Ian McKellen calls lifelong friend Patrick Stewart the 'most respected and beloved actor,' in moving tribute
Ian McKellen has shared a tribute to his lifelong friend Patrick Stewart in the wake of his death, describing him as true to Yorkshire upbringing and "a man to rely on, to admire and in my case, love."
McKellen shared a post honouring his longtime friend and collaborator following Stewart’s death
Alexandra Mae Jones · CBC News
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There are few British acting duos quite as well-loved as Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart — and as McKellen prepares to go on without his lifelong friend, he's reflecting on their journey together.
McKellen shared a lengthy tribute to Stewart on Wednesday night, calling him "the most respected and beloved actor of his generation on either side of the Atlantic," and saying he was true to his Yorkshire upbringing to the core.
"He wore his heart on his sleeve, which made him a man to rely on, to admire and in my case, love," McKellen wrote in an Instagram post, accompanied by a photo of Stewart.
Stewart died on Wednesday at the age of 86 at his Los Angeles home after a "brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s and Lewy Body Dementia," according to a statement shared on his Instagram Thursday.
Since then, a flood of tributes have cascaded in from friends, former co-stars and fans, all shining a light on what Stewart meant to them.
For two decades, McKellen and Stewart starred opposite each other as fated friends-turned-foes Magneto and Prof. Charles Xavier, respectively, in the X-Men film series. McKellen is now facing the red carpet of their final film together without his artistic partner. Both reprised their roles in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, set to be released in December.
Stewart and McKellen speak at the John L. Tishman Auditorium at University Center on Jan. 28, 2014, in New York City. (Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for SAG Foundation)
They first appeared together as the duo in the movie X-Men in 2000, but they’d known each other for years before that partnership cemented their friendship.
The two British actors, only a year apart in age, both came up in the theatre scene in London. Although they met through the Royal Shakespeare Company, McKellen wrote in his post, they weren't in the same productions. Still, they cared about each other's careers early on — McKellen said he remembered running into Stewart in the street while the latter was contemplating playing Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, which would become a career-defining role.
McKellen, at the time, thought it was a terrible idea, a risk to Stewart's stage career.
"Well, he took the risk and thank goodness for us all that he did," McKellen wrote.
McKellen praised his acting roles on the stage and on screen, and highlighted that one of Stewart’s proudest achievements was his appointment as Chancellor of Huddersfield University in Yorkshire.
Stewart and McKellen pose during a photo call for the X-Men: The Last Stand at the 59th International film festival in Cannes, southern France on May 22, 2006. (Jeff Christensen/The Associated Press)
A lifelong friendship
For decades, when someone mentioned Stewart, McKellen's name wasn’t far behind. They starred together in X2: X-Men United (2003), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), performed on Broadway together in several theatrical productions in the 2010s and were close friends off-screen as well.
Stewart has previously said they first bonded while filming X-Men in 2000, when they shared adjoining trailers.
"It was a simple matter of that we found we had a huge amount in common. I love him deeply," Stewart told The Hollywood Reporter in 2020.
When Stewart married jazz singer Sunny Ozell in 2013, McKellen officiated the wedding — which he announced on The Jonathan Ross Show by saying, "I’m going to marry Patrick," sparking a round of laughter.
Stewart later told The Hollywood Reporter that McKellen had gotten ordained specifically to be able to officiate his wedding to Ozell.
Stewart and McKellen arrive for the U.K. premiere of X-Men: Days of Future Past in London on May 12, 2014. They reprised their roles in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, their final film together. (Jonathan Short/Invision/The Associated Press)
The ease of friendship between them has included the occasional liplock on a red carpet. Since coming out in 1988, McKellen has been one of the most public gay figures in media, and while Stewart received praise for his open allyship over the years, he's said in the past that it wasn’t something he had to think about.
"There was never a moment where I made an intellectual choice that I would be a supporter of gay civil rights," Stewart said in an interview with The Advocate in 2015. "It was always a natural and uncomplicated choice."
He added that when the Guardian misidentified him as a gay man in a news story in 2014 and then ran a correction, he was "utterly flattered by that assumption." McKellen, he said, was the first to reach out to him about it, cheekily sending an email that said, "Congratulations!"
WATCH | Friends, colleagues share love of Stewart:
Tributes pour in for X-Men, Star Trek actor Patrick Stewart
October 29|
Duration
2:22
Tributes are pouring in for actor Patrick Stewart, known to millions as Charles Xavier of X-Men, and Captain Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek. Stewart died at age 86 after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia.In 2009, they shared the stage for a production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, an experience McKellen later said he enjoyed so much that he broke down in tears after it ended.
"I was heartbroken," McKellen told CBS News in a shared interview with Stewart. "And then we were going to say goodbye to each other. You were going off to do other things and I just felt I would never be as happy again."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alexandra Mae Jones is a senior writer for CBC News based in Toronto. She has written on a variety of topics, from health to pop culture to breaking news, and previously reported for CTV News and the Toronto Star. She joined CBC in 2024. You can reach her at alexandra.mae.jones@cbc.ca
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