Patrick Stewart dead at 86: Shakespearean actor who became a Hollywood megastar was a ‘singular talent’

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But his move to America in 1987 was initially greeted with disdain by the Los Angeles Times, who wrote him off as an “unknown British Shakespearean actor.”

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Stewart later said he was offended by suggestions he was “slumming it” by moving into U.S. television.

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He once called his Shakespearean bona fides “nothing but a preparation for sitting in the captain’s chair of the Enterprise.”

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‘Gravitas and profundity’

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Stewart found further acclaim on the big screen in many films of the “X-Men” series, debuting in 2000 as Professor Charles Xavier, the founder and mentor of the mutant superhero team.

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“For more than 25 years, he brought a gravitas and profundity to the role, earning fans across the globe and helping to transform Super Hero storytelling forever,” Marvel Studios said Thursday.

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Longtime co-star Hugh Jackman, who played Wolverine, remembered Stewart as both “one of the greats of stage and screen” and “a tremendous friend and man.”

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From 2020 to 2023, Stewart was tempted back to the “Star Trek” franchise, starring in the “Star Trek: Picard” television series.

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He was nominated for four Emmys, but never took one home.

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And even as he found success in Hollywood, Stewart’s love of theater, and the bard in particular, never left him.

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Between filming, he would return to his roots on the stage, winning two Olivier awards.

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“Having spent so much of my life with Shakespeare’s world, passions and ideas in my head and in my mouth, he feels like a friend, someone who just went out of the room to get another bottle of wine,” he said.

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The decorated performer also nabbed a Grammy for spoken word, for his narration of “Prokofiev: Peter And The Wolf.”

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Troubled start

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Stewart was born on July 13, 1940 in the small West Yorkshire town of Mirfield, the third of three brothers in a working-class family.

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He grew up, it emerged much later, in the shadow of domestic violence.

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His father, back from World War II and perhaps suffering from PTSD, would often beat Stewart’s mother.

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Stewart would later work with the charity Refuge, which specializes in domestic abuse.

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The actor left school at 15 but not without the encouragement of his English teacher Cecil Dormand, who introduced him to Shakespeare and gave him his first role in a play with adults.

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He studied at Bristol Old Vic Drama School beginning in 1957, making his professional acting debut two years later.

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Prematurely balding, Stewart missed out on many of the young romantic leads but quickly slotted into theater life, joining the RSC in 1966 and staying there until 1982.