This one really got me and broke my heart. I did not know that Patrick Stewart was even ill. He seemed too young at heart to pass away. Patrick Stewart passed away from Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia at his Los Angeles home on Wednesday. He was 86 years old and still working – his last film performance will be in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, as Professor X. His role as Professor X and his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation made him an icon. But he worked constantly, across film and television and the stage. He had a massive, acclaimed career and he was utterly beloved by everyone. One of my favorite Patrick Stewart gigs was his hilariously bonkers voice work on American Dad – it was like Seth McFarlane got so much joy in getting Stewart to say the most unhinged things imaginable.

Many of Patrick Stewart’s friends and colleagues are gutted this week. Ian McKellen – who loved Patrick like a brother – issued an emotional and beautiful statement, which I wanted to share:

SIR PATRICK STEWART (1940-2026)

Before everything else, Patrick was defined by being born and bred in Yorkshire, the proud county in the north of England which he loved to the end. You could hear it in his accented voice and in the stern honesty with which he told you what he thought and felt. Yorkshiremen have no truck with half-truths or avoidance of big issues. He wore his heart on his sleeve, which made him a man to rely on, to admire and in my case, love.

We first met as ambitious young actors with the Royal Shakespeare Company half a century ago but we weren’t in the same productions. My first strong memory was a few years later, meeting him in the street in central London when he told me about an offer to take over a leading part in ‘Star Trek’. “But Patrick think of your stage career in the UK. Do you really want to risk—getting lost in Hollywood for years and years?”. Well, he took the risk and thank goodness for us all that he did for not just his devoted Trekkies but film and theatre audiences, who marvelled at his using international celebrity to star in a string of cinema successes (‘X-Men’ of course) and in great classical plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Arthur Miller, Peter Shaffer, Pinter and Beckett at Stratford-upon-Avon, in London’s West End and on Broadway.

America was his adopted home, where he met his adored Sunny who has cared for him through sickness and health, through thick and thin. But he never forsook his origins: and the proudest achievement of the most respected and beloved actor of his generation on either side of the Atlantic, was his appointment as Chancellor of Huddersfield University in Yorkshire.

His farewell performance in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ is yet to be seen.

[From Ian McKellen’s Instagram]

McKellen’s tribute to his friend was honestly one of the best obituaries. There were other tributes, from Hugh Jackman (another one of Stewart’s dear friends) and the X-Men/Marvel family. Everyone is just gutted. He lived a full life but it still feels like he died in his prime.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to:
Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Fund
https://t.co/luC5CdcWDy
Alzheimer’s Foundation of America Caregiver Resources
https://t.co/zvNptfyuNd

Photo Credit: Tommy Garcia https://t.co/XNncEVq56X

— Patrick Stewart (@SirPatStew) October 29, 2026

Photos credit: Avalon.red