Patrick Stewart Has Died at 86 — And the Illness He Never Told Fans About Has Just Been Revealed

For more than three decades, he was the calm voice on the bridge of the Enterprise.

Now Sir Patrick Stewart is gone.

The legendary actor died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 86.

And the statement announcing his death revealed something fans never knew.

He had been quietly living with not one, but two devastating brain diseases.

The Diagnosis Nobody Knew About

According to his spokesperson, Kelly Bush Novak, Stewart died after “a brief and poignant journey” with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia.

The same words were shared on his Facebook and Instagram pages.

But here’s what stunned fans.

As AP reported, his diagnoses had never been made public.

Not in interviews.

Not on the red carpet.

Not even in July, when he was still talking about new work.

“I can’t imagine ever officially ‘retiring,’” he told TV Insider at the time. “I’ll always and forever be an actor.”

Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, and there is no cure.

Lewy body dementia damages nerve cells in the parts of the brain that control thinking, memory and movement.

And it’s a disease fans may already know about for another heartbreaking reason.

Robin Williams also had it.

From a Hard Childhood to Hollywood

Stewart’s gentle, fatherly characters were a world away from the home he grew up in.

He was born in Mirfield, in West Riding of Yorkshire, England.

His mother worked in textiles.

His father was a former sergeant major whose experience at Dunkirk shredded his mental health, the BBC reported.

Stewart later described him as alcoholic and abusive.

And he never hid what his mother went through.

In 2007, he became an ambassador for the domestic abuse charity Refuge — work he said he did in honor of her.

But school gave him a way out.

A teacher introduced him to Shakespeare.

And that changed everything.

He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966 and made his Broadway debut in 1970.

“To stand in the middle of an empty stage in an empty theater and feel that I was at home was everything,” he told NPR in 2023.

The Role He Was Told to Turn Down

Then came the call that would make him famous around the world.

Stewart was lecturing on Shakespeare at UCLA when his name came up for the lead in a new “Star Trek” series.

His friend Ian McKellen begged him not to take it.

“Don’t do this, Patrick,” Stewart remembered him saying. “You’re a very good stage actor. That’s where you ought to be.”

But his agent told him the show probably wouldn’t last past its first season.

So he signed on, expecting six months’ work and a suntan.

Instead, “Star Trek: The Next Generation” ran for seven seasons, from 1987 to 1994.

And Captain Jean-Luc Picard became a legend.

• “Engage!”
• “Make it so!”
• And that famous cup of Earl Grey tea.

There was one more twist.

Stewart had lost his hair as a teenager and tried wearing a hairpiece in early screen tests.

Series creator Gene Roddenberry told him to ditch it.

“In the 24th Century, they wouldn’t care if Picard was bald,” Stewart recalled.

Professor X, Picard and Beyond

Starting in 2000, he took on a second iconic role as Professor Charles Xavier in the “X-Men” films.

His on-screen rival, Magneto, was played by none other than McKellen.

In 2020, he returned to his most famous role in “Star Trek: Picard” on Paramount+.

And he is set to appear one final time as Professor X in the upcoming “Avengers: Doomsday.”

Along the way, he collected a remarkable list of honors:

• A knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in 2010
• Two Laurence Olivier Awards, including one for “Antony and Cleopatra”
• A Grammy
• A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

He even performed a one-man version of “A Christmas Carol,” playing more than 40 roles himself.

“A Man to Rely On, to Admire and, in My Case, Love”

The tributes started pouring in almost immediately.

McKellen — who officiated Stewart’s wedding in 2013 — called him the “most respected and beloved actor of his generation on either side of the Atlantic.”

“He wore his heart on his sleeve,” McKellen wrote, “which made him a man to rely on, to admire and, in my case, love.”

William Shatner, the original Captain Kirk, said Stewart brought “intelligence, grace and a deep sense of humanity” to everything he did.

George Takei called him an “irreplaceable legend.”

His “X-Men” co-star Hugh Jackman called him “one of the greats.”

And Seth MacFarlane, who worked with him on “Family Guy,” “American Dad!” and “Ted,” said he was “as humble as they come.”

The Royal Shakespeare Company called him a “colossus of stage and screen.”

A Heartbreaking Week for Star Trek Fans

But for many fans, the loss is even harder because of the timing.

Just days earlier, on Sunday, Walter Koenig — Ensign Pavel Chekov on the original “Star Trek” — died at his home in North Hollywood. He was 90.

Two Enterprise legends, gone in the same week.

In Los Angeles, fans have been gathering at Stewart’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

And in London, West End theaters plan to dim their lights next Tuesday evening in his memory.

The Academy summed up what so many people are feeling.

Stewart, it said, “brought a tenderness to his characters that made us feel we knew them.”

For millions of fans, they did.