Patrick Stewart, the classically trained stage actor who scaled the Shakespearean canon and added gravitas to a Star Trek franchise and the X-Men films, has died. He was 86.
Stewart, who was knighted in 2010 by Queen Elizabeth II for his contributions to drama, died at his Los Angeles home after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy Body dementia, according to a statement on his X account.
“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,” it said.
While best known as Professor Charles Xavier and Captain Jean-Luc Picard from the X-Men and Star Trek: The Next Generation series and films, respectively, Stewart spent more of his career onstage than in the X-Mansion or on the USS Enterprise.
Besides playing everyone from Claudius to Macbeth, he often performed a one-man rendition of A Christmas Carol and did West End and Broadway runs of Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot in repertoire with his good friend Ian McKellen.
Stewart became an actor at 18, gaining acclaim on the stage as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company beginning in the 1960s. He spent decades working on stage and performing various roles in UK TV productions.
But it wasn’t until he was hired for Star Trek: The Next Generation from 1987 to 1994 that he gained mainstream fame, acting into his 80s.
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