Sir Patrick Stewart dies at 86

Sir Patrick Stewart has died at the age of 86. He died on Wednesday 28 October 2026 at his home in Los Angeles, with his wife, the singer-songwriter Sunny Ozell, by his side. His family announced the news in a statement on his social media channels on Thursday 29 October, and his longtime representative, Kelly Bush Novak, confirmed it. The news broke late on Thursday night, Nairobi time.

The statement said he died after a brief journey with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia, and that he had spent his final days surrounded by family and friends.

The stageA son of Mirfield

Stewart grew up in Mirfield, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and came to acting through the theatre. He made his name with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the stage stayed at the centre of his life long after Hollywood found him.

He won three Olivier Awards, the first in 1979 for Antony and Cleopatra, and a later one for his solo A Christmas Carol, in which he played dozens of characters on his own. His 2007 Macbeth, which transferred to Broadway in 2008, earned him his only Tony nomination. Later in life he shared the stage with his close friend Sir Ian McKellen in Waiting for Godot and Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land, in London and New York.

The screenTwo roles, one legacy

For most of the world, Stewart was Captain Jean-Luc Picard. He led Star Trek: The Next Generation for seven seasons from 1987, then four feature films, and turned “Make it so” into one of television’s best-known lines. In 2020 he came back to the role in Star Trek: Picard, which he also executive produced, and the series ended with its third season in 2023.

In 2000 he became Professor Charles Xavier in X-Men, a role he returned to across the franchise, including a final, much-praised turn in Logan (2017). He was also cast as Xavier in Marvel’s upcoming Avengers: Doomsday. Away from the two franchises, his films included Excalibur, L.A. Story and Conspiracy Theory.

The manBeyond the roles

He was knighted in 2010. His family’s statement described a man whose career was matched by his work for human rights, survivors of domestic violence, refugees, veterans’ mental health and animal welfare, especially the pit bulls he fostered. It also remembered him as a motorsport enthusiast and a lifelong Huddersfield Town fan.

Stewart married Sunny Ozell in 2013, in a ceremony officiated by McKellen. He is survived by her and by his daughter and son from his first marriage.

His family closed their announcement with a line from his memoir, Making It So, about the character he played for more than three decades. Picard, he wrote, had lived a life far beyond ordinary experience, but “in the end, he feels the call of home, as do I.”