Sir Patrick Stewart, the Shakespearean stage actor who became beloved around the world as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and Professor Charles Xavier in the “X-Men” films, died on Wednesday, October 28, at his home in Los Angeles. He was 86. His family announced the news on Thursday in a statement shared on his social media accounts and confirmed by his spokesperson, saying he passed “in the loving care of his beloved wife Sunny, following a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s Disease and Lewy Body Dementia” — two diagnoses that had never been publicly disclosed. He has been, the statement said, “held in the warm embrace of family and friends, surrounded by live music, prayer, tears, laughter.”
Born on July 13, 1940, in Mirfield, Yorkshire, Stewart rose from a childhood of poverty to acclaim with the Royal Shakespeare Company before taking the Picard role at 47 — against the advice of his friend Ian McKellen — and playing him for 176 episodes across seven seasons, four films, and a return in “Star Trek: Picard” at 79. He led a second franchise as Professor X from 2000’s “X-Men” onward, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2010, and is survived by his wife, musician Sunny Ozell, and his children, Daniel and Sophie. Audiences will see him one final time as Professor X in “Avengers: Doomsday,” in theaters December 18. William Shatner, the original “Star Trek” captain, wrote that Picard “stood for the best of us, and so did the man who played him.” Instead of flowers, the family asked for donations to the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Fund and the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America.
