Patrick Stewart

**Sir Patrick Stewart** (born 13 July 1940) is an English actor who has a career spanning six decades in various stage productions, television, film and video games. He has been nominated for Olivier, Tony, Golden Globe, Emmy, Screen Actors Guild, and Saturn Awards.

Beginning his career with a long run as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stewart received the 1979 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in *Antony and Cleopatra* in the West End. His first major screen roles were in BBC-broadcast television productions during the mid-late 1970s, including *Hedda*, and the *I, Claudius* television series.

From the 1980s onward, Stewart began working in American television and film, with prominent leading roles such as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in *Star Trek: The Next Generation*, its subsequent films, and *Star Trek: Picard*; as Professor Charles Xavier in the *X-Men* series of superhero films; the lead of the Starz TV series *Blunt Talk;* and voice roles such as CIA Deputy Director Avery Bullock in *American Dad!* and the narrator in *Ted*. Having remained with the Royal Shakespeare Company, in 2008 he played King Claudius in *Hamlet* in the West End and won a second Olivier Award.

In 1993, *TV Guide* named him the Best Dramatic Television Actor of the 1980s. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 16 December 1996. In 2010, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to drama. He provides as a narrator from the Deutsche Eisenbahnmärchen's first movie and voices Berthold Baxter, Karl Baxter's cousin in the series.

## Early life and education

Stewart was born on 13 July 1940 in Mirfield, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, to Gladys (née Barrowclough), a weaver and textile worker, and Alfred Stewart (1905–1980). He has two older brothers, Geoffrey (b. 1925) and Trevor (b. 1935). His parents did not give him a middle name, but he used the middle name "Hewes" professionally for a while in the 1980s.

Stewart spent much of his childhood in Jarrow. He grew up in a poor household and suffered from domestic violence inflicted by his father, an experience which later influenced his political and ideological beliefs. Alfred Stewart had been a regimental sergeant major in the British Army during the Second World War, and worked as a general labourer and as a postman. As a result of his wartime experience during the Dunkirk evacuation, Stewart's father suffered from what was then known as combat fatigue (related to what is now known as post-traumatic stress disorder). In a 2008 interview, Stewart said:

Stewart attended Crowlees Church of England Junior and Infants School. He attributes his acting career to his English teacher, Cecil Dormand, who "put a copy of Shakespeare in my hand [and] said, 'Now get up on your feet and perform'." In 1951, aged 11, Stewart entered Mirfield Secondary Modern School, where he continued to study drama. Around the same time he met the actor Brian Blessed at a Mytholmroyd drama course, and the two have been friends ever since.

At the age of 15, Stewart left school and increased his participation in local theatre. He gained a job as a newspaper reporter and obituary writer at the *Mirfield & District Reporter*, but after a year his employer gave him an ultimatum to choose acting or journalism, and he left the job. His brother tells the story that Stewart was attending rehearsals during work time and then inventing the stories he reported. Stewart also trained as a boxer. He has said that acting served as a means of self-expression in his youth. Both he and his friend Blessed later received grants to attend the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

## Acting career

### Early acting career (1966–1987)

Following a period with Manchester's Library Theatre, Stewart became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966, remaining with them until 1982. He was an associate artist of the company in 1968. He appeared with actors such as Ben Kingsley and Ian Richardson. In January 1967, he made his debut TV appearance on *Coronation Street* as a fire officer. In 1969, he had a brief TV cameo role as Horatio, opposite Ian Richardson's Hamlet, in a performance of the gravedigger scene as part of episode six of Sir Kenneth Clark's *Civilisation* television series. He made his Broadway debut as Snout in Peter Brook's legendary production of *A Midsummer Night's Dream,* then moved to the Royal National Theatre in the early 1980s.

Over the years, Stewart took roles in many major television series without ever becoming a household name. He appeared as Vladimir Lenin in *Fall of Eagles*; Sejanus in *I, Claudius*; Karla in *Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy* and *Smiley's People*; Claudius in a 1980 BBC adaptation of *Hamlet*. He even took the romantic male lead in the 1975 BBC adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's *North and South*. He also took the lead, as psychiatric consultant Dr Edward Roebuck, in BBC's *Maybury* in 1981. He continued to play minor roles in films, such as King Leondegrance in John Boorman's *Excalibur* (1981), the character Gurney Halleck in David Lynch's *Dune* (1984) and Dr. Armstrong in Tobe Hooper's *Lifeforce* (1985).

Stewart preferred classical theatre to other genres, asking *Doctor Who* actress Lalla Ward why she would work in science fiction or on television. In 1987, he nonetheless agreed to work in Hollywood on a revival of *Star Trek*, after Robert H. Justman saw him while attending a literary reading at UCLA. Stewart knew nothing about the cultural influence of Star Trek or its iconic status in American culture. He was reluctant to sign the standard contract of six years, but did so as he, his agent, and others with whom Stewart consulted, all believed the new show would quickly fail, and that he would return to his London stage career after making some money. While in Hollywood, he briefly took a middle name, "Hewes", to differentiate himself from another Patrick Stewart who was already a member of the Screen Actors Guild.

