Sir Patrick Stewart, a celebrated Shakespearean actor known for playing Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard and X-Men‘s Professor Charles Xavier, has passed at the age of 86,
Variety reports the details: Patrick Stewart, ‘Star Trek’ Captain and ‘X-Men’ Superhero, Dies at 86.
Stewart died Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles following “a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia,” longtime spokesperson Kelly Bush Novak announced.
I was unaware of his illness, so I was surprised to hear of his death this afternoon, despite his age. Alzheimer’s is a cruel disease, making its brevity likely a blessing. I was unfamiliar with Lewy body dementia, but here is a good primer via the AARP: What Is Lewy Body Dementia?
About 1.4 million people in the United States have Lewy body dementia, according to the Lewy Body Dementia Association. It is the second most common cause of neurodegenerative dementia after Alzheimer’s disease, though it is believed to be vastly underdiagnosed. Most cases occur in people age 50 or older. And it is slightly more common among men than women. The disease is progressive, meaning it worsens over time. There is no cure or way to slow it down, but treatments are available to help with some of its symptoms.
Doctors look for four symptoms of Lewy body dementia, though not all four have to be present:
- Fluctuating cognition or alertness
- Visual hallucinations, that is, seeing things that aren’t there
- Sleep disorders, such as acting out or vocalizing while dreaming
- Parkinson’s-like movement difficulties, such as stiffness, slowness, tremors, or shuffling walk and falls
There had been a rumor earlier this year that he had decided to retire from acting after his performance in the upcoming movie, Avengers: Doomsday. People reports that that was not the case: Patrick Stewart Said He Couldn’t Imagine Ever Retiring from Acting 3 Months Before His Death.
“As any actor my age will tell you, there are fewer and fewer available roles as we get older,” Stewart told the outlet when asked whether he was considering retirement or becoming more selective about his projects.
“That being said, I still continue to receive interesting offers and I love being challenged by new work, like voicing a pig’s head in Riz Ahmed’s brilliant new series Bait,” he continued.
The actor, who turned 86 on July 13, added, “I can’t imagine ever officially ‘retiring.’ I’ll always and forever be an actor.”
The NYT has a lengthy write-up, Patrick Stewart, Master of Shakespeare, ‘Star Trek’ and More, Has Died, which includes the following about his early career.
Graduating from secondary school at 15, he took a job as a junior reporter with the local newspaper but quit after a year; his editor had complained that he was spending too much time on his theater avocation. After that, he worked for a year as a furniture salesman to save money for drama school, though a local arts council ended up giving him a full scholarship so that he could enroll in the prestigious Bristol Old Vic Theater School, which accepted him in 1957, when he was 17.
Two years later, he made his professional acting debut, as the marooned pirate Tom Morgan in “Treasure Island,” with the Lincoln Repertory Company in Lincoln, England. In other early appearances, he took the title roles in Shakespeare’s “Henry V” (1963), at the Manchester Library Theater, and Bertolt Brecht’s “The Life of Galileo” (1965), at the Bristol Old Vic.
[…]
Mr. Stewart continued to find work, including on British television series like “Coronation Street” and “Story Parade.” By the 1970s, he was winning substantial roles in BBC TV movies and mini-series.
He portrayed Lenin in “Fall of Eagles” (1974); the postwar prime minister Clement Attlee in “The Gathering Storm” (1974); John Thornton, a brainy mill owner, in “North and South” (1975); Sejanus, head of the Praetorian Guard, in “I, Claudius” (1976, seen in the United States on “Masterpiece Theater” in 1977); and the Soviet spymaster Karla in brief, nonspeaking appearances in two John le Carré adaptations, “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” (1979) and “Smiley’s People” (1982).
Mr. Stewart made his Broadway debut in 1971 in Peter Brook’s acclaimed production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” He was Snout, the tinker who portrays the wall between Pyramus and Thisbe in the comedy’s lowbrow play-within-a-play. It would be 20 years before Mr. Stewart appeared on Broadway again, in a 1991 run of a solo production of “A Christmas Carol” he had developed a few years before. The holiday-season show, which he repeated on Broadway in 1992, 1994 and 2001, received a Drama Desk Award for outstanding solo performance.
I was only vaguely aware of Stewart when he was cast as the new Captain of a new Enterprise. While it took a while for Picard to become Picard, Stewart soon became a key figure in the greater Star Trek universe. He played the role for seven seasons on TV, in four feature films, and in three seasons of Star Trek: Picard in recent years.
In memoriam, I will share a number of clips, although so many could be shared. Here are some favorites from TNG:
To show his range (and comedic chops), here’s a clip from LA Story.
It’s funny, but I was just thinking about Stewart’s hosting of SNL earlier this week, so here’s his monologue and The Love Boat: The Next Generation sketch.
And, because it just needs to be seen, here’s Stewart in David Lynch’s Dune carrying a pug into battle (for reasons).
He brought a lot of joy to a lot of people for a very long time.
May he rest in peace.
