Patrick Stewart, Shakespearean actor turned ‘Star Trek’ and ‘X-Men’ star, dies at 86

Patrick Stewart, who rose from poverty in England to become an accomplished Shakespearean stage actor and then achieved global stardom as the erudite Captain Jean-Luc Picard in TV’s “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and the telepathic Professor Charles Xavier in the “X-Men” movies, has died at the age of 86. Stewart, knighted in 2010 by Queen Elizabeth II for his contributions to drama, died at his home in Los Angeles, according to a statement on his X account. “We announce with great sorrow the passing of Sir Patrick Stewart yesterday at his home in Los Angeles, in the loving care of his beloved wife Sunny following a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s Disease and Lewy Body Dementia,” it said. Stewart became an actor at age 18 and gained acclaim on the stage as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company beginning in the 1960s.

But it was not until after he was hired at age 47 for “Star Trek: The Next Generation” – a TV series that ran from 1987 to 1994 as a sequel to the original 1960s “Star Trek” – that he gained mainstream fame, acting into his 80s. “Make it so,” his character Picard often said, instructing a subordinate to carry out a command, or sometimes deploying the similar catch phrase, “Engage. ” It was a role he had debated even taking after his longtime friend and fellow Shakespearen Ian McKellen advised him to spurn “Star Trek” and remain in theater. Stewart did take the role and became both a fan favorite and an indispensable part of a lucrative sci-fi franchise, playing Picard not only in 176 episodes over seven seasons of that series but also in several “Star Trek” films and in the later streaming series “Star Trek: Picard” that began airing in 2020 when he was 79. “As the seven seasons of TNG (“The Next Generation”) went by, the distinction…