Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart’s friendship began more than five decades ago. The “Lord of the Rings” star remembered his dear friends with a touching tribute hours after news of his death was announced.
Remembering Patrick Stewart
“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,” McKellen began in his moving tribute, which he shared via Instagram on Thursday, October 29. “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.”
He went on to reflect on meeting Stewart while both were young actors with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
“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’,” McKellen continued. “‘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,” the “X-Men” star continued. “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.”
Patrick Stewart’s Passing
Stewart died on Wednesday, October 28, at his home in Los Angeles.
The news was shared the following day, with his family announcing that he passed “following a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s Disease and Lewy Body Dementia.”
“He has been held in the warm embrace of family and friends, surrounded by live music, prayer, tears, laughter, and the kind of profound emotion that only he could inspire after a lifetime of devotion to us all.”
Stewart leaves behind his loving wife, Sunny, and two children, Daniel and Sophie—whom he shared with first wife Sheila Falconer.
Sir Ian McKellen Remembers 50-Year Friendship With Patrick Stewart After His Passing