Sir Patrick Stewart, a British actor famous for his Shakespearean background and iconic roles as Captain Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek and Professor Charles Xavier from the X-Men film series, has passed away at the age of 86.
His family announced the tragic death via posts on social media on Thursday. According to the statement, he passed away at his residence in Los Angeles, surrounded by his wife, singer Sunny Ozell, following a brief struggle with two forms of dementia: Alzheimer’s and Lewy body disease.
Longtime representative of the actor, Kelly Bush Novak, confirmed the news. However, his ailments were not previously revealed to the public by his family.
In his final days, he was surrounded by his family and close friends, with live music, prayers, tears, and laughter, according to the statement.
The family announcement briefly mentions his life story, from his Yorkshire town of Mirfield, England, to joining the Royal Shakespeare Company, then his six-decade-long acting career in Broadway, movies, and television.
They also note his charity work beyond acting, including human rights, support for domestic violence survivors, refugees, veterans’ mental health programs, and animal welfare. According to his family, he was passionate about pit bulls, and he called them his “pitties.”
He was known as a knight, university chancellor, motorsport aficionado, and lifelong Huddersfield Town supporter. Family closes their statement with a quote from his book published in 2023, “Making It So.”
Instead of flowers, they ask for contributions to be sent to the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Fund and the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America care resources.
On Thursday, numerous tributes came from fans of the Star Trek and X-Men franchises.
Marvel Studios paid tribute to Stewart for his extraordinary performances of Professor Xavier that included movies X-Men through Logan and even Avengers: Doomsday: “He was a singular talent, a generous collaborator, and a true gentleman”.
President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige recalls meeting the great man on the original X-Men set, highlighting his warmth, generosity, and sharp humor.
Hugh Jackman, who played Wolverine alongside Stewart for almost twenty years, expressed his condolences in an Instagram post.
“We lost one of the greats of stage and screen today,” wrote Jackman. “I will miss you, Patrick Stewart, all of my days.”
Jonathan Frakes, who played William Riker, Picard’s first officer, and later directed many episodes of Star Trek, shared the family’s statement on Instagram, adding: “Rest in peace my friend.”
William Shatner, the first Captain James T. Kirk, considers Stewart his friend and colleague and admires him both as an actor and a person.
The organizers of Hollywood Walk of Fame promised to place flowers on Stewart’s star as a tribute to him.
Ian McKellen, friend of Stewart for many years and his on-screen rival as Magneto, did not comment on his death publicly by Thursday afternoon. However, McKellen sums up Stewart’s popularity in the words: “Going around with Patrick is like going around with the pope.”
Stewart was born on July 13, 1940, in Mirfield and had a difficult childhood. He also talked about his father, a British Army paratrooper in World War II, who abused him and suffered from his war traumas. That experience inspired his work on helping domestic violence victims and the mental health of veterans.
According to his story, Stewart thanks his English teacher Cecil Dormand for opening up Shakespeare’s works to him and encouraging him to pursue the performing arts. As a young man, he was working for a local newspaper until his boss made him choose between journalism and acting.
He graduated from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and entered the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966. Stage acting remained an important part of his work throughout his fame in television and movies.
He toured for many years with a solo performance of “A Christmas Carol ” and received a Tony Award nomination for Rupert Goold’s production of “Macbeth,” set in a Soviet-like era. He performed in “Hamlet” as Claudius alongside David Tennant for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Together with McKellen, he performed Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” and Pinter’s “No Man’s Land” in repertory on Broadway and in the West End.
At the age of 47, he captained the ship Enterprise in “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, the first episode of which aired in 1987. His character, Picard, was a thoughtful captain who preferred diplomacy, and he remains one of the most liked TV characters ever. Stewart played Captain Picard for seven seasons and four movies. In 2020, he returned in the role of Picard in “Star Trek: Picard.”
He was the first actor to play the telepathic Xavier, founding a school for mutants, Professor X, in the X-Men movie released in 2000. He reappeared as Xavier in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Logan (2017), and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022).
Logan, in which Wolverine looks after an elderly Xavier, was the actor’s favorite movie.
According to Marvel, the upcoming movie Avengers: Doomsday, which will premiere on December 18, will be Patrick Stewart’s last appearance as Professor X. It will be his ninth appearance in the role.
He also proved that he was funny, working many times together with Seth MacFarlane on such popular movies and shows as Family Guy, Ted, and A Million Ways to Die in the West. He did narration for the video game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion as Emperor Uriel Septim VII and received a Grammy Award for reading Peter and the Wolf.
Recently, he voiced Pigtrick Stewart, a pig head, in the upcoming comedy series Bait, co-starring Riz Ahmed, which premieres in 2026.
Queen Elizabeth II knighted him in 2010 for his services to drama.
Apart from acting, Patrick supported various charities. He worked for Amnesty International to combat domestic violence and also supported Refuge, a British charity for battered women. He was engaged in the LGBTQ+ rights movement and the charity Dignity in Dying that advocates for assistance in dying.
His memoir “Making It So” tells his life story, from Yorkshire boyhood to his rise to fame as a celebrated actor. He made an audio recording of his book himself.
Stewart got married three times. Both of his marriages to a choreographer, Sheila Falconer, and to a producer of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Wendy Neuss, ended in divorce. In 2013, he married a singer and songwriter, Ozell, in a Lake Tahoe ceremony presided over by his friend Ian McKellen, who was ordained online for this occasion.
He leaves behind his wife, Ozell; son, actor Daniel Stewart; and daughter Sophie, from his first marriage.
