Sir Patrick Stewart Dies at 86, the Yorkshire Boy Who Carried Shakespeare Onto the Starship Enterprise

Sir Patrick Stewart, the Shakespearean actor who became Captain Jean-Luc Picard of "Star Trek" and Professor Charles Xavier of "X-Men," has died. He was 86.

He died Wednesday 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," according to the statement his family posted on his Instagram account, as reported by the BBC. His diagnoses had not been made public before.

"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," his longtime spokesperson, Kelly Bush Novak, said. "We will forever cherish the peaceful ease and reflection on his face, an enduring reminder of his invincible grace."

A son of Mirfield

Stewart was born on July 13, 1940, in Mirfield, a mill town in the West Riding of Yorkshire. His mother was a weaver. His father, Alfred, was a regimental sergeant major in the British Army's Parachute Regiment in World War II.

He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966 and stayed until 1982, appearing in more than 60 of its productions. His stage career would run six decades, from the West End to Broadway, including his one-man "A Christmas Carol" and "Waiting for Godot" alongside his close friend Ian McKellen.

Captain Picard and Professor X

In 1987, the classically trained British actor was cast as the captain of the Enterprise in "Star Trek: The Next Generation." The show ran seven seasons and led to four feature films. He returned to the role in Paramount+'s "Star Trek: Picard," which ran three seasons.

In 2000, he first played Professor X in "X-Men," opposite McKellen's Magneto, a role he went on to play in nine films, from the original trilogy to "Logan" and Marvel's "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness." He is set to appear again in "Avengers: Doomsday," which opens Dec. 18, according to Variety.

Queen Elizabeth II made him an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2001 and knighted him in 2010 for services to drama. He won a Grammy in 1995, and in 2023 published his best-selling memoir, "Making It So."

'The best of us'

Tributes poured in Thursday. William Shatner, the original captain of the Enterprise, wrote: "Captain Picard stood for the best of us, and so did the man who played him. I was filled with affection and admiration for him and his work."

Marvel Studios said he "brought Professor Charles Xavier to life with extraordinary grace, intelligence, and humanity, defining the character for generations of fans." Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige, in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, called him "brilliant, charming, warm, generous, with a quiet strength and gravitas." Jonathan Frakes, his "Next Generation" first officer, posted: "Rest in peace my friend."

Causes close to home

Stewart often spoke about the violence his father inflicted on his mother when he was a child, and he became a patron of Refuge, the British charity for abused women. After learning that his father had suffered from post-traumatic stress after the war, he backed the veterans' mental health charity Combat Stress. His family's statement also listed refugees and animal welfare, "particularly his cherished foster pitties."

In politics, Stewart was a member of Britain's Labour Party, and in 2016 he joined hundreds of arts figures who backed remaining in the European Union.

He served as chancellor of the University of Huddersfield from 2004 to 2015 and was a lifelong fan of Huddersfield's football club. He is survived by his wife, Sunny Ozell, and his children, Daniel and Sophia.

His family closed its statement with a line from his memoir about Picard: "In the end, he feels the call of home, as do I."