Image source, CBS via Getty Images Published 29 October 2026 Updated 1 hour ago Sir Patrick Stewart, who has died at the age of 86, was a stage and screen great who balanced Hollywood stardom with an equally stellar career in classical theatre.
While many actors are typecast, he moved effortlessly from Shakespeare and Dickens to the command of the USS Enterprise and his famous wheelchair in X-Men.
In a career that spanned seven decades, Sir Patrick received multiple awards, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II.
One of the world's most versatile actors, he mastered both comedy and tragedy, science-fiction and historical drama - despite the entertainment industry's traditional dislike of bald heads.
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Figure caption, Watch: The life of legendary actor Sir Patrick Stewart
Patrick Hewes Stewart was born in Mirfield in the West Riding of Yorkshire on 13 July 1940.
His mother Gladys was a textile worker. She was active in amateur dramatics and encouraged her three sons to take part.
His father was a former Sergeant Major in the Parachute Regiment whose experience during the wartime evacuation of Dunkirk had shredded his mental health.
"My father was a very potent individual," Stewart later recalled. "It was said that when he strode on to the parade ground, birds stopped singing."
But Alfred Stewart had become a quick-tempered man, suffering from what would now be called post traumatic stress.
He was prone to drink and often took out his frustrations on his family - although Patrick himself was never the target of his fists.
Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Patrick Stewart in the Royal Shakespeare Company's 1970 production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Young Patrick's love of drama developed at school when one of his teachers introduced him to Shakespeare and encouraged him to perform.
His first public performance was in a local church production of Cinderella.
He found the predictability of dramatic performances a welcome change from the turmoil of his home life.
He left school at 15 and eventually got a job as a journalist and obituary writer on the Dewsbury Reporter.
He also threw himself enthusiastically into the flourishing local theatre. "I used to recite Shakespeare from memory," he said. "I just learned all these big speeches."
Image caption, He played a conspiratorial Roman soldier in the BBC's I, Claudius in 1976
But he found it impossible to concentrate on both his job and his acting. Eventually his editor told him to choose between journalism and the "foolhardy" acting.
Stewart picked up his typewriter and walked out.
At the age of 18, he had the traumatic experience of losing all his hair, a huge blow to an aspiring actor and self-conscious teenager - who worried that girls would no longer find him attractive.
He won a scholarship to the Bristol Old Vic and later joined the Royal Shakespeare Company - playing a variety of roles across the company's repertoire.
And when not appearing as Oberon or Enobarbus, he made his TV debut as a fireman in a 1967 episode of soap opera Coronation Street.
Image caption, Patrick Stewart as a Russian spy in 1982 BBC series Smiley's People
His Broadway debut came in 1970 as Snout in Peter Brook's critically acclaimed p…