Vale Patrick Stewart

[Bramblethorn]

I feel like a bit of a fake nerd in that I didn't watch either Trek or X-Men, so I missed a lot of what made him famous. But what I did see of him, particularly in his advocacy on domestic violence, he always looked like a thoroughly decent guy.

 

[LittleBabyNothing]

A true legend on and off screen

 

[TheLobster]

Best of all worlds. RIP.

 

[Bramblethorn]

 

[Bramblethorn]

And on a lighter note:

 

[ClintonBrooks]

At least within the industry, he had good friends and held onto them. Always appeared to be a good person.

 

[Writer61]

Make it not so.
Great man. Sadly missed.

 

[PennyThompson]

This literally made me cry a little while at work today

Maybe TMI, but... I grew up watching syndicated Star Trek TNG reruns religiously, and Captain Picard was very much a formative positive masculine figure in my life, in a time when I didn't have many of those.

He taught me how important it was to seek out and value the opinions and experience of others, to stand up for one's principles and maintain an ethical framework, but to understand nuance and that not everything in the universe could be solvable or knowable.

I just didn't have anyone in my life that displayed those traits in that way during my early years, and he sort of became a pattern against which I judged any adult man that I had any kind of relationship with.

Patrick Stewart didn't write most of what the character said or did, to give the show writers their due! But he portrayed the character with this incredible mixture of stoic gravitas and competence and control, with occasional flashes of righteous passion and emotion that I always found breathtaking.

By all accounts that I've ever seen he was a wonderful human being off-screen as well, just a truly good man!

 

[OralAllOver]

Engage!

 

[MrPixel]

I was a lukewarm Trekkie that largely ran its course with Voyager.

However, one TNG episode sticks in my mind that was all Sir Stewart - "The Inner Light". I think it was the best Star Trek episode, ever. As much as Sir Stewart had mixed feelings about being typecast in the Capt. Picard role, his enormous talent and breadth of emotional expression was awe-inspiring in that chapter.

I read many articles describing him as a very decent and humble person. I am glad to have known of him, and experienced his best work.

God rest ye, Sir Stewart.

 

[SimonDoom]

I saw Stewart in a few movies in the early 80s, like Excalibur and Dune, and he had a small role in a somewhat cheesy sci fi movie called Life Force, but it wasn't until Star Trek TNG that he really caught my attention. I wasn't sure about him at first because I was so accustomed to the cast of the original show, the reruns of which I had grown up with. But he was such a good actor that he couldn't help but grow on me. I thought his talent really helped carry that series and it gave the Star Trek franchise a weight that it did not have before.

I wish I had seen him on stage. He must have been a magnificent stage actor with that bearing and that voice.

That voice -- it's one of the best voices of any actor. Up there, IMO, with James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons, and Gregory Peck. Instantly authoritative.

One thing that always struck me as weird about his Star Trek character -- his name, Jean Luc Picard, is almost out-of-its-way French, but he speaks in the most stentorian RP accent imaginable. That never made sense to me.

I enjoyed everything he did, and he seemed like a good guy. RIP.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I knew him a bit from Star Trek,.but he played the best Prospero I've ever seen, in a very sexually-passionate version of the Tempest with Julian Bleach as a goth Ariel.

He got to the bit about giving up his magic, "I'll throw away my staff,", tossed his five-foot pole aside, and it landed on end, bounced backwards, and hit him in the chest. He had to take a moment not to corpse, his cheek trembling with the effort not to laugh, then managed.to continue. Got to the end of the scene, started to exit, then tossed the staff behind him in a.perfect moment of disgust. Got a round of applause.

He was also excellent in Waiting for Godot, with Ian McKellen, Simon Callow and Ronald Pickup. It's a very funny play when done well. I'll probably never watch it again as it won't be better (though if you get the chance to see Godot's To-Do List, it's amazing).

I've only recently seen the first two X-Men films, where he and McKellen proved that it's important not to be bad in bad films, and made them watchable.

 

[Writer61]

I'm sure that most of us "know" him from his role in Star Trek, but the values his character showed were close to his own. A few years ago, he appeared in this Monty Python-inspired video defending the European Convention on Human Rights. As The Grauniad obituary notes, "This probably the best video you will watch today".

https://cdn.theguardian.tv/mainwebsite/2016/04/28/150428ECHRSketchV2_desk.mp4

 

[JGittes]

I first saw him as Sejanus in 'I, Claudius,' a BBC production, shown in the US on PBS Masterpiece Theater. He had a small but hilarious part in Steve Martin's LA Story, where he played a pretentious maitre d' at L'Idiot who required financial statements before booking a table. "You think with a financial statement like this, you can have ze duck? You cannot have ze duck."

His video defending the ECHR (see @Writer61 post above) is the only inspiring Remain advert I remember from the Brexit debate.

 

[deathlynx]

The shenanigans that he and Ian McKellen got up to are legendary.

Every Christmas Eve, as we drove down to a family party, we would listen to him read A Christmas Carol. When he came to a convention nearby, we got a copy of the CD set and had him sign it for my parents. He was delighted by it, because it was a project he'd done on a lark, and enjoyed that it was a beloved family tradition.

 

[Rustyoznail]

The Simpsons, Family Guy, Sesame Street...

He was a funny guy, and the world is poorer without him.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

but it wasn't until Star Trek TNG that he really caught my attention. I wasn't sure about him at first because I was so accustomed to the cast of the original show, the reruns of which I had grown up with.

He showed us what a Captain should be instead of the yammering yahoo priceline hawker.

Well, he and Sisko.

That voice -- it's one of the best voices of any actor. Up there, IMO, with James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons, and Gregory Peck. Instantly authoritative.

Add Avery Brooks.

And Fran Bennet.

 

[ClintonBrooks]

Here's a cool video honoring Patrick Stewart, showing the variety of roles he played over the years.

 

[Comentarista82]

My absolute favorite from Stewart, from the TNG ep "Darmok." Hard to beat the delivery and the story (VERY close to the original):

 

[gloomyMoron]

I've enjoyed pretty much everything I've heard or seen him in, but one of my core memories is finding this song, back in the day, made using clips and lines with him as Picard:

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Paul Winfield is another one of those classic actors with a voice you know right away.


But I don't like having to try and figure things out to that extent.

 

[old_prof]

I grew up on the original series, when it was on in prime time. (Wednesday nights? or is my mind playing tricks on my memories).
I went with my first wife to the first Star Trek movie. Tat was awful, but I think it generated enough interest in Trek to allow then development of TNG

Despite my thorough grounding in TOS, TNG was such an improvement over TOS in many ways, the biggest being how much better of an actor Stewart was than Shatner.

I also remember him as a soccer fan.