Patrick Stewart has died

[Mr_Danger]

25 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

 

My lads current two obsessions are Sesame Street and American Dad (don’t ask). He’s enjoyed this clip.

[ReturnOfTheMack]

Who expected Kirk to outlast Picard?

 

I loved Patrick Stewart, never saw him do better than an amazing performance, even if he was in shite.

[TheBurningRed]

One of the last things I saw him in was this great Super Bowl commercial a couple of years ago where he tells Drew Barrymore off and sings Creed after launching Arnold.

I was debating rewatching the X-Men films recently. I think I will have to now. 

[mim731]

Fuck. 

This is a proper punch in the gut. 

The best captain, the best comic book casting, the best Scrooge. An absolute legend. 

Fuck. 

RIP Captain. You made it so. 

[Carbomb]

Oh, man. This one definitely hurts. Right in the childhood onwards.

All the usual love for his Picard and Xavier, and I second the shout for his Sejanus in I, Clavdivs, and even his Gurney Halleck in the original Dune.

It was also good to know he was such a lovely guy too, and it was heartbreaking when he opened up about his father's violence towards his mother, and how he felt so helpless to protect her.

RIP Sir Patrick Stewart. A superb career, and a good man. I'm saddened by his passing, but glad that the dementia didn't have time to take hold.

[Chico Torres]

TNG at 5pm on Sky One every weekday was essential viewing, I gave up watching Neighbours and Home and Away for that man. RIP Captain.

[Jazzy G]

12 minutes ago, Chico Torres said:

TNG at 5pm on Sky One every weekday was essential viewing, I gave up watching Neighbours and Home and Away for that man. RIP Captain.

New episodes on Sunday, then the old ones on repeat during the week. Before that it was Wednesday nights on BBC2 at 6pm.

[BomberPat]

I was never really a Star Trek guy. It's weird, people tend to assume that I am. I guess I'm into enough stuff adjacent to it that they fill in the blanks. Nobody in my family watched TNG, so it wasn't something that was around when I was growing up. I have maybe seen a handful of TNG episodes ever, the first few episodes of Picard, and the movies up to Generations.

So I don't have the connection to Patrick Stewart as "my captain" that so many others do, but I absolutely loved him in everything I saw him in, and I've been desperately trying to figure out where I would have first known him from given it wouldn't have been Star Trek. I think it may have been Pagemaster or Robin Hood: Men In Tights, which aren't exactly anybody's career highlights, or even the old RPG Lands of Lore that he did a ton of voice acting for.

I'm fascinated by the moments, as a child, that you first realise that the piece of art or media you're engaged with had to be made by someone. It's something you obviously understand, but there's a point where you intellectually recognise what that means, that whatever finished product you hold in your hand was a result of countless choices and decisions. Patrick Stewart might be the first actor I remember actively recognising was a good actor, even if I didn't necessarily know what that meant - I'd seen a kind of stagey, Shakespearean acting in old films, or mocked in comedies, to know that it was something old-fashioned and silly, but then when I saw/heard Patrick Stewart he seemed to be doing that in a way that wasn't silly, that wasn't old-fashioned, that felt utterly compelling and vital. I still don't think anyone has ever been better at taking the kind of rhetorical authority and gravitas that comes of being a classically trained Shakespearean actor, and making it work for regular TV or cinema, particularly American TV - Stewart as Picard could have so easily seemed stagey or at a remove from the rest of the cast, but in every episode or scene I have watched, he never does, it's always an ensemble piece. 

And what he brought to Picard was that depth and presence that comes of his background, but also a warmth and an emotional vulnerability that the Star Trek movies occasionally attempted to find in Kirk, but which neither the Kirk character or William Shatner as an actor could possibly convey. It's the same thing he brought to Professor Xavier, this immense dignity and capacity for forgiveness, this sense that he was capable of incredible power, but a reluctance to use it unless all other options had been exhausted. 

[gmoney]

Yeah that's definitely something worth pointing out. Picard as written is pretty stoic, reserved and dutiful which aren't particularly intoxicating characteristics for a main character in a sci fi, yet I love him, and that's pretty much all down to the performance. 

[Ironic Indie Lad]

Never been a Star Trek guy really although I did enjoy TNG as a kid and had some of the figures (which were everywhere at the time).

