By Abb Jones
The Reelness

Patrick Stewart, the sophisticated British actor best known for roles ranging from performing Shakespeare on stage to screen roles on Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series and the X-Men films, has died at his home in Los Angeles after a brief battle with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia. He was 86.

Stewart’s longtime spokesperson says he died “in the warm embrace of family and friends, surrounded by live music, prayer, tears and laughter.”

Born in 1940 to one of the last men evacuated from Dunkirk during World War II, Stewart, the youngest of three boys, found refuge from his father’s violent, undiagnosed PTSD towards his mother in acting, after a brief stint as a journalist.

In the late 1980s, after decades of classical theater work in England, Stewart was given the lead role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Stewart later said he didn’t think the series would last beyond one season. It lasted for seven and spawned four films.

In 2000, Stewart was offered the role of Professor Charles Xavier in X-Men, a starring role he would reprise in seven more film, the last being 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday. which hits theaters in December 2026. His final voice role was in the winsome comedy The Sheep Detectives.

Married three times, Stewart is survived by his third wife, singer/songwriter Sunny Ozell, and two children from his first marriage.