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Obituary for Patrick Stewart: He knew science fiction - and Shakespeare
He became known to the world as Starship Enterprise Captain Picard, but his great love throughout his life was Shakespeare. Now the great English actor Patrick Stewart has died. An N
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Obituary for Patrick Stewart He could do action, science fiction - and Shakespeare As of: October 30, 2026 • 10:29 a.m
He became known to the world as Starship Enterprise Captain Picard, but his great love throughout his life was Shakespeare. Now the great English actor Patrick Stewart has died. An obituary.
In Germany, Patrick Stewart is best known for this role: as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in "Star Trek: The Next Generation", the series that found its fan base in Germany in the early 1990s under the title "Star Trek: The Next Century". The series was an international breakthrough for Stewart.
Younger audiences know him best as Professor Charles Xavier, founder and leader of the "X-Men", who advocated for peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants. From the 2000s onwards, Stewart appeared in front of the camera for the series with fellow actor Ian McKellen, among others. In December he will even be seen again as Professor X in the film “Avengers: Doomsday”.
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Born in England in 1940 - in Mirfield in West Yorkshire - Stewart grew up as the son of a weaver and a soldier. The father, who apparently suffered from war trauma, was violent. Life was poor, the small town environment boring.
What remained were the breaks in the cinema. “I went to the movies on Saturday mornings,” Stewart said. "Where I grew up, people didn't know much about the world outside. No matter what was shown, western, science fiction or crime, it broadened my horizons. There were no books in my parents' house. It was films that brought the world closer to me."
He was Captain Picard in Star Trek and Professor Charles Xavier in X-Men. more
Stewart's own filmography is long, but there were essentially two things that defined his career. Two things that didn't seem to fit together, but made Stewart all the more interesting. His science fiction and action film roles and his love for William Shakespeare. That's why, Stewart once said, he became an actor in the first place; he wanted to play Shakespeare.
Stewart began acting at the age of twelve and from 1966 he was an actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to drama. During the Corona lockdown in spring 2020, he decided to recite Shakespeare's sonnets on Twitter under the hashtag "a sonnet a day".
Stewart's love for Shakespeare was more enduring than that for his women. The actor and producer was married three times. There are two children from his first marriage.
Stewart has clearly positioned himself politically. He was a member of the Labor Party and had campaigned for a second referendum before leaving the European Union. His appreciation for the EU was closely linked to his life experience. “I am a child of war,” he said. "When I started to notice the world around me, many things weren't good. When Britain joined the European Economic Community, it was one of the most exciting days of my adult life."
Even if he couldn't stop Brexit, internally he never completely turned his back on his homeland. That may also have been because of Shakespeare.
This topic in the program: tagesschau.de | Obituary actor Patrick Stewart | Oct 30, 2026 | 8:50 a.m