Patrick Stewart

Born 13 July 1940Mirfield10 Movies in the store

Patrick Stewart brings a particular kind of authority to the screen: measured, direct and grounded in a voice that can carry gravity without losing its warmth. Born in Mirfield in the West Riding of Yorkshire on 13 July 1940, he found acting as a means of self-expression in his youth. After training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, he made his professional stage debut in 1959 and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966, remaining with it until 1982. That classical foundation is visible throughout his film work. In John Boorman’s Excalibur, Stewart played King Leondegrance, while David Lynch’s Dune cast him as Gurney Halleck. He followed those appearances with the role of Dr Armstrong in Lifeforce. His earlier screen work also included The Plague Dogs, giving this stretch of his career an unusually varied mix of Arthurian drama, animation, science fiction and horror. Stewart became widely known as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, a role he played from 1987 to 1994 and later reprised on film and television. His stage discipline proved a natural fit for Picard’s composure and moral seriousness, even if Stewart initially expected the series to be short-lived. He later said that Star Trek changed everything for him. A second major screen role arrived with Professor Charles Xavier in X-Men. Stewart played the founder and mentor of the superhero team in X-Men, X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand, bringing restraint and conviction to a character built around persuasion as much as power. The part also reunited him on screen with his friend and fellow stage actor Ian McKellen, who played Magneto. His range extends well beyond solemn authority. Stewart appears in the broad comedy Robin Hood: Men in Tights and lent his voice to The Pagemaster and The Prince of Egypt. Taken together, these films show a performer equally at home in Shakespearean spectacle, ambitious science fiction, superhero drama, animation and comedy—always recognisable, but never confined to a single kind of movie.

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