Patrick Stewart’s friends and costars spent Thursday saying goodbye. The actor, who played Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men films and returns to the role one final time in Avengers: Doomsday on December 18, died Wednesday at 86 at his home in Los Angeles. Within hours, the people who shared the screen and the stage with him started posting their memories.
Ian McKellen Remembers His Closest Friend
Nobody was closer to Stewart than Ian McKellen, his Magneto. In a long tribute posted Thursday evening, McKellen wrote that Stewart “wore his heart on his sleeve, which made him a man to rely on, to admire and in my case, love.” He credited Yorkshire for the man Stewart was, from his accent to “the stern honesty with which he told you what he thought and felt.”
McKellen also told a story on himself. The two met as young actors at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and a few years later he ran into Stewart on a street in central London and heard about an offer to take a leading part in Star Trek. McKellen warned him he might get “lost in Hollywood for years and years.” Stewart took the job anyway, and McKellen wrote, “thank goodness for us all that he did.” He closed by noting that Stewart’s “farewell performance in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ is yet to be seen.”
SIR PATRICK STEWART (1940-2026)
— Ian McKellen (@IanMcKellen) October 29, 2026
Before everything else, Patrick was defined by being born and bred in Yorkshire, the proud county in the north of England which he loved to the end. You could hear it in his accented voice and in the stern honesty with which he told you what he thought and felt. Yorkshiremen have no truck with half-truths or avoidance of big issues. He wore his heart on his sleeve, which made him a man to rely on, to admire and in my case, love.
We first met as ambitious young actors with the Royal Shakespeare Company half a century ago but we weren’t in the same productions. My first strong memory was a few years later, meeting him in the street in central London when he told me about an offer to take over a leading part in 'Star Trek'. “But Patrick think of your stage career in the UK. Do you really want to risk—getting lost in Hollywood for years and years?”. Well, he took the risk and thank goodness for us all that he did for not just his devoted Trekkies but film and theatre audiences, who marvelled at his using international celebrity to star in a string of cinema successes ('X-Men' of course) and in great classical plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Arthur Miller, Peter Shaffer, Pinter and Beckett at Stratford-upon-Avon, in London’s West End and on Broadway.
America was his adopted home, where he met his adored Sunny who has cared for him through sickness and health, through thick and thin. But he never forsook his origins: and the proudest achievement of the most respected and beloved actor of his generation on either side of the Atlantic, was his appointment as Chancellor of Huddersfield University in Yorkshire.
His farewell performance in 'Avengers: Doomsday' is yet to be seen.
Ian McKellen 29 October 2026
Photo: University of Huddersfield
The pair grew inseparable on the set of the first X-Men in 2000. They later did Waiting for Godot together in London and on Broadway, and McKellen officiated Stewart’s 2013 wedding to singer-songwriter Sunny Ozell. Doomsday puts Xavier and Magneto on screen together one more time.
The X-Men Family
Rebecca Romijn, the original Mystique and another Doomsday returnee, wrote simply, “What a gift to have been your friend. Rest in peace, dear Patrick.” In a tearful video, she said she was grateful to have known him for 25 years “both as a fellow mutant and as a fellow member of Starfleet,” and described him as “positively delicious, hilarious, naughty,” with a booming voice that always reached the back of the room.
Hugh Jackman, whose Wolverine shared 17 years of films with Stewart’s Xavier, wrote on Instagram that “we lost one of the greats of stage and screen today” and called Stewart “a tremendous friend and man.” He added, “I learned so much from him. I will miss you, Patrick Stewart, all of my days.”
Famke Janssen worked with Stewart twice, years apart. She played Kamala opposite his Captain Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation before becoming Jean Grey in the X-Men films. “Patrick was a legend. One of the greats,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “You will be missed, Patrick, but never forgotten.”
Joe and Anthony Russo, who directed him in Doomsday, called Stewart one of their childhood heroes and thanked him “for teaching us humanity, both on and off the screen.” Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige remembered him as “brilliant, charming, warm, generous, with a quiet strength and gravitas” from their first days together on X-Men.
His Star Trek Crew
The Enterprise crew showed up too. “He was family,” LeVar Burton said. “There is no other context in which to hold him that makes sense.” Jonathan Frakes, his Number One, said there was no one on the planet he had acted with or directed more often than his “late great friend.” Wil Wheaton posted a throwback photo of the two of them with just two words: “Godspeed, Captain.”
William Shatner, who shared the screen with him in Star Trek Generations, called Stewart “a friend, a colleague, and a magnificent actor.” George Takei said fans everywhere were mourning “a true and irreplaceable legend.” Kim Cattrall, who was in Star Trek VI, and Star Trek: Discovery’s Wilson Cruz also posted, and Cruz said he was devastated.
What a heartbreaking week it has been. Sir Patrick Stewart was a friend, a colleague, and a magnificent actor. From the stage to the bridge of the Enterprise, he brought intelligence, grace, and a deep sense of humanity to everything he did. Captain Picard stood for the best of us, and so did the man who played him. I was filled with affection and admiration for him and his work.
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) October 29, 2026
My heart goes out to Sunny and his family. He will be deeply missed.
Friends From Across His Career
Cary Elwes first met Stewart on the set of Lady Jane in 1984 and later pushed Mel Brooks to cast him as King Richard in Robin Hood: Men in Tights. His tribute ended with “Good night, sweet Prince.” Bryan Batt, who played Stewart’s partner in the 1995 comedy Jeffrey, wrote that Stewart took him under his wing.
Seth MacFarlane, who cast him as Avery Bullock on American Dad, wrote that Stewart was one of those icons “who we somehow all took for granted would always be with us.” Ricky Gervais, who worked with him on Extras, kept it short: “What an actor.” Minnie Driver, his costar in The Wilde Wedding, said goodbye to her “dearest Patrick.”
His family has asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations go to the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Fund and the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America’s caregiver resources program.
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