Patrick Stewart

This article is about the actor. For the deceased US Army member, see Sgt. Patrick Stewart.

Patrick Stewart
Born
13 July 1940 Mirfield, Yorkshire, England
Occupation
Actor

Patrick Stewart, OBE, (born July 13, 1940) is an English film, television, and stage actor and Chancellor of Huddersfield University. Throughout his career, he has performed various characters in Shakespearean productions and has led a distinguished career in the theatre for nearly fifty years. However, he is best known to the public at large for his roles as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and as Professor Xavier in X-Men, X-Men 2 and X-Men: The Last Stand. His bald head and classically trained vocal mannerisms are his most recognized traits.

Biography

Stewart was born in Mirfield, Yorkshire, England, although he spent much of his childhood in Jarrow. His first appearance on stage was at a local outdoor history pageant as Tom of Towngate when he was 9. At the age of 12, he entered the local secondary modern school where he continued to study drama. He has said that "the greatest thing that ever happened to me" was after he read Shylock aloud in front of his class and his teacher told him, "Stewart, you're good at this. You should do it for a living."

At 15, he dropped out of school and increased his participation in local theatre. He acquired a job as a newspaper reporter, but after a year, his employer gave him an ultimatum to choose acting or journalism. He quit the job. His brother tells the story that Stewart would attend rehearsals during work time and then invent the stories he reported. Supposedly, this caught up with him the night of a large fire of which, when questioned by his boss, he knew nothing about.

File:Stewart tranchell.jpg

Bristol Old Vic students Patrick Stewart and Christopher Tranchell studying a script at home, 1958

At 16 he was a furniture salesman. And in 1957, at the age of 17, he embarked on a two-year acting course at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He lost most of his hair by the age of 19 (alopecia runs in his family), but he successfully sold himself to theatre producers, after performing an audition with and without a wig, as "two actors for the price of one!". In 1964 he met the Old Vic's choreographer Sheila Falconer and they married on March 4, 1966. They had two children — Daniel Freedom Stewart and Sophie Alexandra Stewart — but divorced in 1990.Template:Fn

Following a period with the Manchester Library Theatre, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966 where he appeared next to actors such as Ben Kingsley and Ian Richardson — and even played on the company's football (soccer) team. He then moved to the Royal National Theatre in the early 1980s. Over the years, Stewart took roles in many major television series without ever becoming a household name. He appeared as Sejanus in I, Claudius; Karla in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People; Claudius in a 1980 BBC adaptation of Hamlet. He even took the romantic male lead in the BBC adaptation of Mrs Gaskell's North and South (wearing a hairpiece).

Diehard fans will recognize him in a minor role as King Leondegrance in John Boorman's Excalibur (1981). He played the character Gurney Halleck in David Lynch's 1984 film version of Dune. Much of his part was cut from the original release of the film due to editing made to make the immensely long film shorter. Much of this footage was restored for the syndicated television broadcast of the film and the subsequent DVD video release.

File:Picard1.jpg

Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

In 1987, after doing a Shakespeare Seminar at UCSB, Stewart went to Los Angeles to star as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994). From 1994 he also portrayed Picard in the movie spin-offs Star Trek: Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002). In 1997 he became engaged to Wendy Neuss, production assistant of Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001). They married on August 25, 2000, only to later divorce on October 14, 2003. Four months before the divorce in June of that year he played opposite 24-year-old actress Lisa Dillon in a production of The Master Builder. Despite the large difference in age, the two fell in love and subsquently dated and are still considered an item. He has said that his life was substantially changed by Star Trek, and he has been quoted as saying:

It was almost entirely a blessing. It introduced me to a world I never expected to be a part of — celebrity, fame, financial success. It also gave me the chance to work with the finest group of people I've ever known.

Stewart has also said he is very proud of his work on Star Trek: TNG, for its social message and educational impact on young viewers. On being questioned about the significance of his role compared to his distinguished Shakespearean career, Stewart has said:

One day, out of irritation, I said, you know all of those years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, all those years of playing kings and princes and speaking blank verse, and bestriding the landscape of England was nothing but a preparation for sitting in the captain's chair of the Enterprise.

The accolades he has received include "Sexiest Man on Television" (TV Guide, 1992), which he considered an unusual distinction considering his age and his baldness. In an interview with Michael Parkinson, he expressed gratitude for Gene Roddenberry's riposte to a reporter who said, "Surely they would have cured baldness by the 24th century," to which Roddenberry replied, "In the 24th Century, they wouldn't care." A few years later, he described an event connected with his natural loss of hair whilst a guest of Jonathan Ross's talk show, whereby he had a last patch of hair that looked so out of place that while visiting friends his hosts actually held him back and cut off the offending lock.

