart won the Olivier Award three times, including for his role as Claudius in "Hamlet" opposite David Tennant. In 1996 he received a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album for his recording of "Peter and the Wolf". One of the best reviews of his career came for his role as Macbeth, which he first played in a production directed by Rupert Goold that debuted in May 2007 at the Chichester Festival Theatre in England. The production later moved to the London West End, then to the Brooklyn Academy of Music and, in 2008, to Broadway. The role earned Stewart his only Tony Award nomination.
Stewart grew up in Mirfield, a working-class town in northern England, and had been bald since the age of 19. In his memoir "Making It So", he wrote about domestic violence in his family: his father, a former regimental sergeant major in the British Army, systematically beat his mother, and he and his older brother Trevor learned to endure those nights. Stewart later became a patron of Refuge, an organisation that provides shelter to victims of domestic violence. He trained at the Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol and later joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he worked for 14 years.
After working in film, including the 1981 movie "Excalibur", Stewart received an offer from Hollywood in 1987 to appear in a science fiction series, which he said was expected to fail. "Star Trek: The Next Generation" ran for seven seasons, comprised 178 episodes and spawned four feature films. Thanks to his deep baritone and noble manner, Stewart became one of the most recognisable faces of the franchise, and his favourite phrase "Make it so" became a signature of the character. He also founded the Paramount Shakespeare Company, a studio for actors who wished to work with Shakespeare.
Stewart's death came a few days after the death of Walter Koenig, who played Ensign Pavel Chekov in the original 1966–1969 series. William Shatner, who played Captain James Kirk, wrote on Instagram: "It has been a painful week. Sir Patrick Stewart was a friend, a colleague and a magnificent actor. From the stage to the bridge of the Enterprise, he brought intelligence, grace and deep humanity to everything he did."
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