Patrick Stewart Dies at 86, Months After Vowing He'd Never Retire

His last film, 'Avengers: Doomsday,' opens Dec. 18 and marks his ninth time playing Professor Charles Xavier.

In July, just shy of his 86th birthday, Patrick Stewart was talking up the kind of job that still excited him: lending his voice to a pig's head in “Bait,” Riz Ahmed's new series.

Stewart, who played Captain Jean-Luc Picard on “Star Trek” and Professor Charles Xavier in “X-Men,” died at home in Los Angeles on Wednesday. A statement on his Instagram account Thursday said he'd died the day before in the care of his wife, Sunny, after a short illness with Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia, TheWrap reported. That July conversation with TV Insider was his final interview, The Hollywood Reporter reported, and he left no doubt about where he stood: “I can't imagine ever officially ‘retiring.’ I'll always and forever be an actor.”

He didn't pretend the business made that easy. He told TV Insider that parts thin out for actors as they get older, but the offers he still got interested him, and he loved the challenge of new work. That summer his slate included an audiobook of Shakespeare's sonnets and one more turn as Xavier.

That turn, in “Avengers: Doomsday,” is his last film and the ninth time he's played the telepath in a movie, Variety reported. Marvel Studios called it his final screen appearance in its tribute.

Seth MacFarlane, who worked with him for years on “Family Guy,” “American Dad!” and “Ted,” shared a story on Instagram that shows the same hunger. Starting a new film, Stewart emailed MacFarlane that a first day on any set left him feeling like the greenest beginner in the building. MacFarlane's answer, according to The Hollywood Reporter: “Patrick, if you feel that way, the rest of us are screwed.”

Ian McKellen, his Magneto, remembered when that drive almost went another way. The two met as young actors at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and years later Stewart told him on a street in central London about an offer to lead “Star Trek.” McKellen wrote that he asked his friend whether he really wanted to risk “getting lost in Hollywood for years and years,” Variety reported.

Stewart went anyway. McKellen wrote that Stewart made America his home and met Sunny there, and McKellen later officiated their 2013 wedding. Of his friend's blunt Yorkshire honesty, McKellen wrote, “He wore his heart on his sleeve.”

The other tributes kept coming back to the people Stewart lifted, not just the roles. Lea Thompson, who directed him in two episodes of “Star Trek: Picard,” credited him with giving her a shot behind the camera. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige told The Hollywood Reporter that Stewart's legacy lives on in the many people he mentored. SAG-AFTRA's post noted he'd been a member of the union since 1987.

“Avengers: Doomsday” opens Dec. 18, and both old friends are in it. McKellen closed his tribute by noting that Stewart's farewell performance hasn't been seen yet. The man who said he'd always be an actor still has a movie on the way.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter, retrieved October 30, 2026. Other sources: TheWrap, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter (2), Variety (2).