Sir Patrick Stewart has died.
I had to sit with that fact for a few minutes when I first heard the news today. As a fan—as a Trekkie, as a true believer, as someone who simply loves stories—Patrick Stewart’s passing is cause for a certain amount of shock, for surrogate sorrow, even. How—why—does anyone mourn someone they haven’t met? For me, the answer is this: despite the sadness, the occasion of their passing is also a moment for gratitude.
As Jean-Luc Picard, as Professor Xavier, as the Canterville Ghost—as Ebenezer Scrooge, even, and perhaps especially—Patrick Stewart possessed the ability to locate the humanity at the core of any role. Whatever worlds or eras his characters inhabited, he imbued each one with a mixture of principle, courage, and human failings, acknowledged without flinching, that humanized his portrayals immediately. Picard was a great leader; he was also an absent father, subject to self-doubt and irascibility, no stranger to despair. And yet, flaws, doubts, and all, he still had the gravitas to follow his own stars. And as the audience, we would have followed him anywhere.
Great performances transcend time, genre, language, and geography. I was a child in school when Star Trek: The Next Generation introduced viewers to Jean-Luc Picard, and after 178 episodes I was working on a degree. Over the years since then I have rewatched the series countless times—yes, even Shades of Gray; even, for that matter, Sub Rosa—and the series has been steady viewing in my house while I raised a child who is herself now a college student. Since then, there have been many other iterations of the Star Trek universe, and I have followed the crews of the various Enterprises into the distant deeps of space and time; but never so willingly as when an aging Picard shook off his torpor and left his vineyard for one last adventure. The series may have given an actor the chance to bid farewell to a beloved role, but it was the humanity of his performance that was its enduring legacy.
I mainly write about K-dramas. But the same emotional truths that imbue my favorite genre can be found in each of Stewart’s roles, whether as a science fiction starship captain, a mentor to young mutant superheroes, or a Shakespearean king. At the core of each performance there beat a human heart, unflinching and true. No matter which stage, no matter which screen, each character was singular and unforgettable. This is the true measure of entertainment, and of Patrick Stewart’s body of work in particular: the ability to make us think, to make us care, and to make us consider our own humanity.
Sir Patrick Stewart has died, and for his family and those who knew him well, this is tremendously sad. But I am grateful. The performances that helped shape my understanding of emotional honesty and honor when I was a teenager are still with us; as great performances do, these stories will continue to connect with audiences. I envy the viewers who have yet to discover Sir Patrick Stewart’s performances, and I will continue to relish any chance I may have to simply, boldly, go.
Sir Patrick Stewart was born in Yorkshire, England, on 13 July 1940, and passed away on 28 October 2026 in Los Angeles. His expected final screen appearance, Avengers: Doomsday, is scheduled for release on 18 December 2026.
“He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.”
