Ian McKellen shares heartfelt tribute to late friend and co-star Patrick Stewart as final film together confirmed

Sir Ian McKellen has penned a heartfelt tribute to his close friend and frequent co-star Sir Patrick Stewart, who died at the age of 86 this week.

Stewart passed away at his home in Los Angeles, with the veteran actor's representative revealing that he had been living with Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia.

McKellen, who first met Stewart through the Royal Shakespeare Company more than 50 years ago, posted an emotional tribute to Instagram.

"Before everything else, Patrick was defined by being born and bred in Yorkshire, the proud county in the north of England which he loved to the end," wrote McKellen on Instagram.

"You could hear it in his accented voice and in the stern honesty with which he told you what he thought and felt. Yorkshiremen have no truck with half-truths or avoidance of big issues."

His statement continued: "He wore his heart on his sleeve, which made him a man to rely on, to admire and in my case, love."

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McKellen recalled how, in their early days at the RSC, he and Stewart actually didn't work together closely, with their time being taken up by separate productions.

"My first strong memory was a few years later, meeting him in the street in central London when he told me about an offer to take over a leading part in Star Trek," wrote McKellen.

The actor, who recently reunited with Stewart on the set of Avengers: Doomsday, had expressed scepticism about the now-iconic role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

McKellen issued a warning to his friend: "'But Patrick, think of your stage career in the UK. Do you really want to risk getting lost in Hollywood for years and years?'"

Ultimately, he was more than happy to be proven wrong.

"He took the risk and thank goodness for us all that he did," reflected McKellen, "for not just his devoted Trekkies but film and theatre audiences, who marvelled at his using international celebrity to star in a string of cinema successes (X-Men, of course) and in great classical plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Arthur Miller, Peter Shaffer, Pinter and Beckett at Stratford-upon-Avon, in London's West End and on Broadway."

McKellen concluded his poignant tribute by acknowledging the United States as Stewart's "adopted home, where he met his adored Sunny [Ozell] who has cared for him through sickness and health, through thick and thin".

He added: "But he never forsook his origins: and the proudest achievement of the most respected and beloved actor of his generation on either side of the Atlantic, was his appointment as Chancellor of Huddersfield University in Yorkshire."

Besides their career origins in the RSC, McKellen and Stewart became famous for their turn as rivals Magneto and Professor X in the X-Men film franchise, including the original trilogy and 2014's time-travelling crossover Days of Future Past.

One of the earliest trailers for Avengers: Doomsday showed the two characters together again, appearing to have finally reconciled as they share one last game of chess.

Marvel has confirmed that the film marks Stewart's last on-screen appearance, with McKellen describing it in his statement as a "farewell".

Stewart was knighted in 2010, and enjoyed a celebrated, decades-long career across stage and screen. Other late projects included sci-fi revival Star Trek: Picard, plus surreal comedies Bait and The Sheep Detectives, where he had voice-only roles.

Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled for release on 18 December 2026.

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