Patrick Stewart Dies: Revered ‘Star Trek’, ‘X-Men’ & Stage Actor Was 86

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Patrick Stewart dead; obituary

Patrick Stewart Tommy Garcia/CBS

Sir Patrick Stewart, the star of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Picard, the X-Men film franchise and many other movies, TV shows and stage plays, died October 28 at his home in Los Angeles following a battle with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia. He was 86.

A statement from his rep confirmed the news.

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“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,” the statement reads. “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 invincible grace.”

Stewart, the distinguished stage and screen actor and New York Times best-selling author whose career spanned nearly six decades, was a three-time Olivier Award winner and a Tony Award nominee for his stage work, including numerous Shakespeare productions. He won a Grammy in 1995 and received multiple Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations for his work across television and film.

In the 2001 New Year Honours list, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Stewart an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), and in 2010, she knighted him for services to drama. He was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1996.

Born July 13, 1940, in Mirfield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, Stewart left school at 15 to perform in local theater and made his professional stage debut in 1959 at the Theatre Royal, Bristol in a production of Cyrano de Bergerac. Stewart became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966 and in 1967 made his debut TV appearance on Coronation Street . He made his Broadway debut in 1970 as Snout in Peter Brook’s 1970 production A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

With some trepidation for what it would mean for his stage career, Stewart in 1987 took on the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, ensuring his place in TV history and the pop culture landscape and all but eliminated any need to worry over future career opportunities, on stage or otherwise.

He played the USS Enterprise captain on the popular syndicated drama for seven seasons from 1987-94 and several film installments, beginning with Star Trek: Generations in 1994. He later reprised the role in the global hit Paramount+ series Star Trek: Picard. The series concluded its third and final season in April 2023.

He earned four career Emmy noms, all in different categories — for playing Captain Ahab in the miniseries Moby Dick (1998), starring as King Henry II in telefilm The Lion in Winter (2004), guesting on Ricky Gervais’ Extras (2006) and portraying King Claudius in Hamlet (2010).

Stewart also was celebrated for his portrayal of Charles Xavier aka Professor X, a role he originated in the 2000 film X-Men and reprised throughout the franchise’s many hit sequels including the hit Logan, opposite Hugh Jackman as Logan/Wolverine. Stewart also reprised the role in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, set for release on December 18, marking his eighth time portraying the character.

In his two best-known roles of TNG’s Picard and X-Men’s Professor X, Stewart was both a commanding and introspective presence. Clearly, as both the Enterprise captain on deck and the mutant leader who used a wheelchair, the actor’s distinct and resonating voice held the attention of audiences and Stewart’s fellow actors. However, it was the nuance of both characters, some from the franchises’ respective lore and some created on the small and big screen, that revealed Stewart at his best.

Perhaps that was best captured in 2017’s Logan when, while hiding out in the home of a friendly family, Stewart’s ailing Xaviar advises Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine/Logan on what’s most important. “This is what life looks like,” Professor X says to his finest student. “People who love each other, our home. You should take a moment. Feel it. You still have time.”

Three years ago, in a Q&A with Deadline’s Dominic Patten about his bestselling memoir and a desire to do King Lear, the constantly working Stewart hinted a more projects on screen, stage and possibly page to come. “I enjoyed the experience so much, but it was my memoir,” he said. “I am not a novelist. I’m not a storyteller in that sense. I know I’m not. But I have some other little ideas which I will keep to myself for the time being. Because sitting here as I did for almost three years clicking away so much, I kind of feel maybe I should give it find something and give it another shot.”

Stewart’s many screen credits also include Coda; L.A. Story; Green Room; Blunt Talk; Robin Hood: Men in Tights; Conspiracy Theory; I, Claudius; Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy; The Kid Who Would Be King; Match; The King of Texas; Jeffrey; Dune and Excalibur. Stewart also did voice work on The Simpsons, Seth MacFarlane’s Family Guy and American Dad! as such films as The Prince of Egypt, Chicken Little and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.

In 2026, Stewart voiced the role of Sir Ritchfield in The Sheep Detectives, opposite Jackman as George, a shepherd who reads detective novels to his sheep every night until a mysterious incident forces them to become detectives themselves. Stewart lent his voice to all 154 of William Shakespeare’s sonnets, including reflections on the narration process, in the 2026 audiobook Patrick Stewart Performs the Complete Sonnets of William Shakespeare.

Stewart won a 1995 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for his voice work in the English-language recording of Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf.

For his stage work, Stewart was honored with three Olivier Awards, the first of which came in 1979 for his performance in Peter Brook’s production of Antony and Cleopatra. Stewart’s association with the Royal Shakespeare Company saw him appear in more than 60 productions, including his Olivier-winning performance as Claudius in Hamlet opposite David Tennant. He was also named an Honorary Associate Artist of the RSC in recognition of his indelible contributions to the theater.

Stewart’s numerous Broadway and West End appearances included his Tony-nominated and Evening Standard Award-winning performance as the title character in Macbeth, directed by Rupert Goold in a production that played London’s West End, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Broadway; his work opposite Ian McKellen in repertory productions of Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot; as well as The Caretaker; A Life in the Theatre; The Master Builder; The Ride Down Mt. Morgan; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; The Merchant of Venice; Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Twelfth Night; Bingo: Scenes of Money and Death; and The Tempest.

He won an Olivier Award and Drama Desk Award for 1991 one-person show A Christmas Carol and performed the piece frequently, including on Broadway and in London. In 2019, he remounted the solo A Christmas Carol, which he adapted himself and in which he portrayed more than 40 characters. That staging marked his first time performing the piece in 17 years, this time as a benefit production for City Harvest and Ars Nova.

In 2023, Stewart became a New York Times best-selling author upon the publication of his memoir, Making It So, which chronicles his life from his earliest days in Yorkshire, England and through his long career. The companion audiobook, read by Stewart himself, won an Audie Awards honor for Autobiography/Memoir and was named one of the year’s best celebrity memoir recordings by Audible.

Stewart was a vocal supporter of social justice, women’s rights, domestic abuse advocacy, veterans’ rights, the refugee crisis, animal rights, political reform and much more.

Stewart is survived by wife Sunny Ozell, an American singer he married in 2013; his son, the actor Daniel Stewart; and daughter Sophie.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Fund and Alzheimer’s Foundation of America Caregiver Resources.

Erik Pedersen and Dominic Patten contributed to this report.

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