Patrick Stewart, Star Trek's Captain Picard and X-Men's Professor X, Dies at 86
The actor who made Jean-Luc Picard and Charles Xavier unforgettable died at home in Los Angeles on Wednesday, October 28, his family said.
Sir Patrick Stewart, the stage and screen actor best known as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek and Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men films, has died. He was 86.
Stewart died at his home in Los Angeles on Wednesday, October 28, after what his family called "a brief and poignant journey" with Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia, according to a statement from his longtime spokesperson, Kelly Bush Novak. His wife, Sunny Ozell, was at his side.
From Yorkshire to the bridge of the Enterprise
Born in 1940 in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, Stewart spent years as a classical actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company before television made him a household name. In 1987 he took command of the starship Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation, playing Picard for seven seasons, four films and, decades later, three seasons of Star Trek: Picard.
His Picard was a different kind of hero: thoughtful, principled and calm under pressure, a captain who would rather talk than fire. "Make it so" and "Engage" became catchphrases for generations of fans.
Professor X, and a lifetime on stage
From 2000 he played Professor Charles Xavier, mentor to the X-Men, across the series and in Logan (2017). He was set to return to the role in Avengers: Doomsday, due in theaters in December.
He never left the stage behind. He returned to Shakespeare again and again, was knighted in 2010 for services to drama, and recorded readings of all 154 of Shakespeare's sonnets. His memoir, Making It So, came out in 2023.
William Shatner, the original Star Trek captain, called him "a friend, a colleague, and a magnificent actor."
Rest well, Captain.