So long, Professor Xavier
Patrick Stewart was a Star Trek captain, my Professor X, and so much more.
I was sad to hear yesterday that Patrick Stewart had passed. He was 86, and died Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles, following a brief illness involving Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia. I love this quote from the AP post:
“We lost one of the greats of stage and screen today,” Hugh Jackman, a frequent Stewart co-star in the “X-Men” universe, said on social media. “And, in my book, a tremendous friend and man. I learned so much from him. I will miss you, Patrick Stewart, all of my days.”
He is the embodiment of Professor X in the minds of many. He certainly is for me. It’s hard to believe he’s gone.
I first discovered Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation. I was never a Star Trek guy and still generally am not a fan of that franchise. Don’t come for me, please. I say that just to say how Patrick Stewart changed that for me. There was something about him that made me care, even when the larger universe wasn’t particularly my thing. That’s saying something.
Once he became Professor X, it was a perfect marriage of a great actor with a character I loved. Xavier needs a certain presence, and Patrick Stewart had that in spades.
His life in acting was already well established before either of those signature roles. Stewart trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and spent decades onstage before becoming Picard at 47. He was knighted in 2010 and developed a friendship with Ian McKellen that extended beyond their roles together.
That’s so much to have done and be proud of, and then you add in his signature roles. And yet, he wanted to keep going. Molly Edwards at GamesRadar+, reporting in July on Stewart’s response to retirement rumors, quoted him as saying:
I can't imagine ever officially 'retiring.' I'll always and forever be an actor.
His passing will make his return as Xavier opposite McKellen’s Magneto in Avengers: Doomsday especially beautiful and bittersweet. I’m glad we’ll get to see him as Xavier again. For me, Stewart is my Professor Xavier, and he always will be.