(13 July 1940 - 28 October 2026)
Sir Patrick Stewart was a Shakespearean giant. He played Shylock, Macbeth, Othello, Prospero and, in his Broadway debut, Snout in Peter Brook’s highly acclaimed production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1971). The Americans adored him. So much so, that they cast him as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, the follow-on to the iconic and beloved Star Trek. Stewart didn’t think the series would last, but instead it made him a very rich man. Flagged up as an “unknown British Shakespearean actor” by The Los Angeles Times, Stewart connected with a whole new audience, both young and old, and went on to carve a third career as a leading man in the movies. He had had minor parts in John Boorman's Excalibur (1981), David Lynch's Dune (1984) and in L.A. Story (1991) with Steve Martin (as the Maître d’ at L’Idiot), when the big-screen Star Trek Generations (1994) changed his life forever.
He was born in West Yorkshire, to Alfred Stewart, a sergeant-major in the Parachute Regiment with PTSD, and to Gladys, a textile worker very keen on amateur dramatics. Her passion rubbed off on him and he became keen on Shakespeare at school, which he left at the age of 15 to become an obituary writer on the Dewsbury Reporter. At 18 he lost all his hair – a traumatic business – but won a scholarship to the Bristol Old Vic and later joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. With his resonant baritone and physical heft, he was a natural, not only with the Bard but modern playwrights, too.
His first film was Trevor Nunn’s production of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler (1975), for which Glenda Jackson was nominated for an Oscar, but it was a long wait until he became familiar to audiences at the cinema. After the Star Trek franchise (there were four big-screen adaptations as well), he took on the X-Men, playing the telepathic mutant and activist Professor Charles Xavier. Actually, he was playing both roles back-to-back, as the X-Men franchise flourished and Star Trek continued at the multiplex, culminating with Star Trek: Nemesis (2002). He then returned to the role of Picard for the eighth TV series, Star Trek: Picard, which ran from 2020 to 2023. In between, he frequently returned to the stage – he and his great friend Ian McKellen starred in a notable revival of Waiting for Godot in the West End and on Broadway – and he lent his distinguished voice to a slew of animated projects. Other films included Green Room, Charlie’s Angels (as John Bosley) and Logan (2017), in which he reprised his role of Charles Xavier opposite Hugh Jackman.
He died of Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia at his home in Los Angeles, aged 86. His third wife was the American singer Sunny Ozell, 39 years his junior.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
