Patrick Stewart, 86, Dies; McKellen Recalls Bond Forged on Canadian Sets

Sir Patrick Stewart, who played Jean-Luc Picard on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and Professor Charles Xavier in the "X-Men" films, died Oct. 28 at 86. He had lived with Alzheimer's and Lewy body dementia. Stewart was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1940.

Stewart joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966. Through that work he crossed paths with Sir Ian McKellen, though the two did not share a stage at the time. McKellen recalled in an Oct. 29 Instagram post that their first strong memory came a few years later on a London street, when Stewart told him about an offer to take a leading role in "Star Trek." McKellen tried to dissuade him. Stewart accepted the part, and the series premiered in 1987. He commanded the USS Enterprise through the show's 1994 end and four subsequent films.

In 2000, Stewart and McKellen appeared together in the first "X-Men" movie, which filmed in Toronto at Casa Loma, the former Gooderham & Worts Distillery complex on Mill Street, Metro Hall Council Chambers, Roy Thompson Hall, and Rouge National Urban Park. "X2: X-Men United" followed in 2003 and "X-Men: The Last Stand" in 2006, both shot in Toronto and Vancouver. McKellen wrote on Facebook in 2020 that he first met Stewart at the Royal Shakespeare Company but "became best pals in Toronto and Vancouver, filming the early 'X-Men.' O Canada, thank you."

The two shared a stage in England for Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" in 2009 and again in 2013 for Harold Pinter's "No Man's Land." McKellen officiated at Stewart's 2013 wedding to Sunny Ozell.

William Shatner wrote on Facebook that Stewart "brought intelligence, grace, and a deep sense of humanity to everything he did." Hugh Jackman, who worked alongside Stewart in "X-Men," posted that he learned a great deal from him and would miss him "all of my days."

Stewart's credits outside acting include a 1996 Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for "Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf." Queen Elizabeth knighted him in 2010 for contributions to British drama. McKellen has said Stewart considered his 2004 appointment as Chancellor of Huddersfield University in Yorkshire his highest achievement.

His family asked that memorial contributions go to the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer's disease Research Center Fund and the Alzheimer's Foundation of America Caregiver Resources.

Stewart appears as Professor Xavier in "Avengers: Doomsday," scheduled for theatres in December. An Oct. 16 Instagram post from Stewart noted his audiobook of Shakespeare's sonnets had been submitted for Grammy consideration.