Stewart had said after the failure of Star Trek: Nemesis, another Star Trek: Next Generation film would be unlikely. In December 2005, Stewart disclosed that talks are in the process for another Star Trek film, and that after his fulfilling his previous commitments, he would be open to the possibility of reprising his role as Jean Luc Picard. On April 20, 2006, a new Star Trek movie was announced by Paramount (Star Trek XI). There is some speculation in which era the movie will be set in, so it is not clear if Stewart will play a role.

In 1991, he performed his one-man-play adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol in which he performed the roles of all of the 40-plus characters himself. His radiant energy and marvelous performance was repeated the following year in 1992 and then 1993, 1994, 1996 and then again, for the benefit of survivors and victims' families in the September 11, 2001 attacks. Stewart performed the play again for a 23-day run in London's West End in December 2005. For his performances in this play, he has received the Drama Desk Award for Best Solo Performance in 1992 and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment for Solo Performance in 1994. 1997 would see Patrick invert Shakespeare's Othello. Originally a play about a black African entering a white Society, Patrick had wanted to play the title role since the age of 14, so he (along with director Jude Kelly), inverted the play so Othello became a White man in a Black Society. In 1995, he performed Prospero in William Shakespeare's The Tempest, on Broadway, in New York City.

He has played a great range of characters, from the flamboyantly gay Sterling in the 1995 film Jeffrey to King Henry II in Lion in Winter (2003) and Captain Ahab in Moby Dick.

File:Professor X movie.jpg

Stewart as Professor X.

Stewart has also starred in X-Men, X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand as Charles Xavier. The films' success has appeared to have resulted in another lucrative regular role in the burgeoning superhero film series.

Speaking at the launch of the Take A Stand anti-bullying campaign in association with Charity of the Year Beat Bullying, Stewart said he wasn’t convinced that X3 would be the franchise’s own last stand. "When it comes to it you can never say it’s the last because a lot of it is about economic drive. The first two films were among the most successful films ever, if the third continues that theme, I would imagine there’s a strong possibility that within a short while a fourth one might be in the planning." http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=18710

In 2005, he signed up to play the role of Professor Ian Hood, the lead character in an ITV science-fiction thriller series Eleventh Hour, created by Stephen Gallagher.[1] The first episode was broadcast on January 19, 2006.

Stewart also, notably, appeared in Ricky Gervais's television series Extras, as a last-minute replacement for Jude Law.

In late 2003, during the eleventh and final season of NBC's Frasier, Stewart appeared on the show as a gay Seattle socialite who mistakes Frasier for a potential lover.

Although he has had a tremendous amount of success doing films, he prefers theatre. He told reporters that "Ingmar Bergman was once asked which he preferred and said, 'I love making movies, but the theatre is my life.' That exactly sums it up for me, too."

Stewart is currently the Chancellor of the University of Huddersfield. Stewart is a lifelong supporter of the British Labour Party.

Stewart was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2001 New Year Honours list.

Stewart was at one time considered for the role of Willy Wonka in the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to which he (like many other Hollywood actors) had great interest in playing. Stewart was particularly interested because he enjoys playing characters from books.

Voice acting

Stewart has lent his recognizable voice to a number of projects. He has narrated recordings of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, C. S. Lewis's The Last Battle (part of the series The Chronicles of Narnia), Rick Wakeman's Return to the Centre of the Earth, and as the narrator in the soundtrack of The Nightmare Before Christmas, as well as numerous TV programs such as High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman.

He also was a voice actor on several animated films — including The Prince of Egypt, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Chicken Little, The Pagemaster, and the English dubbings of the Japanese anime films Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Steamboy — and voiced the pig Napoleon in a TV adaptation of George Orwell's Animal Farm as well as CIA Deputy Director Avery Bullock (lending his likeness as well as his voice) on the animated series American Dad and guest starred in the Simpsons episode "Homer the Great". In 2005, Stewart voiced Bambi's father, The Great Prince of the Forest in Disney's direct-to-video sequel, Bambi II.

In addition to voicing his characters from Star Trek and X-Men in several related computer and video games, Stewart also worked as a voice actor on games unrelated to both franchises, such as Lands of Lore, Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone, and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. He also lent his voice to several editions of the Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia.

Football fan

Patrick Stewart is probably the most famous living supporter of Huddersfield Town Football Club [2], following in the footsteps of former British Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson. It is also rumoured he watches Charlton Athletic and Ipswich Town in his spare time.

