Patrick Stewart, 1940 – 2026

Patrick Stewart, one of Britain’s most talented and acclaimed actors, died on Oct. 28 at his Los Angeles home. He was 86. Stewart was best known for playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard in several Star Trek movies, but his career covered everything from playing the classics at the Royal Shakespeare Company to poking fun at himself on Family Guy. With his godlike voice and sexy bald good looks, Stewart was rarely out of work: he started onstage (his many Broadway shows included Macbeth, Waiting for Godot, and A Christmas Carol), and in small TV and movie roles (he was a great Sejanus in I, Claudius). By the 1980s he was seen in such films and TV shows as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Excalibur, Dune, Jeffrey, Moby Dick, X-Men (and its spinoffs), Hamlet, Ice Age, Futurama, Logan, American Dad!, and countless other projects. Stewart was one of those rare performers about whom I have never heard a bad word (and goodness knows I listen). Of his Star Trek fame he said, “I'm an actor dedicated to transforming myself and to creating original pieces of work, and I will not accept that my life is going to be forever connected to Jean-Luc Picard. On the other hand, I'm absolutely delighted that he's still in my life. Actually, I think my appearance in The Simpsons and an appearance that I did on Sesame Street - in praise of the letter B - were perhaps the two most distinguished bits of work that I've done in the United States.”