Patrick Stewart, Captain Picard and Professor Xavier, dies at 86

Patrick Stewart, the English actor who played Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men films, died on Oct. 29 at his Los Angeles home. He was 86, Variety reported.

The cause was Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy Body Dementia, according to a statement on his Instagram account.

Stewart was a mainstay of the Royal Shakespeare Company for two decades before Star Trek. He played Astrov in Uncle Vanya, Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shylock in The Merchant of Venice and the title role in Titus Andronicus. He lost his hair at 18 and left school at 15 to work as a newspaper reporter before choosing acting.

Star Trek: The Next Generation ran from 1987 to 1994. Stewart played Picard for seven seasons and four films. The New York Times said he made Picard “the moral center” of the show, keeping it from sliding into camp. He returned to the role for Star Trek: Picard, which ran from 2020 to 2023.

In the X-Men films, Stewart played Professor Xavier opposite Ian McKellen as Magneto. The two developed a close friendship and appeared together on the West End in Waiting for Godot in 2009 and on Broadway in 2014 in that play and No Man’s Land.

Stewart is survived by his third wife, Sunny Ozell, whom he married in 2013 in a ceremony presided over by McKellen, and two children from his first marriage.

What the coverage missed

The Variety obituary is comprehensive on Stewart’s career. It does not dwell on the disease that killed him. Alzheimer’s and Lewy Body Dementia are progressive, and Stewart was 86. The statement said he had a “brief battle,” which suggests the decline was fast. Lewy Body Dementia is particularly cruel for an actor: it causes visual hallucinations, sleep disturbances and motor problems, on top of memory loss.

The obituary also does not mention that Stewart reprised the Xavier role in Avengers: Doomsday, which comes out in December. He filmed it while ill. The performance will be his last film appearance, and the coverage does not note that.

Stewart was knighted in 2010 and served as chancellor of the University of Huddersfield. The obituary mentions the knighthood in passing. A working-class kid from Mirfield, Yorkshire, who left school at 15 and became a knight and a chancellor, is a story about class in Britain that the obituary does not tell.

What I think

Stewart was the rare actor who had two careers. The first was at the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he was one of the best classical actors of his generation. The second was in American television and film, where he became an icon to millions who never saw him on stage.

Picard was the role that changed his life. He was 47 when Star Trek: The Next Generation began, a stage actor with a bald head and a British accent, cast to lead an American television show about a starship captain. The casting was controversial. The performance silenced the critics. Picard was thoughtful, principled and brave, and Stewart made him believable.

The X-Men role came later, and it fit. Professor Xavier is a teacher and a leader, which is what Stewart had been at the RSC. The difference is that Xavier leads mutants, and Picard leads a starship. Stewart played both with the same authority.

He worked until he could not. Avengers: Doomsday will be his last film. He filmed it with Alzheimer’s and Lewy Body Dementia. That is the detail that stays. The man who played the most intelligent character in Star Trek lost his mind at the end. The disease does not care who you are.