Actor Patrick Stewart, Star Trek's Captain Picard and X-Men's Professor X, dies aged 86
British stage and screen actor Patrick Stewart, known worldwide as Captain Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men films, has died aged 86. He died at his home in Los Angeles.
Patrick Stewart, the British stage and screen actor famed for both Shakespeare and science fiction, has died at the age of 86. He died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles, United States. His longtime spokesperson, Kelly Bush Novak, told The Hollywood Reporter that the cause was a brief illness linked to Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia.
The spokesperson said that in his final days the actor was surrounded by family and friends, with live music and prayer.
Global fame as Captain Picard
Stewart was already an established figure on the British stage by the late 1980s. At 47 he was cast as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, the first live-action spin-off of the groundbreaking 1960s television series. Over seven seasons aboard the Starship Enterprise, he became a global star. He returned to the role in four feature films released between 1994 and 2002, and in the series Star Trek: Picard, which aired from 2020 to 2023.
His other best-known part was Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men films. He played the character in seven films and is due to appear again in Avengers: Doomsday this December.
Tributes from colleagues
William Shatner, a fellow Star Trek actor, said Stewart brought intelligence, grace and humanity to everything he did. George Takei wrote on Bluesky that Stewart inspired a generation of star-gazers. Hugh Jackman, his X-Men co-star, called him one of the greats of stage and screen. Marvel chief Kevin Feige praised his warmth and noted the many people he had mentored.
From Mirfield to Shakespeare
Stewart was born on 13 July 1940 in Mirfield, England, into a working-class family. His childhood was marked by alcoholism and domestic violence, and he found refuge in acting. He trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and from 1966 spent 16 years with the Royal Shakespeare Company. On stage he won two Laurence Olivier awards, and in 1996 he received a Grammy for a spoken-word children's album. His last major stage role came in 2016 in Harold Pinter's No Man's Land in London. His memoir, Making It So, was published in 2023.
Stewart was married three times; since 2013 his wife was jazz musician Sunny Ozell.
