Published October 29, 2026October 29, 2026Patrick 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 86 years old. Stewart died Wednesday in Los Angeles after “a brief and moving journey” with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia, spokeswoman Kelly Bush Novak said in a statement Thursday. Although best known for his film and television roles, Stewart spent much of his career on stage, performing Shakespeare and other classics. His career included performances such 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” with his old friend Ian McKellen. Stewart earned some of the best reviews of his career for his performance as Macbeth in 2007, including his only Tony Award nomination. The Times of London described his performance of Macbeth as “a fascinating creation of fragility, appetite, selfishness and dark humor.” “I’ve waited almost 50 years,” Stewart told the Associated Press news agency in 2008. “I learned it when I was 14. The lines have now become the only curse of this job.” From Working-Class Yorkshire to Shakespeare Raised in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, a working-class corner of northern England, the future 24th-century starship commander grew up without a bathroom in his home. He joined an amateur theater group at age 12 and, as a teenager, memorized Shakespeare for fun. A scholarship to the Bristol Old Vic Theater School helped him launch his acting career. Stewart, who developed alopecia at a young age, had been bald since he was 19. Her 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 article. “Violence is always a choice that a man makes and he is the only one responsible for it.” Stewart later became a patron of Refuge, a charity supporting survivors of domestic abuse. British actor Patrick Stewart places his hands in cement during his hand and footprint ceremony at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood, California on January 13, 2020. [File: AFP]From Shakespeare to Captain PicardStewart spent 14 years at the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing everyone from Mark Antony and Henry IV to Shylock and Oberon. “People who weren’t in the company told me: ‘Give it a break. Why don’t you go somewhere else?’ And I said, ‘To do what?'” he told the AP. “Telly?” He eventually left and appeared in the 1981 film “Excalibur.” In 1987, shortly after acting in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, she was offered a role in a science fiction series. “I found myself in Hollywood filming a syndicated sci-fi series, which I was assured would fail,” he said. But “Star Trek: The Next Generation” lasted seven seasons and 178 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 2000 film “X-Men.” He returned to the role in several sequels, including 2017’s “Logan,” opposite 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 1966 to 1969. Stewart was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in June 2010. He also served as an ambassador for the International Rescue Committee. Patrick Stewart, who played Professor [File: AFP]