Filmography

External links

• PatrickStewart.org - The Patrick Stewart Network (official fan club).
• Template:FnbPatrick Stewart at IMDb
• Patrick Stewart at the Internet Broadway Database
• Trek star's space travel unease BBC interview
• Patrick Stewart at Memory Alpha
• Template:Ymovies name
• Template:Nndb name
• Interview with Sue Lawley on Desert Island Discs
• Patrick Stewart Timeline

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
1974	Antony and Cleopatra	Enobarbus	Made-for-TV movie
1974	Fall of Eagles	Lenin	TV miniseries
1974	The Gathering Storm	Clement Attlee	Made-for-TV movie
1975	Hedda	Ejlert Løvborg
1975	Hennessy	Tilney
1975	North and South	John Thornton	Made-for-TV movie
1976	The Madness	Largo Caballero	Made-for-TV movie
1976	I, Claudius	Sejanus	TV miniseries
1978	When the Actors Come	Janos	Made-for-TV movie
1979	Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy	Karla	TV miniseries
1980	Hamlet, Prince of Denmark	Claudius	Made-for-TV movie
1980	Little Lord Fauntleroy	Wilkins
1981	Excalibur	Leondegrance
1981	Maybury	Dr. Edward Roebuck	TV miniseries
1982	Smiley's People	Karla	TV miniseries
1982	The Plague Dogs	Major (voice)
1984	Uindii	Mr. Duffner
1984	Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind	Lord Yupa (voice)	2005 Disney release
1984	Pope John Paul II: The Movie	Władysław Gomułka	Made-for-TV movie
1984	Dune	Gurney Halleck
1985	Lifeforce	Dr. Armstrong
1985	Wild Geese II	Russian General
1985	Code Name: Emerald	Colonel Peters
1985	The Doctor and the Devils	Prof. Macklin
1986	Lady Jane	Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk
1987	The Devil's Disciple	Reverend Anderson	Made-for-TV movie
1987	Star Trek: The Next Generation	Captain Jean-Luc Picard	Television series (1987–1994)
1991	L.A. Story	Mr. Perdue, Maitre D' at L'Idiot
1993	The Nightmare Before Christmas	(soundtrack voice)
1993	Death Train	Malcolm Philpott	Made-for-TV movie
1993	Robin Hood: Men in Tights	King Richard
1994	Gunmen	Loomis
1994	In Search of Dr. Seuss	Sergeant Mulvaney	Made-for-TV movie
1994	Star Trek: Generations	Captain Jean-Luc Picard
1994	The Pagemaster	Adventure (voice)
1995	Jeffrey	Sterling
1995	Let It Be Me	John
1996	The Canterville Ghost	Sir Simon de Canterville	Made-for-TV movie
1996	Star Trek: First Contact	Captain Jean-Luc Picard
1997	Conspiracy Theory	Dr. Jonas
1997	Masterminds	Rafe Bentley
1998	Moby Dick	Captain Ahab	Made-for-TV movie
1998	Dad Savage	Dad Savage
1998	Safe House	Mace Sowell	Made-for-Cable movie (Showtime)
1998	Star Trek: Insurrection	Captain Jean-Luc Picard
1998	The Prince of Egypt	Pharaoh Seti I (voice)
1999	Animal Farm	Napoleon (voice)	Made-for-TV movie
1999	A Christmas Carol	Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge	Made-for-TV movie
2000	X-Men	Professor Charles Xavier
2001	Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius	King Goobot (voice)
2002	King of Texas	John Lear	Made-for-TV movie
2002	Star Trek: Nemesis	Captain Jean-Luc Picard
2003	X2	Professor Charles Xavier
2003	The Lion in Winter	King Henry II	Made-for-TV movie
2004	Back to Gaya	Albert Drollinger (voice)
2004	Steamboy	Dr. Lloyd Steam (voice)
2005	Eleventh Hour	Professor Ian Hood	TV miniseries
2005	The Game of Their Lives	old Dent McSkimming
2005	Mysterious Island	Nemo	TV miniseries
2005	Chicken Little	Mr. Woolensworth (voice)
2005	Family Guy	Captain Jean-Luc Picard	Television series
2005	American Dad	Deputy Director Avery Bullock (voice)	Television series (2005–present)
2006	Bambi II	Great Prince of the Forest (voice)
2006	X-Men: The Last Stand	Professor Charles Xavier
2006	The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion	Emperor Uriel Septim (voice)