Patrick Stewart Spent Four Decades Playing the Steadiest Man in Two Different Universes

Patrick Stewart, the actor who gave Star Trek and the X-Men films two of their most recognizable authority figures, died Thursday at age 86. His longtime representative, Kelly Bush Novak, announced the death in a statement posted to his social accounts, saying Stewart had been in the care of his wife, Sunny Ozell, through what she called a "brief and poignant journey" with Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia. The statement described him dying surrounded by family and friends, with live music, prayer, and laughter in the room, a detail that tracks with a man who spent a career making Shakespearean gravity look effortless.

Stewart trained at the Bristol Old Vic and spent sixteen years with the Royal Shakespeare Company before Hollywood noticed him, which is its own kind of brand-building: show up for the unglamorous work long enough, and the glamorous role starts to look inevitable in hindsight. That role arrived in 1987, when he was cast as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, a part he carried through seven seasons, four feature films, and a return in the streaming series Star Trek: Picard decades later. Hollywood then handed him a second franchise to anchor: Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men films, a role he played across eight movies and more than twenty years, from 2000's X-Men through 2017's Logan, which he had called his final turn in the part. He was scheduled to reprise it once more in Avengers: Doomsday, due in theaters December 18, a release he will not see.

Stewart was knighted in 2010 for services to drama and spent much of his later career advocating for domestic violence survivors, a cause tied to his own childhood, along with LGBTQ+ equality, refugee support, and veterans' mental health. Tributes arrived quickly: Avengers: Doomsday co-star Simu Liu called him an "absolute legend," Seth MacFarlane said he "could take any bit of dialogue and elevate it," and X-Men co-star Hugh Jackman and Star Trek alum William Shatner both posted remembrances. He is survived by his wife, Sunny Ozell, and his children, Daniel and Sophie Alexandra Stewart, from his first marriage to Sheila Falconer.

Source: ABC News

Kyle Duford, Founder & Editor, BRNDWIRE. More from Kyle →