I was and am a huge fan of comics for my entire life. Nobody could have played Professor Charles Xavier better than Patrick Stewart.

Huge loss. A genuine icon of popular culture. 

[DavidB6937]

One of the guys I was most scared about meeting because he genuinely meant so much to me as Picard in my younger years. I was a massive geek and I didn't know anyone else that watched TNG when I did so it was quite an isolating experience. But that show shaped so much of my tastes going forward. He was just such a wonderful, brave and funny leader while bringing that thespian quality that I grew to enjoy more and more as I got older.

And over those years he became less Picard and more just Patrick Stewart, a man who I admired for his acting range and just as a person. So when the first opportunity came up at a convention to meet him and even help him I can't even begin to describe how nervous I was. Mostly because I didn't want to say anything stupid myself but also because I'm well aware of the pressures on people appearing at conventions. It's so hard to give everyone what they want and make sure people don't miss out. Near impossible when you're a guy like Patrick Stewart because you're so in demand.

But it's those short moments of kindness, of being engaged and making the person feel like they're the only one you've met that day despite having seen thousands.. it's actually an incredibly difficult thing to master but it'll come as no surprise that Patrick was everything I could have imagined and more. Not only with my own interactions but just seeing others too. Because he was our Captain. So many of us existing out there alone, growing up with Trek (much like with Doctor Who) and not getting to share that experience along the way.

When I see someone like Patrick has passed I'm full of sadness for the loss but absolute joy at how many lives he touched in so many ways. What a way to live life. And that will continue to be his legacy because not only are there so many like me out there but there will continue to be new fans of TNG, X Men and beyond. I'm incredibly blessed to have had that moment of being able to talk to a man who gave me so much, and I'm so grateful for that. Same as when I was at Mania and met Shawn, Taker and Austin etc. Being a geek growing up alone pre-Internet was a whole different world.

[SoloJones]

Sad news, he was nothing short of brilliant in everything I saw him in. Never watched Star Trek (my wife wouldn't let me), but he's obviously fantastic in X-Men (big fan of Logan, particularly), had a great under the radar series in Blunt Talk, stole the show in Extras and is in my personal favourite Christmas Carol. Has one of the best guest spots in Frasier as well. But whilst he was great in every show and movie I saw him in, he's just brilliant at being himself, and hearing him talk in interviews, it's clear that he was just a lovely man who loved what he did. Gutted that I never got to see him perform live.

Ooh, Green Room was a really good performance from him too, and quite different from everything else I've seen him do.

Edited Friday at 11:26 AM by SoloJones

[air_raid]

I’m beyond depressed. From TNG to Charles Xavier to his fantastic turn as himself in Extras, the man was the gift that kept on giving. Just the phrase “…. on the grass” still makes me laugh to this day when brought up between my friends. “Eject the warp core” or “initiate self destruct” is how my family respond to any minor crisis on account on how fond Captain Picard was of either as a solution to anything from hostiles commandeering the Enterprise D, to the vending machine running out of fun size Crunchie bars. I realise not days ago did I exile myself from Off Topic but such was the impact of this incredible gentleman on my life, especially my youth when TNG repeats at 5PM on Sky One were appointment viewing, that I couldn’t let his death pass without being moved to tribute, as ineloquent as this may ultimately be compared to what Sir Patrick would deserve, as his mission finally comes to end.

My professor, my captain, knight of the realm… boldly go, and thank you. There are four lights.

[BomberPat]

that Frasier episode is brilliant too, a rarity for a post-Niles and Daphne marriage episode, and it's almost entirely down to Patrick Stewart knowing exactly how to play his part to just before the point of parody, so that it never becomes a lazy queer panic joke and instead the comedy entirely comes from Frasier being stuck in this maze of manners and politeness.

There's a brilliant double-whammy line delivery of Daphne introducing herself as Niles' wife, Stewart looking at them both and just saying "...no.", followed by Daphne saying "we're expecting", and Stewart responding, "well I certainly wasn't!".

[Thefatduck]

Here is the obituary from the guardian. 
 

I didn’t realise how much of a ‘real actor’ he was. 
Old Vic, rsc, broadway, west end etc  - a where’s where of theatre. 
 

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/oct/30/sir-patrick-stewart-obituary