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British actor Patrick Stewart, best known for playing Capt. Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” has died at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 86, Anadolu Agency reported.
“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,” Kelly Bush Novak, Stewart’s longtime spokesperson, said in a statement posted on Instagram on Thursday.
Stewart was born on July 13, 1940, in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, England. He overcame a difficult childhood and became a celebrated Shakespearean actor before achieving international fame in middle age, The New York Times reported.
He first played Picard in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” in 1987. The series ran for seven seasons and won 18 Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award, according to the newspaper.
Picard became known for the commands “Engage!” and “Make it so.” Stewart later reprised the role in four feature films and in the television series “Star Trek: Picard,” which ran for three seasons from 2020.
Outside the “Star Trek” franchise, Stewart played Gurney Halleck in David Lynch’s 1984 film “Dune” and Professor Charles Xavier in five “X-Men” films, including “Logan” (2017). Several of the films also featured Stewart’s close friend Ian McKellen.
Stewart’s stage career
Before his Hollywood success, Stewart had established himself as a leading British stage actor. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966 and won Olivier Awards for his performances in “Antony and Cleopatra” (1979) and “Hamlet” (2009).
In 1986, he received the London Fringe Theatre best actor award for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
Some of his theatre colleagues criticised his move to Hollywood, but Stewart defended his work in popular entertainment.
“They used to ask me ‘Why, why, why?’ as if I was somehow slumming it,” he told The Independent in 2003.
“What snobbery!” he said, adding: “For huge numbers of people, I will always be Jean-Luc Picard, and that’s fine. I really believe we created an admirable individual.”
Stewart was the youngest of three sons born to Alfred Stewart, a British Army regimental sergeant major, and Gladys (Barrowclough) Stewart, a textile factory worker. Known for his commanding baritone voice, he built a career spanning classical theatre and major science-fiction franchises, earning acclaim across generations.
