Rest In Peace, Patrick Stewart (1940-2026)
Sir Patrick Stewart, best know for his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation, has died at the age of 86. He passed at home in Los Angeles from Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia.
He was largely considered an unknown when the “Star Trek” offer came along. At the invitation of a friend, a university professor, Mr. Stewart had been in Los Angeles conducting master classes on Shakespeare when, one evening, he gave a lecture and performed some bits of the plays in a program that was open to the public.
A TV producer who was involved in developing a new “Star Trek” series happened to attend and soon persuaded Mr. Stewart to audition — even though, as Mr. Stewart later wrote, he knew “next to nothing” about the franchise.
Surprised to get the part — the “Star Trek” creator, Gene Roddenberry, who was overseeing the new series, had not been keen to hire him at first — Mr. Stewart expected the project to be a short-term commitment. How, he remembered thinking, could the show possibly succeed with a middle-aged pacifist captain with a French name and a British accent?
This is hard news to take, even though Stewart lived a full and fulfilling life. The Next Generation will always be my favorite Star Trek series and Picard my favorite captain. Stewart got off to a rough start on the series:
So when he was on set shooting the show’s debut season and co-stars like Jonathan Frakes, Denise Crosby and Brent Spiner would tease him or ad-lib a joke or laugh when they flubbed their lines, it would low-key infuriate him.
“I could be a severe bastard,” he writes. “My experiences at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre had been intense and serious… On the TNG set, I grew angry with the conduct of my peers, and that’s when I called that meeting in which I lectured the cast for goofing off and responded to Denise Crosby’s, ‘We’ve got to have some fun sometimes, Patrick’ comment by saying, ‘We are not here, Denise, to have fun.’”
“In retrospect,” Stewart continues, “everyone, me included, finds this story hilarious. But in the moment, when the cast erupted in hysterics at my pompous declaration, I didn’t handle it well. I didn’t enjoy being laughed at. I stormed off the set and into my trailer, slamming the door.”
But he found his footing and eventually found meaning in the role of Picard (archive):
Q: There’s a passage where you say that, from your father, “I drew Picard’s stern, intimidating tendencies. But I like to think that my mother is in the captain too, in his moments of warmth and sensitivity.” Do you see Picard as your way of reconciling that conflict between your parents?
A: Very much so, yes. Both Star Trek and therapy have been responsible for that. Having to open the doors into my childhood in order to be an actor became utterly intriguing to me in a way that it never had been before. And I regret that when I look back on some of the roles I played, what I might have brought to them if I just released myself a little bit more.
Might watch an episode or two this evening in remembrance. If you’re not a Trek fan, you can watch Stewart play Macbeth in 2010:
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During the early days of the pandemic, Stewart recorded himself reciting Shakespeare's sonnets.
And from 1996, he riffed on Hamlet on Sesame Street: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA7lv1SDzno
Watch a young Patrick Stewart opposite Alec Guinness in the BBC Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy to see how an actor can command the screen while doing almost nothing (he even out-nothings George Smiley)
Among the many wonderful things about Patrick Stewart was how forcefully he campaigned against domestic violence. He grew up in a home where his dad beat his mom, and Sir Patrick spent his life trying to make sure no other kid had to experience that. Hearing him speak about it was extremely moving.
💯!! I remember a particularly moving exchange with a young woman at a public Q&A. She asked him about that and Stewart seemed to sense something amiss. He asked “are you alright, my dear?” and she broke down in tears. He made sure she got some help right then and there. Total mensch.
Remembering Patrick Stewart, An LGBTQ+ Ally Who Never Needed To Be Asked.
Same. There was something that felt really radical about having a TV hero whose superpower was not just intelligence but thoughtfulness, and a kind of moral seriousness. Who showed from that first episode that you “win” by seeking to understand what seems like a threat.
I am bereft. I’ve had two strong male figures in my life. My father and Captain Picard. The former introduced me to the latter and I carry them both with me.
Rest in peace, Patrick Stewart:
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