Sir Patrick Stewart has died at the age of 86. His family announced that he passed away at his home in Los Angeles on October 28, 2026, after a brief journey with Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia, in the care of his wife, Sunny Ozell.
Born July 13, 1940, in Mirfield, Yorkshire, a schoolteacher first put Shakespeare into his hands. He left school at fifteen for the local theatre, trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966, staying sixteen years — playing Claudius, Enobarbus in Antony and Cleopatra, and Macbeth. In later years he returned to the stage with his great friend Ian McKellen in Waiting for Godot and No Man's Land, and toured the world alone with his one-man A Christmas Carol.
On screen, he first caught the public eye as Sejanus in the BBC's I, Claudius (1976). Then came the role that made him known around the world: Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) — seven seasons, four feature films, and finally three more seasons of Star Trek: Picard (2020–2023). In 2000, he became Professor Charles Xavier, founder of the X-Men, playing Xavier nine times on screen over more than two decades; his ninth and final appearance, in Marvel's Avengers: Doomsday, will reach audiences after his death.
In 2010, he was knighted for his services to drama. He served eleven years as Chancellor of the University of Huddersfield, and gave his time to human rights, survivors of domestic violence, refugees, veterans' mental health, and animal welfare. In lieu of flowers, the family asks for memorial contributions to the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer's Disease Research Center Fund and the Alzheimer's Foundation of America Caregiver Resources.
Watch the tribute video: Sir Patrick Stewart, 1940–2026 | A Tribute to Captain Picard and Professor X
The tribute also notes a second story his Xavier points to: how hip hop and comics embraced each other. The late MF DOOM built his whole identity on Marvel's Doctor Doom, performing behind a metal mask; Method Man took his Johnny Blaze alias from Ghost Rider's alter ego, appeared in Marvel's Luke Cage, and went on to write Marvel's Ghost Rider Christmas Special; and in 2015, Marvel paid tribute back with a line of hip-hop variant covers — including Miles Morales as Spider-Man posed like Nas on the cover of Illmatic.
Rest in peace, Sir Patrick. Make it so.
Photos: Patrick Stewart at San Diego Comic-Con 2013 by Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 3.0). No film stills are used; no photo in the video is presented as a film still.