Published On ۲۹ Oct ۲۰۲۶
Patrick Stewart, the acclaimed British actor who played Captain Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek” and Professor Charles Xavier in the “X-Men” films, has died. He was ۸۶.
Stewart died on Wednesday in Los Angeles following “a brief and poignant journey” with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia, spokesperson Kelly Bush Novak said in a statement on Thursday.
Although best known for his film and television roles, Stewart spent much of his career onstage, performing Shakespeare and other classics.
His career included performances as Claudius and Macbeth, a one-man adaptation of “A Christmas Carol”, and West End and Broadway productions of Harold Pinter’s “No Man’s Land” and Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” alongside longtime friend Ian McKellen.
Stewart earned some of the best reviews of his career for his ۲۰۰۷ portrayal of Macbeth, including his only Tony Award nomination. The Times of London described his Macbeth performance as “an enthralling creation of frailty, appetite, egotism and grim humour”.
“Nearly ۵۰ years I’ve waited,” Stewart told the Associated Press news agency in ۲۰۰۸. “I learned it when I was ۱۴. I memorized all the soliloquies just because I thought they were great. And they stuck, so I didn’t have to learn those bits of the play, which is a blessing, because learning lines has now become the one curse of this job.”
From working-class Yorkshire to Shakespeare
Raised in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, a working-class corner of northern England, the future ۲۴th-century commander of a starship grew up without a bathroom in his house.
He joined an amateur drama group at ۱۲ and, as a teenager, memorised Shakespeare for fun. A scholarship to the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School helped launch his acting career.
Stewart, who developed alopecia at a young age, had been bald since he was ۱۹.
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,” as Stewart wrote in a newspaper piece. “Violence is always a choice a man makes and he alone is responsible for it.”
Stewart later became a patron of Refuge, a charity supporting survivors of domestic abuse.
From Shakespeare to Captain Picard
Stewart spent ۱۴ years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing everyone from Mark Antony and Henry IV to Shylock and Oberon.
“People who were not in the company would say to me, ‘Give it a break. Why don’t you go somewhere else?’ And I would say, ‘To do what?’” he told the AP. “Telly?”
He eventually left and appeared in the ۱۹۸۱ film “Excalibur”. In ۱۹۸۷, shortly after performing 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.
But “Star Trek: The Next Generation” ran for seven seasons and ۱۷۸ episodes. Stewart became known worldwide as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, whose command, “Make it so”, became one of the show’s best-known lines.
Stewart also played Professor Charles Xavier, the leader of the X-Men, beginning with the ۲۰۰۰ film “X-Men”. He returned to the role in several sequels, including ۲۰۱۷’s “Logan”, alongside Hugh Jackman as Wolverine.
Stewart died just days after Walter Koenig, who played Ensign Pavel Chekov in the original “Star Trek” series, which aired from ۱۹۶۶ to ۱۹۶۹.
Queen Elizabeth II knighted Stewart in June ۲۰۱۰. He also served as an ambassador for the International Rescue Committee.
