For seven seasons he gave the orders on the bridge of the Enterprise, and for more than 25 years he was the calm voice at the center of the X-Men. Sir Patrick Stewart, the Yorkshire stage actor who became Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Professor Charles Xavier, died on Wednesday, October 28th, at his home in Los Angeles. He was 86. A post on his social media accounts said he died “in the loving care of his beloved wife Sunny, following a brief and poignant journey” with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia. His spokesperson, Kelly Bush Novak, confirmed the death to CBS News.
The family’s statement described him the way most of his fans will remember him. “His sonorous voice and singular talent will forever be synonymous with indelible performances in every genre,” it read. “He explored the human condition in all its poetic complexity and brought hope not only to the far reaches of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but into science fiction’s most iconic final frontier aboard the Starship Enterprise.” It called him “a Knight, Chancellor, motor sport enthusiast, and lifelong Huddersfield Football fan” and said he will be remembered “for the dignity, compassion and humanity he brought to every role.”
For seven seasons he gave the orders on the bridge of the Enterprise, and for more than 25 years he was the calm voice at the center of the X-Men.”
None of it came easily. Stewart was born on July 13th, 1940, in Mirfield, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. NPR notes that his childhood there was harsh, that he remembered his father as alcoholic and abusive, and that school, and later Shakespeare, gave him a way through it. He left school at 15 and worked as a reporter on a local newspaper before choosing acting over journalism. He made his professional stage debut in 1959, and in 1966 he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he went on to appear in more than 60 productions.
He was lecturing on Shakespeare at UCLA when his name came up for a new “Star Trek” series, according to NPR, and Ian McKellen, who had acted alongside him on stage, tried to talk him out of it. “Don’t do this, Patrick,” Stewart remembered McKellen telling him. “You’re a very good stage actor. That’s where you ought to be. Don’t do it.” His agent, sure the show would not last, made the opposite case, and Stewart recalled the pitch to NPR: “Do six months’ work. Make some money for the first time in your life and get well known.” Even “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry needed convincing, as Stewart told “CBS Mornings” in 2023. “He was talked into employing me by the other producers,” he said.
“Star Trek: The Next Generation” ran for seven seasons, from 1987 to 1994, and Variety notes how dramatically it changed his life. The New York Times wrote that he made Picard “the moral center” of the series. NPR points to the details fans adored: the Earl Grey tea, the cool-headed leadership and the two signature orders, “Engage!” and “Make it so!” He took the captain to the big screen in “Star Trek: Generations”, “Star Trek: First Contact”, “Star Trek: Insurrection” and “Star Trek: Nemesis”, sharing the first of them with William Shatner. Years later, NPR recalls, a group of producers that included the writer Michael Chabon pitched him a new series. “Star Trek: Picard” arrived in 2020 on the service now called Paramount+ and ran for three seasons, ending in April 2023.
In 2000 he picked up a second franchise that would have defined almost any other career. He played Professor Charles Xavier in “X-Men”, opposite McKellen’s Magneto, and kept coming back for “X2: X-Men United”, “X-Men: The Last Stand”, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”, “The Wolverine” and “X-Men: Days of Future Past”. In 2017’s “Logan”, he played an ailing Xavier, and Deadline singled out the scene where, hiding out with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in the home of a friendly family, he tells Logan what matters. “This is what life looks like,” he says. “People who love each other, our home. You should take a moment. Feel it. You still have time.”
Marvel Studios brought him into its own universe in 2022’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”. He played the Charles Xavier of another Earth, a member of that world’s Illuminati, and he got one of the film’s kindest lines. When Mordo says they cannot trust the visiting Doctor Strange, Xavier answers, “I believe we can. Just because someone stumbles and loses their way doesn’t mean they’re lost forever.” The Direct points out that the line echoes one his Xavier spoke in “Days of Future Past”.
He returns as Xavier one last time in “Avengers: Doomsday”, which opens in theaters on December 18th. Marvel’s tribute calls it his final on-screen appearance, and McKellen returns as Magneto in the same film. In a July interview with TV Insider, which Variety describes as one of his final interviews, Stewart made it clear he had no plans to stop. “I can’t imagine ever officially retiring,” he said. “I’ll always and forever be an actor.”
He never let go of the stage, either. He won three Olivier Awards and earned a Tony nomination. One of those Oliviers came for playing Claudius in “Hamlet” opposite David Tennant. For decades he performed his own one-man version of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, playing more than 40 characters himself, and he and McKellen took “Waiting for Godot” from London to Broadway. Queen Elizabeth II made him an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2001 and knighted him in 2010 for services to drama. In 2023 he published a best-selling memoir, “Making It So”.
In between, he turned up almost everywhere. Variety’s obituary runs from Leondegrance in John Boorman’s “Excalibur” and Gurney Halleck in David Lynch’s “Dune” to King Richard in Mel Brooks’ “Robin Hood: Men in Tights”, the leader of a band of neo-Nazis in “Green Room” and a snooty waiter in “L.A. Story”. His voice work ran from “Family Guy” to “American Dad!”, and Yahoo, citing IMDb, counts more than 160 acting credits in all.
The tributes arrived within hours of the news. “We lost one of the greats of stage and screen today,” Jackman wrote. “And, in my book, a tremendous friend and man. I learned so much from him.” Marvel Studios said he brought Xavier to life “with extraordinary grace, intelligence, and humanity” and called him “a singular talent, a generous collaborator, and a true gentleman.” Kevin Feige remembered first seeing him on the set of the first “X-Men”. “After years of knowing him as the inimitable Captain Picard, I was in awe,” Feige said. Joe and Anthony Russo, who directed “Avengers: Doomsday”, called him one of their “childhood heroes.” On the “Star Trek” side, William Shatner wrote, “Captain Picard stood for the best of us, and so did the man who played him.” George Takei signed off his own message with “Rest in the heavens, Captain.”
McKellen, who officiated Stewart’s 2013 wedding to Sunny Ozell, wrote the most personal one. “He wore his heart on his sleeve, which made him a man to rely on, to admire and in my case, love,” he said. He added that, of everything Stewart achieved, the proudest was “his appointment as Chancellor of Huddersfield University in Yorkshire.” He also reminded everyone that one more performance is still coming. “His farewell performance in Avengers: Doomsday is yet to be seen,” McKellen wrote.
Stewart is survived by Ozell, and by his son, the actor Daniel Stewart, and a daughter from his first marriage. Variety reports that donations in his memory may be made to the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Fund and to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America’s caregiver resources.
What Do You Think? Is Jean-Luc Picard or Charles Xavier the role you will always see when you hear his voice? Which “Next Generation” episode or “X-Men” scene are you going back to first this week? And how hard will it hit when Professor X appears on screen in “Avengers: Doomsday” this December?
Rest in peace, Sir Patrick Stewart. Thank you for the bridge of the Enterprise, for Xavier’s school, and for every stage you ever stood on.
