Remembering Sir Patrick Stewart, 1940 – 2026

Yesterday on Instagram, fans across the world were saddened and stunned to learn of the passing of Sir Patrick Stewart, the acting icon best known for his work on the stage, particularly with Shakespeare, and in genre acting in Star Trek and X-Men.

Stewart’s passing came after a private battle with Alzheimer’s and Lewy Body Dementia at the age of 86. He was born on July 13th, 1940, in Mirfield, England. His father was a soldier and his mother worked in a textile mill.

In his memoir Making It So, he related that on the day he was born, he arrived later than he expected. His mother’s midwife had visited, declared that he wouldn’t arrive that day, and went to the movies. Shortly afterwards, her water broke, but she refused to allow anyone to go get the midwife, allowing her to finish the movie. Stewart joked that experience likely instilled in him his love of acting.

Frankly, Stewart transcended being “just” an actor. While he was best known as Jean-Luc Picard and Charles Xavier, we all knew him as something more. To some it was Captain Ahab or Ebenezer Scrooge. To others it was his performances as myriad different icons of the theater, or even Dune’s Gurney Halleck.

For me, it started as Picard. The Captain was an icon, and one of my earliest “grown-up” TV heroes outside of Saturday morning cartoons. He brought depth and compassion to the franchise, showing that The Next Generation would be just as iconic as the original series. (As I write this, classic episode “Darmok” — one of Stewart’s most iconic episodes — is playing on Pluto TV.)

And then he was cast as Charles Xavier. In the comics, at best, Xavier is a morally grey character, who has trained child soldiers to fight his best friend. When played by Stewart, he was a flawed but compassionate figure, whose ultimate goal was much more noble than his source counterpart.

Stewart visited Salt Lake’s fan convention only once, and it was one of the few times that I haven’t attended since its founding. I was out of town for that week, but it always ate at a part of me to miss seeing him live. I always hoped he would return — he was one of the few fandom icons that I was willing to pay for a memento, whether it was a photo or an autograph. It’s especially heartbreaking that I’ll never have that opportunity now.

Ultimately, Stewart was a kind, funny and noble figure, much like the characters he played. He embodied passion and showed us what healthy masculinity and allyship was.

The Comicon team shared their thoughts about Stewart.

In addition to watching Sir Patrick on the big and small screens, I had the pleasure of watching him on stage several times, including twice with his friend Ian McClellan. He was terrifying as MacBeth. Delightful as Didi in Waiting for Godot. And defiant as Lyman in The Ride Down Mt Morgan. But the one on my mind lately is the 40-plus characters he portrayed in the version of A Christmas Carol that has occupied my thoughts lately. He adapted the script himself and turned it into a one-man play, in which he starred. I saw it twice on Broadway and was enthralled each time. I’m currently in rehearsals to play Scrooge myself and find that I am often thinking how Sir Patrick would handle this scene or that line. He was an amazing actor — and we are richer for having seen his performances!  – Tom Smithyman

He was an ally to humanity. – Benjamin Hall

Growing up I gravitated to Captain Sisko for obvious reasons, but Star Trek: The Next Generation was my first Trek. Captain Picard was stern but kind and an absolute badass, with words alone most of the time. Sir Patrick Stewart taught me that words really were a powerful weapon but also a powerful shield to defend others. He was a man who went from prim and proper to someone that was the biggest prankster on set, taking on raunchy and funny roles. He enjoyed life with a seemingly unbridled joy. He was a defender and fighter for humanity on and off the screen. Truly an icon of a human being. – Scott Redmond

Of course I liked him as Professor X and loved him as Captain Picard, which he made a compelling cross-media character for decades. But I’ll also always remember seeing him as George in Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf? on stage at the Guthrie Theater when I was in college. This would have been circa 2001, when I was still toying with the idea of doing a double major (with English) in Theater. We saw a preview performance, and the school got us excellent seats, so the intimate setting of the Guthrie felt even more intimate. I’m no acting expert, so I lack the ability to properly analyze his performance on a technical level, but to my layman’s understanding, he was electric and captivating. I’ll never forget the thrill of getting to watch him in his element, on stage, from all of a dozen feet away. – Austin Gorton

I’ve never really known a life without Patrick Stewart despite Star Trek: The Next Generation beginning its run when I was 8 or 9 years-old. He was already there to tell me he would go “as wild ass in the desert” to his work in the TV cut of David Lynch’s Dune. He also convinced me a callow boy could be king as Leodegrance of Cameliard in Excalibur. And, then, he was Jean-Luc Picard.

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry always meant for his captains to be inscrutable hard-asses, but each actor brought something else to the character description. With Stewart, Picard became a much warmer presence than he would seem from the pilot episode. Although the captain’s discomfort around children remained an element of the character, Stewart would inevitably make any child he encountered on the Enterprise feel important. And for me, that was key; I was welcome on his ship. It also made his speeches and wise words more valuable. They felt like true things because Stewart — as Picard — said them.

Then, thanks to a peculiar high school English teacher, I saw him play Claudius in a late ’70s BBC production of Hamlet that also featured Derek Jacobi as the title character and Doctor Who’s Lalla Ward as Ophelia. Stewart was still warm, but seeing it twisted to fit that character and his aims really sold to me how an actor can reshape themselves to serve the part. Where Picard grew closer to the actor, Stewart used his talents to serve a role far from his own qualities as a person.

He brought those essential qualities to Professor Charles Xavier, too, but Picard is foundational.

Then, as time went on, I saw him in other roles where his warmth, voice, and sense of humor revealed just how different Picard remained from him. And each performance was a gift.

It’s tough to think life continues without him appearing again as one of his classic characters or as someone new and unexpected. But we have countless hours to look back on and, perhaps, that will be solace enough. – Erik Amaya

Thank you Captain, for all the dear memories we will forever have of you. Rest well.