Patrick Stewart (1940-2026)

[Beloved Aunt]

Patrick Stewart

I only know Patrick Stawart through American Dad!, but he's legit pretty great on that show.

[Big Ben]

Some of my earliest memories are of watching him on Star Trek with my father. He was a defining figure not only in Shakespearean circles but in the Science Fiction space as well. To say that I wish more people and characters embodied the kind of optimism and hope he represented in Star Trek: The Next Generation is a colossal understatement. I cannot really even begin to quantify how awful I feel about his passing. One of the very best to ever do it.

[Finch]

I never really cared much for his films and TV shows but he was such a warm, funny and gracious man on all of the chat and comedy shows I'd come across on YouTube that his loss still stings.

[therewillbeblus]

My favorite role of Stewart's was as a guest on Frasier. I agree, Finch - his sense of humor really set him apart from many of his generation

[flyonthewall2983]

I liked the first season of Blunt Talk

[hearthesilence]

Crazy that Captain Picard can live to a ripe old age and still be outlived by Captain Kirk - Shatner was even performing onstage last month at Riot Fest with a heavy metal band.

[hearthesilence]

Forgot about this, but when I was living in London for school, he was earning rave reviews for Macbeth. That stage production eventually traveled to the U.S. and within a few years later it was filmed as a BBC production.

[domino harvey]

There’s a fascinating television special with Stewart where he and another actor give contrasting performances of Shylock and until I saw Stewart’s take, I never understood how Shylock could be considered a comic figure. It’s a great interpretation, no idea if it’s on YT or a BBC player, a professor showed us it in college

[hearthesilence]

This one?

[domino harvey]

Yep! He gives a full performance of it in the comic register at some point in the special as well

[hearthesilence]

Found the full episode, which is about an hour-long. (Looks like it was the fourth episode in a nine-episode series.)

[thirtyframesasecond]

Green Room was a very different kind of role for Stewart. Rare to see him demonstrate genuine menace.

[colinr0380]

Long before Star Trek: The Next Generation, Patrick Stewart was turning up in supporting roles in quite major films: Excalibur; the mentor figure in Lynch's version of Dune; having an intense moment in LifeForce.

He also had a couple of interesting Shakespearean Revenging/Avenging Patriarch roles, playing against type as a bad guy in the great matched pair of 1997's Dad Savage and 2015's Green Room. EDIT: Ah, thirtyframesasecond beat me to it!

And there is also his appearance on the Ricky Gervais series Extras, playing a nudity-obsessed version of himself.

"It's a comedy, is it?"
"... No."

[hearthesilence]

"On the grass!"