Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman, William Shatner and more pay tribute to Patrick Stewart: “A man to admire and love”

Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman, William Shatner, George Takei and Rebecca Romijn are among those paying tribute to Patrick Stewart, who has died at the age of 86.

The beloved actor, known for his roles in the Star Trek and X-Men franchises, passed away on Wednesday (October 28) at his home in Los Angeles. His family disclosed in an Instagram post shared on Thursday (October 29) that he had undergone “a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia”.

Born in Mirfield, Yorkshire, in 1940, Stewart carved out a remarkable multi-decade acting career that included extensive stage work with the Royal Shakespeare Company and an iconic role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation and several subsequent films and series. He was knighted for services to drama in 2010.

Fellow acting great McKellen, who starred opposite Stewart in the X-Men movies as well as in numerous stage productions, wrote on Instagram that “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”.

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McKellen added: “My first strong memory [of Stewart] 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. “But Patrick think of your stage career in the UK. Do you really want to risk—getting lost in Hollywood for years and years?”

“Well, he took the risk and thank goodness for us all that he did,” McKellen continued, “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.”

Another of Stewart’s X-Men co-stars, Jackman, wrote on Instagram that he had lost a “tremendous friend” as well as “one of the greats of stage and screen today”. William Shatner, a fellow luminary of the Star Trek franchise, posted on X that Stewart was “a friend, a colleague, and a magnificent actor”.

Check out a selection of tributes below.

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What a heartbreaking week it has been. Sir Patrick Stewart was a friend, a colleague, and a magnificent actor. From the stage to the bridge of the Enterprise, he brought intelligence, grace, and a deep sense of humanity to everything he did. Captain Picard stood for the best of…

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) October 29, 2026

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RIP Patrick Stewart. What an actor. I still can’t believe he agreed to do this scene. And he didn’t even mind when I ruined every take. Legend. pic.twitter.com/QazyDScCOU

— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) October 29, 2026

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Stewart is survived by family including his wife Sunny, whom he married in 2013, and two children. On Instagram, his family requested that “in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Fund and Alzheimer’s Foundation of America Caregiver Resources”.