Patrick Stewart, the sophisticated actor who brought a Shakespearean touch to Star Trek and X-Men as he made an otherworldly transformation from British stage veteran to sci-fi icon, has died. He was 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.
“He has been held in the warm embrace of family and friends, surrounded by live music, prayer, tears, laughter and the kind of profound emotion that only he could inspire after a lifetime of devotion to us all,” Bush Novak wrote. “We will forever cherish the peaceful ease and reflection on his face, an enduring reminder of his invincible grace.”
In the late 1980s, Stewart had decades of classical theater work in England under his belt but was unfamiliar in America when he was given command of the U.S.S. Enterprise.
Star Trek: The Next Generation producer Robert Justman happened upon a UCLA lecture featuring Stewart and witnessed him reading from Shakespeare in his trademark patrician style. Justman called the actor in for an audition against the wishes of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, who didn’t think a bald Brit could be the face of the new series.
After a contentious casting process, Stewart won over the famously persnickety Roddenberry and signed a long-term contract to play Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, thinking there was no way the show would last beyond one season.
“Every single person I spoke to — agents, directors, screenwriters, other actors — said, ‘Oh, don’t worry about six years. You’ll be lucky to make it through the first year,’ ” Stewart recalled in 2010. “Everybody felt it was madness to try to revive an iconic series like William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy‘s Star Trek. So, on the basis of that advice, I signed the six-year contract.”
