Patrick Stewart brought ironic wit and a statesman-like quality to his defining role

The actor, who has died aged 86, could surely read the phone book and make it sound like Alfred Lord Tennyson

Thu Oct 29 2026 - 21:57 • 4 MIN READ

Patrick Stewart, who has died in Los Angeles at the age of 86, seemed, in many ways, an exemplar of UK thespian aristocracy.

The booming voice suited his two most famous roles: Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men films.

He would surely also like it remembered that he was a pillar of the Royal Shakespeare Company from as early as the mid-1960s.

Stewart won a Laurence Olivier Award in 1979 for his performance as Enobarbus in that troupe’s production of Antony and Cleopatra.

Some 30 years later, he won another for playing Claudius in a famous production of Hamlet featuring David Tennant in the title part. Roles in the works of Tom Stoppard, Edward Bond and Arthur Miller fleshed out a groaning CV.

Upright and erudite, he fitted neatly into a tradition that led back to the likes of Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud. Stewart could surely read the phone book and make it sound like Alfred Lord Tennyson.

For all that, he remained proud of his working-class origins in West Yorkshire. Speaking to this writer in 2016, he was frank about the journey his voice had taken.

“I didn’t just have an accent. I spoke Yorkshire dialect,” he said. “If I was going to a friend’s house I’d say: ‘Is thoo cumin’ oot tee lark?’ That is: ‘Are you coming out to play?’ It’s dialect.”

Like so many actors who grew up without privilege, Stewart, whose father was a labourer and postman, had an inspirational teacher to thank for his ultimate career.

A copy of Shakespeare was placed in his small hands and he was encouraged to perform. The timing was maybe a little unfortunate. It had not yet sunk in that “regional” actors such as Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay were making less patrician accents heard on the London stage.

“I had an acting teacher from the age of 12 who taught me received pronunciation,” he said. “At her house I’d speak standard English. During the week I’d speak broad Yorkshire. I had to be careful not to mix it up. I’d be hit over the head if I spoke upper class with my friends.”

Hard work and confidence got him places. His first professional role was as Cutpurse in Cyrano de Bergerac at the Theatre Royal, Bristol. Then on to the Manchester Library Theatre and, ultimately, an audition for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Half a century later, he still remembered standing before Peter Hall, the RSC’s formidable artistic director, on a “rainy Sunday afternoon”.

He remained with the company for 14 years, appearing, in 1970, in Peter Brook’s immediately legendary production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Frances de la Tour and Ben Kingsley.

“I had no ambitions or dreams to become a film or television actor,” he told me. “My dreams came true when I got to the Royal Shakespeare Company.”

There was much decent television work in the following years. He was towering as Sejanus in I, Claudius.

He spoke not a word, but was mesmerising as Karla, George Smiley’s arch enemy, in the unforgettable TV adaptations of John Le Carré’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Smiley’s People.

Real fame arrived with Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987. The role came as a complete fluke. Robert Justman, a producer on the show, happened to catch him doing readings to illustrate a lecture at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The next day Stewart got a call from his agent wondering why the Star Trek people might want to speak with him.

He immediately clicked in the role of Captain Picard. The Shakespearean bearing lent weight to the performance, but there was also a degree of ironic wit to the new captain.

He was not a gung-ho action man like predecessor Captain Kirk (William Shatner is still with us at 95). Picard was more of a statesman figure. The series ran until 1994.

There were spin-off films into the new century. In 2020, opposite Irish actor Orla Brady, he returned for a moving TV series called Star Trek: Picard.

His pals all told him not to do Star Trek. It would never last. It was old hat. “More people watched the first episode alone than had ever watched me in every play I had ever been in,” he remembered with a smile in 2016.

In 2000, he appeared as Professor Xavier, leader of the X-Men, and remained attached to the Marvel superhero environment for another quarter of a century. He is expected to make a posthumous appearance as Xavier in Avengers: Doomsday this Christmas.

Stewart never stopped working. From 2009, he appeared opposite old friend Ian McKellen in a stage production of Waiting for Godot.

Earlier this year, he had a role in the delightful film comedy The Sheep Detectives. It was a perfectly balanced career: mainstream success blended with top-flight work on the world’s most celebrated stages.

Stewart is survived by his wife Sunny and by two children. The Yorkshire remained. A decade ago, he told me that, when on the phone to his family: “My wife says that I almost immediately become incomprehensible.”

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