Patrick Stewart

Patrick Stewart is a prominent English film actor. He was born on July 13, 1940, in Mirfield, West Riding of Yorkshire in England. He grew up in a poor household and experienced domestic violence from his father, Alfred Stewart, who works in the British Army as a Regimental Sergeant Major. His ideological and political beliefs were affected because of this. He studied at Crowlees Church of England Junior and Infants School. When he was 11 years old, he attended Mirfield Secondary Modern School and studied drama. At 15, he left school and joined the local theater. He had jobs at the Mirfield & District Reporter as a reporter and writer, but later on, his employer required him to choose between his job and acting. Patrick has chosen acting over his current job at that time.

Aside from that, he was a trained boxer and at the age of 18, he lost his hair because of Alopecia Areata. This was when he realized that acting is a means to express himself. Patrick and actor Brian Blessed met at the Mytholmroyd drama course and became close friends since their childhood. Later, both have granted the opportunity to attend Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. In the year 1966, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and remained there until the year 1982. He made his television debut in 1967 after his appearance as a fire officer on ITV’s Coronation Street. He made a cameo role in the television documentary series, Civilisation. Patrick was debuted at the Broadway when he performed the character of Snout in Peter Brook’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, before moving to the Royal National Theatre in the early 80’s.

Through the years, he was seen in several major TV series but never became a household name. He was seen on BBC’s Fall of Eagles, “I, Claudius,” Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Smiley’s People, and Hamlet. He even played the main lead role in the TV adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s social novel, North, and South, where he was seen with a hairpiece. He also played the role of a psychiatric consultant in the 1981’s TV series, Maybury. He was seen playing minor roles in films like Excalibur, Dune, and Lifeforce. He preferred doing classical theatre and had asked Lalla Ward of Doctor Who why he should be doing sci-fi or work on television. Nevertheless, when Robert H. Justman saw him in UCLA, after he attended a literary reading, Patrick agreed to work in the Hollywood revival of a sci-fi TV show.

Patrick doesn’t know about the original Star Trek Click to look into! >> Read More... , and he is also reluctant to sign the 6-year contract. Many believe that the show will not succeed, and he will just go back to his stage career in London. In 1987, he started to appear in Star Trek: The Next Generation as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and though he was still skeptical that the show would succeed. Unexpectedly, he earned a lot of money because of the show’s success. He reprised his role as Picard in Star Trek Generations, Star Trek Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection, and Star Trek: Nemesis. He was also seen in the pilot episode (entitled Emissary) of the sci-fi TV series, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. In 1995, he earned a nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Make Actor in a Drama Series at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

After the success of Star Trek, he was typecast and had difficulties in getting other roles even on stage. Later on, he played an important role as Professor Charles Xavier in X-Men film series. His character here was quite similar to his character as Picard; a bald English guy with a deep voice. He also voiced the same character in X-Men video games such as X-Men Legends, X-Men Legends II, and X-Men: Next Dimension. In 2011, he was seen in the documentary feature film, The Captains, together with William Shatner, who also penned and directed the film. Patrick was also seen in Jeffey (1995), The Lion in Winter (2003), A Christmas Carol (1999), and Moby Dick (1998). His performances in these films earned him nominations at the Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award. Patrick also appeared as a gay socialite in the 11th and final season of the American sitcom, Frasier. He was also seen in the second series of the British TV series, Top Gear.

In 2005, Patrick played the role of Professor Ian Hood on ITV’s Eleventh Hour and Captain Nemo on Hallmark Channel’s Mysterious Island. Due to the lengthy filming of his TV shows, it prevented him from acting on stage and missed the opportunities to play notable characters such as Richard III, Hamlet, and Romeo. Patrick then started to write on-man shows and perform in different acting schools including the universities in California. He also donned voice acting jobs and narrated recordings. Patrick’s first wife is Sheila Falconer, whom he divorced after 24-years of marriage. His son, Daniel is a TV actor and appeared with him in Death Train (1993) and The Inner Light episode of Star Trek (1992). He got engaged with Wendy Neuss (Producer) in 1997 and got married in the year 2000. After three years, they also had a divorce. In September 2013, he got married to Sunny Ozell (singer-songwriter).