Sir Patrick Stewart, Star Trek and X-Men star with Vancouver ties, dies at 86 

The pair later reunited onstage in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, appearing in London’s West End and on a U.K. tour in 2009. They took the play to Broadway in 2013–14, performing it in repertory with Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land.

Former co-stars paid tribute to Stewart online, including William Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk alongside Stewart’s Picard in the 1994 film Star Trek: Generations.

“What a heartbreaking week it has been. Sir Patrick Stewart was a friend, a colleague, and a magnificent actor. From the stage to the bridge of the Enterprise, he brought intelligence, grace, and a deep sense of humanity to everything he did,” Shatner posted on X.

“Captain Picard stood for the best of us, and so did the man who played him. I was filled with affection and admiration for him and his work. My heart goes out to Sunny and his family. He will be deeply missed.”

Hugh Jackman, who played Wolverine/Logan opposite Stewart in several X-Men films, remembered him on Instagram.

“We lost one of the greats of stage and screen today. And, in my book, a tremendous friend and man. I learned so much from him. I will miss you, Patrick Stewart, all of my days.”

Stewart became an international television star as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, playing the role for seven seasons before taking it to the big screen in a series of films beginning with Generations. He returned to the character in Star Trek: Picard, which concluded its third and final season in April 2023.

He first played Professor X in 2000’s X-Men and returned to the role in subsequent films, including 2017’s Logan opposite Jackman. He also reprised the character for Avengers: Doomsday, scheduled for release on Dec. 18.

His voice work included Family Guy, American Dad and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, as well as this year’s The Sheep Detectives.

Born July 13, 1940, in Mirfield, Yorkshire, Stewart left school at 15 to pursue acting. He made his professional debut in 1959 in a production of Cyrano de Bergerac at the Theatre Royal in Bristol. He went on to join the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he was in more than 60 productions. He won three Olivier Awards and received a Tony nomination for his stage work, along with multiple Emmy, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for television and film.

In 2023, he published the New York Times-bestselling memoir Making It So, its title drawn from Picard’s signature command, “make it so.”