Sir Patrick Stewart, the Star Trek icon, has died at the age of 86.
Stewart died at his Los Angeles home on Wednesday after “a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia,” his spokesman, Kelly Bush Novak, announced.
The English actor became an international star as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, appearing in the series from 1987 to 1994. He later reprised the role in several films and in Star Trek: Picard, which ran from 2020 to 2023.
He also won widespread acclaim for portraying Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men film franchise between 2000 and 2017.
“His sonorous voice and singular talent will forever be synonymous with indelible performances in every genre,” an emotional statement released after his death said.
“He explored the human condition in all its poetic complexity and brought hope not only to the far reaches of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but into science fiction’s most iconic final frontier aboard the Starship Enterprise.”
“His professional accomplishments were humbly matched by his philanthropy and activism on behalf of human rights, survivors of domestic violence, global refugees, veterans’ mental health services and animal welfare, particularly his cherished foster pitties.”
Star Trek icon Sir Patrick Stewart has died aged 86. He was best known for playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek.
Stewart died Wednesday at his Los Angeles home after “a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia,” spokesman Kelly Bush Novak announced. Pictured in June 2024.
The star was married three times, including to his final wife, Sunny Ozell, whom he wed in 2013. Pictured in 2023.
“He was a Knight, Chancellor, motor sport enthusiast and lifelong Huddersfield Football fan. He will be remembered for the dignity, compassion and humanity he brought to every role—in his art and life.”
Although he was best known for blockbuster films and television, the classically trained actor also built an accomplished career on stage, including performances from the Shakespearean canon.
Stewart joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966 and made his Broadway debut in 1971, appearing in a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
He later won a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in Antony and Cleopatra in the West End.
Over the course of his career, Stewart played characters ranging from Claudius to Macbeth. He also regularly performed a one-man version of A Christmas Carol and appeared in West End and Broadway productions of Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, sharing the repertoire with his friend Ian McKellen.
Queen Elizabeth II knighted Stewart in 2010 for his services to drama.
The actor, who married three times, is survived by two children. He first married Sheila Falconer in 1966, and they divorced in 1990 after having a son, Daniel, and a daughter, Sophia.
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His second wife was Wendy Neuss, one of the producers of Star Trek: The Next Generation. They married in 2000 and divorced three years later.
Stewart’s third and final marriage was to singer-songwriter Sunny Ozell, 47, whom he married in 2013.
In a 2015 interview with The Mail on Sunday’s Event magazine, Ozell said the most difficult part of their relationship had been meeting Stewart’s children from his first marriage.
He also garnered acclaim for playing Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men film series from 2000 to 2017
Stewart is pictured with the cast of Star Trek in 1987
She said. ‘That was territory I trod on very lightly. I didn’t want to force myself on them but they were very welcoming.’
And she said the age gap was irrelevant. ‘He is so youthful and I guess I’m kind of an old worry wart so we bridge the gap. It doesn’t come up much. He’s in better shape than me, which infuriates me.’
And Stewart said: ‘I remember my 40th birthday vividly and I swear to God it was last week. I have a little bit of arthritis but I don’t feel any different.’
The couple met through a mutual friend in 2008 when American singer-songwriter Ozell was working as a waitress in New York.
They married in September 2013 on the banks of Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in a wedding officiated by Stewart’s best friend and fellow actor Sir Ian McKellen.
McKellen registered as a minister with the Universal Life Church, which celebrates freedom of religion, in order to officiate at Stewart and Ozell’s wedding on the shores of Lake Tahoe two years ago.
‘It was an immediate attraction,’ said Stewart of his first time meeting Ozell.
‘When she came over to offer us dessert on the house – because her manager had insisted – we got talking.
‘She very kindly said she wanted to see Macbeth and then I gave her my mobile phone number.’
‘Instinct is everything in a situation like that,’ says Stewart, who had only recently divorced his second wife, Neuss.
‘I felt I was talking to a really nice, intelligent, interesting, gorgeous woman. It’s rare that those elements all come together at the same time.’