Patrick Stewart, the British actor whose calm demeanor and steely strength led the Star Trek television franchise into its next generation, died Wednesday at age 86. The actor suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia.
“We announce with great sorrow the passing of Sir Patrick Stewart yesterday at his home in Los Angeles, in the care of his beloved wife Sunny,” a Thursday post on Stewart’s Instagram account read in part. “We will forever cherish the peaceful ease and reflection on his face, an enduring reminder of his invincible grace.”
Through a long career, Stewart starred in everything from Shakespeare productions to superhero films, but his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation is firmly cemented in entertainment culture. Show creator Gene Roddenberry didn’t at first think Stewart, who was bald, could play the virile captain he had envisioned for the new Star Trek series. Stewart even had his wife ship his toupee over from London, and he wore it for an audition scene, but executives saw him with both styles and chose the bald look.
Stewart was stepping into big boots. While the original Star Trek only ran for three seasons, from 1966 to 1969, it soon became a pop culture fixture, and the success of the first Star Wars film in 1977 finally allowed Roddenberry to make feature films using his original cast. The success of those movies led to a new series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, which launched in 1987 and took place about a century after the original show.
With his resonant voice and complete command of the crew, Stewart’s Picard came off as a trained diplomat compared with the more swashbuckling Capt. James T. Kirk, as played by William Shatner on the original Star Trek. But there was no question who was in charge on his bridge, and his crew followed him unhesitatingly. That made later episodes, including the third-season plot where Picard was assimilated by the alien Borg, even more meaningful, as a very human Picard struggled to recover from what had been done to him.
Professor X and more
Star Trek: The Next Generation ran from 1987 to 1994, but Stewart wasn’t done playing leaders. He took on the role of Professor Charles Xavier, or Professor X, in the X-Men superhero franchise, playing a telepathic, wheelchair-using mutant who founded the X-Men superhero team. He portrayed Xavier in multiple films over the span of 17 years, acting alongside his longtime friend, Ian McKellen.
Ironically, McKellen originally advised Stewart not to accept the Star Trek role as Picard, reportedly telling him, “You have too much important theater work to do. You can’t throw that away to do TV.”
Stewart began his acting career on the British stage, working with the Royal Shakespeare Company and winning numerous acting awards.
He was bluntly open about his childhood with an abusive father, writing in the Guardian newspaper in 2009 that the experience never left him.
“As a child I witnessed his repeated violence against my mother, and the terror and misery he caused was such that, if I felt I could have succeeded, I would have killed him,” Stewart wrote. “If my mother had attempted it, I would have held him down.”
Fans and friends remember
Shatner remembered his successor with tenderness and also referenced the death days earlier of Walter Koenig, who played Pavel Chekov on the original Star Trek.
“What a heartbreaking week it has been,” Shatner wrote on X. “Sir Patrick Stewart was a friend, a colleague, and a magnificent actor. From the stage to the bridge of the Enterprise, he brought intelligence, grace, and a deep sense of humanity to everything he did. 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.”
George Takei, who played helmsman Hikaru Sulu on the original Star Trek, also remembered Stewart.
“Fans across the world mourn the passing of a true and irreplaceable legend,” Takei wrote on Bluesky. “As Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Patrick Stewart took the starship Enterprise to places it had never gone before.”
Wil Wheaton, who played young Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation, posted a photo of the two together, with a broken heart emoji and the words, “Godspeed, Captain.”
Stewart is survived by his wife, Sunny, and two children.
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