Patrick Stewart, stage giant also of ‘Star Trek’ and ‘X-Men’ fame, dies at 86 – WPXI

Patrick Stewart, stage giant also of ‘Star Trek’ and ‘X-Men’ fame, dies at 86  WPXI

Patrick Stewart, the classically trained stage actor who scaled the Shakespearean canon and added gravitas to a “Star Trek” franchise and the “X-Men” films, has died. He was 86. Stewart died Wednesday in Los Angeles, following “a brief and poignant journey” with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy Body Dementia, spokesperson Kelly Bush Novak said. While best known as Professor Charles Xavier and Captain Jean-Luc Picard from the “X-Men” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation” series and films, respectively, Stewart spent more of his career onstage than in the X-Mansion or on the USS Enterprise. Besides playing everyone from Claudius to Macbeth, he often performed a one-man rendition of “A Christmas Carol” and did West End and Broadway runs of Harold Pinter’s “No Man’s Land” and Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” in repertoire with buddy Ian McKellen.

He achieved some of the best reviews of his career when he finally tackled Macbeth for the first time. The production, under the direction of Rupert Goold, debuted in May 2007 at England’s Chichester Festival Theatre, switched to London’s West End and then moved to the Brooklyn Academy of Music before transferring to Broadway in 2008. Stewart’s performance earned him his sole Tony Award nomination. The Times of London said his Macbeth was “an enthralling creation of frailty, appetite, egotism and grim humor.” The Daily