Sir Patrick Stewart, the British stage actor who found global fame in middle age as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and as Professor Charles Xavier in the “X-Men” films, has died at the age of 86.
He died on Wednesday 28 October at his home in Los Angeles, CNN reported, citing his spokesperson Kelly Bush Novak.
A statement issued through the actor’s own accounts and carried by the Daily Mirror 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.” Hiru News reported the same two diagnoses.
From Yorkshire rep to the Enterprise
Born in Yorkshire in 1940, Stewart became an actor at 18 and built his reputation on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company from the 1960s. He was 47 — and, by his own account, reluctant — when he was cast in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” which ran from 1987 to 1994. His friend and fellow Shakespearean Ian McKellen had advised him to turn it down and stay in the theatre.
He played Picard in 176 episodes across seven seasons, in several “Star Trek” films, and again in the streaming series “Star Trek: Picard,” which began in 2020 when he was 79. His command to subordinates — “Make it so” — became one of television’s most quoted lines.
“As the seven seasons of TNG went by, the distinction between Jean-Luc Picard and Patrick Stewart became thinner and thinner, until it was impossible for me to know where he left off and I began,” he told the Guardian in 2022.
Stewart initially balked at “X-Men” too. “I said, ‘Look, I know this isn’t science fiction, but it’s fantasy, and I’ve done that.’ But they persuaded me that it wouldn’t be like ‘Star Trek,’ so I did it. And yet again I was proved wrong,” he said. He first played the wheelchair-using mutant telepath in 2000 and returned across the franchise, often opposite McKellen’s Magneto.
He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2010 for services to drama. He had completed filming on the Marvel film “Avengers: Doomsday,” due in cinemas in December; Marvel Studios called him “a singular talent, a generous collaborator and a true gentleman.”
A note on the date
The statement announcing the death was issued on 29 October and refers to his dying “yesterday.” Because the Daily Mirror republished that wording on 30 October, its text can read as though the death occurred on the 29th. Hiru’s filing dates it to the 28th, and CNN independently reports Wednesday 28 October. This report uses 28 October.
Not reported
None of the three filings gives a cause of death beyond the two named conditions, says how long he had been ill, or reports funeral or memorial arrangements. The Daily Mirror attributes the family statement to the actor’s X account and Hiru to his Instagram account; neither says whether it was posted to both.
