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Patrick Stewart has died at the age of 86 in Los Angeles. An actor with Shakespearean training, he had conquered the world audience by playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek” and Professor Charles Xavier in the “X-Men” saga. Historic spokeswoman Kelly Bush Novak confirmed the death, which occurred at home, alongside family and friends. He suffered from Alzheimer’s and Lewy body dementia.
From the theater in Yorkshire to the Royal Shakespeare Company
Born on 13 July 1940 in Mirfield, Yorkshire, Stewart grew up in a working-class family marked by his father’s alcoholism and his mother’s violence. In the theater he had found a refuge and, soon, a path to follow.
At fifteen he worked for a local newspaper. When the director forced him to choose between journalism and acting, he left the job to dedicate himself to the stage. A scholarship opened the doors of the Bristol Old Vic Theater School to him; in 1966 he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he remained for fourteen years.
Picard and Xavier, two characters who have become icons
The turning point came in 1987 with “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. Gene Roddenberry, creator of the saga, was initially not convinced about entrusting the Enterprise to a bald British man. Stewart himself thought the series would only last one season. Instead, seven arrived, followed by four films and, as of 2020, three seasons of “Star Trek: Picard.”
In 2000, another role linked him to a new generation of spectators: Professor Charles Xavier of the “X-Men”, alongside his friend Ian McKellen, who plays Magneto. Above all, he loved the values of Picard and Xavier: «I admired them for their morality, kindness, sensitivity and compassion», he told the Hollywood Reporter in 2017.
In the cinema he had also worked with John Boorman in “Excalibur”, in 1981, and with David Lynch in “Dune”, in 1984. The theater, however, remained central to his career: he won two Laurence Olivier Awards and obtained a Tony nomination for “Macbeth” in 2008. In his career also a Grammy and four Emmy nominations. In 2010, Queen Elizabeth II knighted him.
The irony behind the austere face
Stewart accompanied his baritone voice and solemn bearing with an irony that in recent years had also found space on social media. Between unconventional photographs and images that became memes, he showed the public the more playful side of his personality.
In the memoir “Making It So” he dismissed with an «Absurd» the cover of “TV Guide” which in 1992 had placed him alongside Cindy Crawford among the sexiest television characters, according to a readers’ poll.
Committed to supporting victims of domestic violence and veterans, Stewart leaves behind his wife, musician Sunny Ozell, and children Daniel and Sophia.