Patrick Stewart

Patrick Stewart was born on July 13, 1940, in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, England. He left school at 15 and worked as a newspaper reporter before training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. In 1966, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he built a substantial stage career. Among his roles was Oberon in Peter Brook’s celebrated 1970 production of *A Midsummer Night’s Dream*, which toured internationally. Television viewers saw him as the ambitious Roman official Sejanus in the BBC’s 1976 adaptation of *I, Claudius*.

Before his best-known television role, Stewart appeared in two prominent fantasy and science-fiction films: he played King Leondegrance in *Excalibur* (1981) and the warrior Gurney Halleck in David Lynch’s *Dune* (1984). In 1987, he began playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard in *Star Trek: The Next Generation*. Picard commanded the USS Enterprise-D through the series’ seven seasons, ending in 1994. Stewart continued the role in four feature films, beginning with *Star Trek Generations* (1994) and ending with *Star Trek: Nemesis* (2002). He returned to the character decades later in *Star Trek: Picard*, which ran for three seasons from 2020 to 2023.

Stewart reached another film audience as Professor Charles Xavier in *X-Men* (2000). He reprised the character in several films, including *X2*, *X-Men: Days of Future Past*, and *Logan*. The last of these, released in 2017, depicts an elderly Xavier in a bleak future alongside Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. Stewart also appeared as a version of Xavier in *Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness* (2022). His voice work includes CIA deputy director Avery Bullock on the animated series *American Dad!*

Stage work remained central to Stewart’s career after his Hollywood success. He played Claudius opposite David Tennant’s Prince Hamlet in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2008 production of *Hamlet*. In 2013, he and his longtime friend Ian McKellen appeared together on Broadway in *Waiting for Godot* and Harold Pinter’s *No Man’s Land*. Stewart has also performed a one-man adaptation of Charles Dickens’s *A Christmas Carol* and played Ebenezer Scrooge in a 1999 television film.

Stewart was knighted in 2010 for services to drama. His 2023 memoir, *Making It So*, takes its title from one of Picard’s familiar commands. It recounts his Yorkshire childhood, years in classical theatre, and the screen roles that made him internationally recognizable.