Star Trek and X-Men Icon Patrick Stewart Dies at 86
The Shakespearean actor leaves behind a profound legacy of iconic roles
Patrick Stewart, the actor best known for his commanding roles as Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men film franchise, has died, according to a statement from his family. Stewart was 86.
Stewart died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles "following a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer's Disease and Lewy Body Dementia," a statement from spokesperson Kelly Bush Novak reads.
"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," reads an official statement. "He has been held in the warm embrace of family and friends, surrounded by live music, prayer, tears, laughter, and the kind of profound emotion that only he could inspire after a lifetime of devotion to us all. We will forever cherish the peaceful ease and reflection on his face, an enduring reminder of his invisible grace."
Stewart's award-winning acting career spanned more than 60 years on stage and screen. A member of the Royal Shakespeare Company for 16 years, Stewart appeared in a broad range of stage productions, TV shows, and films. In the early 1980s, he played minor roles in films such as John Boorman's Excalibur, David Lynch's Dune, and Tobe Hooper's Lifeforce. He won two Olivier Awards, a Grammy Award, and was nominated for a Tony Award, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.
His breakout role came in 1987 when he landed the part of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gene Roddenberry's revival of the cult-hit sci-fi television series. From 1987 to 1994, Stewart played Picard across seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, later reprising the role in four feature films (Star Trek Generations, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection, Star Trek: Nemesis) and the revival series Star Trek: Picard, which ran from 2020 to 2023.
Stewart once worried about being typecast as the captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D and said that the role limited his other opportunities. In 2001, he told the BBC, "It still frightens me a little bit to think that so much of my life was totally devoted to Star Trek and almost nothing else." He wholly embraced the role in later years, telling The Independent, “For huge numbers of people, I will always be Jean-Luc Picard, and that’s fine. I really believe we created an admirable individual.”
In 2000, Stewart took on another iconic role, that of Professor Charles Xavier, the leader of Marvel's team of mutants, the X-Men. Stewart played Xavier in seven films (X-Men, X2, X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Wolverine, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and Logan) and played an alternate version of the character in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. He will reprise his role as the original Charles Xavier in Avengers: Doomsday, which comes to movie theaters in December.
In 2010, Stewart was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to drama, officially becoming Sir Patrick Stewart.
Beyond his most iconic characters in the Star Trek and Marvel universes, Stewart took on such eclectic roles as the voice of Avery Bullock in the animated comedy American Dad, the villainous white supremacist leader Darcy in the thriller Green Room, and as an extremely heightened version of himself in the Ricky Gervais comedy Extras.
Stewart's death follows the recent loss of another longtime Star Trek actor, Walter Koenig, known for his role as Pavel Chekov in the original Star Trek.