Sir Patrick Stewart, Star Trek’s Captain Picard and X-Men’s Professor X, dies aged 86

Los Angeles, United States. Sir Patrick Stewart, who went from a poor background in England to a celebrated career in Shakespearean theatre and then worldwide television and film fame, has died at the age of 86. He was best known as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and as the telepathic Professor Charles Xavier in the “X-Men” movies.

Death announced on social media

A statement on Stewart’s X account said he died at his home in Los Angeles. It said his wife, Sunny, was caring for him at the time, and that his illness had been a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s Disease and Lewy Body Dementia. The statement announced his passing with great sorrow and said it took place the previous day.

Queen Elizabeth II knighted Stewart in 2010 in recognition of his contributions to drama.

From the stage to Star Trek

Stewart began working as an actor at 18. From the 1960s he won praise on stage as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Mainstream fame came only after he was cast at 47 in “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, which aired from 1987 to 1994 as a follow-up to the original 1960s “Star Trek”. He continued to act into his 80s.

His character Picard often gave orders with the words “Make it so”, and sometimes used the similar phrase “Engage”.

Stewart weighed whether to accept the part at all, because his longtime friend and fellow Shakespearean actor Ian McKellen had urged him to reject “Star Trek” and stay in the theatre. He took the role, which made him a favourite with fans and a key figure in a highly profitable science-fiction franchise. He played Picard in 176 episodes across seven seasons, in several “Star Trek” films, and in the later streaming series “Star Trek: Picard”, which began airing in 2020 when he was 79.

In a 2022 interview with the Guardian newspaper, Stewart said that over the seven seasons of the series the line between himself and Picard grew steadily thinner, until he could not tell where one ended and the other began. He added: “So much of what I believed and felt went into that show”.

Professor X in the X-Men films

Stewart was also reluctant at first to play the wheelchair-using mutant Professor X, a character from the popular Marvel comics, in the “X-Men” movies. He told the Guardian he had objected that the project was fantasy, a genre he had already worked in. The filmmakers convinced him it would differ from “Star Trek”, so he accepted, and he said he was once again proved wrong.

He became a central part of a second lucrative franchise, which began with “X-Men” in 2000 and continued with several further films.