Actor Ian McKellen posted a heartfelt tribute to Patrick Stewart following the latter’s death on Oct. 28.
Award-winning actor Patrick Stewart, known for his roles as Professor Charles Xavier and Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the “X-Men” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation” series and films, died on Oct. 28, aged 86.
Posting on Stewart’s social media pages the following day, a representative said his death followed “a brief and poignant journey” with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia (archived).
Numerous public figures have paid their respects to the late actor. Among the tributes is a message fellow thespian Ian McKellen purportedly shared regarding his friend of decades.
Social media users posted screenshots on X and Facebook allegedly showing McKellen’s words, in which he appears to describe Stewart as “a man to rely on, to admire and in my case, love.”
In short, McKellen did post this heartfelt tribute to his late friend Stewart, whom he met “half a century ago.” McKellen shared the same text across his social media accounts — X, Facebook and Instagram.
McKellen’s ‘love’ for Stewart
In the tribute, McKellen speaks of his love for Stewart, and recounts details of his friend’s Hollywood film career and his time on stage in the U.K.:
McKellen wrote, in part:
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.
McKellen went on to recount how the pair met 50 years ago as “ambitious young actors with the Royal Shakespeare Company.” He said that when Stewart was cast on the television series “Star Trek,” McKellen expressed concern that Stewart was risking his stage career in the United Kingdom. He continued:
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.
The two actors openly spoke of, and exhibited, their bond. For example, many photographs on reputable image bank Getty Images reveal the pair’s years-long friendship.
McKellen also officiated Stewart’s marriage to Sunny Ozell, his third and last wife.
In a 2014 conversation hosted by the Screen Actors’ Guild, the two touched each other and held hands many times. When McKellen, who is gay, recounted his “coming-out” story (starting around the 1:16:40 mark in the video below), Stewart leaned towards McKellen with evident pride and affection.
Shortly after receiving one of his two Laurence Olivier Awards for playing Claudius in “Hamlet” at London’s Novello Theatre, Stewart was knighted for his services to drama in 2010. He is survived by a daughter and a son.
Snopes has examined several rumors about the two actors, including a false claim that McKellen visited Lviv, Ukraine, in 2022.