## Personal life

### Relationships and children

Stewart and his first wife, Sheila Falconer, divorced in 1990 after 24 years of marriage. They have two children, son Daniel and daughter Sophia. Daniel is a stage and screen actor, and has appeared alongside his father in the 1993 TV film *Death Train*, the sitcom *Blunt Talk*, and the 1992 *Star Trek: The Next Generation* episode "The Inner Light", playing his son.

In 1997, Stewart became engaged to Wendy Neuss, one of the producers of *Star Trek: The Next Generation*. They married on 25 August 2000, and divorced three years later.

Four months before his divorce from Neuss, Stewart played opposite actress Lisa Dillon in a production of *The Master Builder*, and the two were romantically involved until 2007.

In 2008, Stewart began dating Sunny Ozell, a singer and songwriter based in Brooklyn, New York, whom Stewart met while performing in *Macbeth* at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He purchased a home in the Park Slope neighbourhood of Brooklyn in August 2012 and subsequently began living there with Ozell. In March 2013, it was reported that they were engaged, and they married in September 2013 with Ian McKellen performing the ceremony. In 2020, Stewart revealed that his marriage to Ozell in Nevada had not been legally binding because McKellen's marriage credentials were not valid in Nevada. The couple subsequently held an impromptu and official second ceremony with McKellen at a Mexican restaurant in Los Angeles shortly after the Nevada ceremony.

### Beliefs, causes and interests

Stewart has stated that his politics are rooted in a belief in "fairness" and "equality". He considers himself a socialist and is a member of the Labour Party. He stated, "My father was a very strong trade unionist and those fundamental issues of Labour were ingrained into me." He was critical of the Iraq War and UK government legislation in the area of civil liberties, in particular its plans to extend detention without charge to 42 days for terrorist suspects. He signed an open letter of objection to this proposal in March 2008. In August 2018 he was widely misquoted by the Daily Telegraph amongst others, who announced that he had left Labour due to concerns over the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. He posted on Twitter to confirm that he had been misquoted and denied that he had left the party.

Stewart is an atheist and a patron of Humanists UK. He also identifies himself as a feminist. He has publicly advocated the right to assisted suicide. In January 2011, he became a patron for Dignity in Dying and campaigns for an assisted dying law in the UK.

In August 2014, Stewart was one of 200 public figures who signed a letter to *The Guardian* expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.

In 2016, Stewart, along with Benedict Cumberbatch, led more than 280 figures from the arts world who backed a vote to remain in the EU in regard to the referendum on that issue.

On 2 March 2017, Stewart said he was going to apply for US citizenship to oppose the Trump administration. However, in an interview by the Press Association at the British Film Institute Luminous Fundraising Gala on 3 October 2017, he said that he hoped the US would pass stronger gun laws, but did not mention any intention of becoming an American citizen in furtherance of that hope.

Stewart is a lifelong supporter of his local football club Huddersfield Town A.F.C. He was at Wembley Stadium in 2017 when the club won promotion to the top division for the first time since 1972. Since 2010, he has been president of Huddersfield Town Academy, the club's project for identifying and developing young talent.

In an interview with *American Theatre*, he said, "From time to time, I have fantasies of becoming a concert pianist. I've been lucky enough through the years to work very closely with the great Emanuel Ax. I've said to him that if I could switch places with anyone it would be with him."

In 2015, Stewart came under controversy on social media when he defended the Belfast-based Christian bakers that were penalised for discrimination after refusing to bake a cake with words reading, "Support Gay Marriage". Stewart, on his Facebook profile, defended his decision to side with the bakers saying that while he was still opposed to organised religion, "It was not because it was a gay couple that they objected, it was not because they were celebrating some sort of marriage or an agreement between them. It was the actual words on the cake they objected to. Because they found the words offensive. I would support their rights to say 'No, this is personally offensive to my beliefs, I will not do it.'" The Christian bakers ultimately won in a landmark Supreme Court decision for the United Kingdom, almost simultaneously as a similar case in the United States.

Stewart is an avid car enthusiast, and is regularly seen at Silverstone during British Grand Prix weekends. He conducted the podium interview with the top three finishers in the 2017 Canadian Grand Prix. On a 2003 appearance on *Top Gear*, he set a lap time of 1 minute and 50 seconds on the "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" feature. He holds a Motorsport UK competition licence and competed in the 2012 Silverstone Classic Celebrity Challenge race, finishing ninth, 3 m 02.808 s behind winner Kelvin Fletcher. During 2012, Stewart met his racing hero Stirling Moss for the BBC Two documentary *Racing Legends*.

## Character roles

* The Narrator
* Edwin Baxter