Patrick Stewart’s acting career (yes, I’m serious about the headline, and no, there’s no bait and switch: this intro is merely a “to be sure” throat-clearing aside, so bear with me) was far of course larger and more accomplished than the two enduring pop-culture roles to which he owed his household-name celebrity. Like many great British actors who became stars on U.S. screens, Stewart was a classically trained stage actor: Well before donning a Starfleet uniform in 1986, he spent 16 years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, winning a Laurence Olivier Award; and, well after the last Star Trek: The Next Generation movie, Stewart’s acclaimed turn in Macbeth earned him a Tony nomination and a second Olivier Award in 2008. His collaborators included David Lynch, David Mamet, Ben Kingsley, John Boorman, and his close friend (and X-Men co-star) Ian McKellen. He also did a fair bit of animation voicework, most recently playing an absurdly dignified sheep in the lovely pastoral murder-mystery family film The Sheep Detectives (featuring Hugh Jackman, another friend and X-Men co-star).
A proper in memoriam piece would be about all of this and much more besides. It would be about his impact on his coworkers and the kind of person he seems to have been. An artist and a collaborator of Stewart’s stature should never be discussed only in connection with two roles in franchises where characters wear matching pulpy uniforms.
Which is why this post is not about Patrick Stewart. It’s about Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Professor Charles Xavier. It’s also about hope.
Copyright © 2000– Steven D. Greydanus. All rights reserved.