Sir Patrick Stewart, the celebrated British actor who became beloved around the world as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek and Professor Charles Xavier in X-Men, has passed away at 86.
Stewart was at his Los Angeles home on Wednesday, October 28, surrounded by family and friends, his representative confirmed.
His spokesperson, Kelly Bush Novak, said the actor perished following a “brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s Disease and Lewy Body Dementia.”
The news came just months after Stewart celebrated his 86th birthday and made clear that, despite his age, he still had no intention of walking away from acting.
“I can’t imagine ever officially ‘retiring,’” he said earlier this year. “I’ll always and forever be an actor.”
Patrick Stewart has passed away surrounded by family at 86
Stewart is survived by his wife, singer-songwriter Sunny Ozell, and his two children, Daniel and Sophie, from his first marriage.
Born in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, on July 13, 1940, Stewart grew up far removed from the Hollywood career that would eventually make him one of the most recognizable actors of his generation.
His family lived in a small working-class home without an indoor toilet or running hot water, while books and acting became an escape from an often frightening childhood.
Stewart later spoke openly about growing up around domestic violence after his father, Alfred, returned from World War II and repeatedly attacked his mother.
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“Actually, the first time I walked onto a stage and breathed in, because I was nervous, I realized suddenly I felt safer than I had felt in any of my childhood years,” he recalled in 2023.
“Nothing bad can happen to me on the stage.”
He began acting as a teenager before training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and eventually joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966.
For years, Stewart was known primarily as a formidable classical actor, appearing in dozens of productions and performing roles including Shylock, Claudius, Macbeth, Titus Andronicus and Enobarbus.
His life changed when he was cast as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation
The series premiered in 1987, with Stewart playing the commanding officer of the USS Enterprise for seven seasons through 1994.
The role turned the Shakespearean actor into an international television star.
Stewart later admitted that he initially struggled with being identified so strongly with a science-fiction character after spending years building his career in classical theater.
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Over time, however, Picard became one of the roles he treasured most.
He returned as the character in Star Trek Generations, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek: Nemesis, before reprising the part decades later for Star Trek: Picard.
The series ran for three seasons from 2020 to 2023 and reunited Stewart with several of his former Next Generation co-stars.
He found another generation of fans as Professor X in the 2000s
Stewart achieved another career-defining role in 2000 when he appeared as Professor Charles Xavier in the first X-Men film.
The character placed him opposite his longtime friend and fellow British acting legend Ian McKellen, who played Magneto.
Stewart initially had reservations about taking another major science-fiction and fantasy role after Star Trek.
“I don’t want to do another sci-fi fantasy thing with funny costumes,” he recalled telling those behind the project.
Director Bryan Singer eventually convinced him that Xavier and Picard were fundamentally different characters.
Stewart went on to play the telepathic mutant leader across more than two decades, appearing in films including X2, X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men: Days of Future Past and Logan.
He later returned as a version of Xavier in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Stewart had been set to reprise the role once again in Marvel’s upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, scheduled for release in December.
His childhood led him to become an outspoken advocate against domestic violence
Later in life, Stewart increasingly spoke about the trauma he had kept private for decades.
His father, a veteran who returned from war deeply troubled, was violent toward Stewart’s mother. Stewart and his older brother Trevor learned to recognize when an attack was about to happen and would attempt to intervene.
“For many years I was reluctant to speak about aspects of my childhood,” Stewart said in 2023.
“I was ashamed that my father did the things that he did.”
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He eventually became an outspoken advocate against domestic violence, working with organizations including Refuge and Amnesty International.
Stewart said therapy helped him understand how deeply those experiences had shaped him.
“For years, I never spoke about my childhood—or my home life, or my education—because I was embarrassed by it,” he later explained.
“But the fact that I hid so much was doing more harm than good.”
He explored those experiences, along with his acting career and personal relationships, in his 2023 memoir Making It So.
Fans mourned the passing of the Hollywood and theater legend
