Patrick Stewart Was a Man for All Generations

2026 has hit us hard with celebrity deaths, but saying goodbye to Patrick Stewart has been particularly tough. Born July 13, 1940, he had a long life and even longer career. Since he first appeared onstage (or, more accurately, dashing through the audience) as Cutpurse in 1959’s Cyrano de Bergerac, the English actor found work either on stage or on the screen with a reliability that’s immediately apparent when you think about him. © Paramount To theatre lovers, he was Galileo, the Dauphin of France, or Tom Snout; genre heads knew he was Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Charles Xavier; others met him as Scrooge, Emperor Uriel, or King Goobot, maybe even Shakespeare himself. Or maybe he was some version of all this at once, but in ways specific to each of us that were never wrong, even for those who only scratched the surface of his career. There are plenty of actors who consistently get roles, but not many are afforded what Stewart was: the ability to move through the industry in such a way that, theoretically, anything on his resume could introduce someone to his full body of work. For so many working in genres like sci-fi and fantasy, coasting on the past is par for the course and a somewhat necessary means to survive. If they’re not back in an old role, they’re playing a character a few degrees off. This wasn’t really the case with Stewart; some of his recent work comes right up to the line (he probably didn’t need to be Xavier every time he was asked to return), but he otherwise wasn’t one to rest on his laurels. If anything, some credits suggest he wanted to actively avoid any pigeonholing that his most famous roles could’ve locked him into. A lengthy, pre-Star Trek tenure across theatre, film, and TV likely helped Stewart be not too focused on one specific part of himself. But when you watch him lead the skinheads in Green Room, voice a talking sheep in The Sheep Detectives or a hilariously deranged CIA director on American Dad—look at his voice acting credits, the man loved the mic!—you see how much he really loved work that asked him to fully become the role he was auditioning for. In fact, he seemed to love having fun in general, even for something as simple as introducing Salt-N-Pepa on Saturday Night Live. That willingness to go along with the bit while still ensuring that you take him seriously (less a demand, more of a polite, yet firm, request) is just one of many things that helped Stewart have the longevity he did. Like the best kind of surrogate father figure he was, and the teacher, advocate, and uncle he was in real life, Stewart was always around and made sure we knew that. The outpouring of memories shows that we aren’t likely to forget him anytime soon. Want more io9 news? Check out the best movies and TV shows to stream this month and all the upcoming sci-fi, fantasy, and horror books that should be on your radar.