Patrick Stewart, from Othello to Captain Picard

Only certain British actors manage to switch effortlessly from Shakespearean theatre to Jean-Luc Picard’s burgundy-coloured jumpsuit with black trim. Captain, and later Admiral, in ‘Star Trek’, aboard his new-model Enterprise starships. More specifically, we’re talking about the TV series ‘The Next Generation’ and ‘Picard’, and the films ‘Generation’, ‘First Contact’, ‘Insurrection’ and ‘Nemesis’. Stewart also developed a taste for pop culture, portraying Professor X, leader of the X-Men, in another superhero film series. He died at the age of 86 last Wednesday.

It is almost hard to believe. In the theatre, he had not just played a minor role. His calling had come early, and his career spanned several decades. He was 11 years old (born in 1940, the youngest of three children, in Yorkshire) when his English teacher – whose name was Cecil Dormand – gave him a copy of "The Merchant of Venice" and told him to recite it. It certainly wasn’t his family who introduced him to the classics. His father was a sergeant major, with a penchant for alcohol and a tendency towards domestic violence. His mother worked in a textile factory. With Shakespeare, it was love at first sight. He put it in writing, in his own words, as follows: “A writer from 400 years ago sent me an invitation. I felt my deepest, most intimate self connect with something mysterious, foreign, exciting. I was hooked.” That was the effect old Will’s verses had on a young boy who hadn’t grown up with The Lion King. Patrick Stewart enquired about acting schools in the area and began attending them. Only later did he learn that his schoolteacher had paid for his first lessons.

He worked for a while as a journalist and a furniture salesman. He then received a scholarship to resume his studies at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He made his debut in a production of "Treasure Island". By the age of 19 he was already bald; alopecia ran in his family. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and enjoyed a successful career there. This was before his television career in the US, which began in the late 1980s (of the last century, of course). He starred in "Hamlet", "The Tempest" and "Much Ado About Nothing".

His big break overseas came with a production of ‘Othello’, performed in Washington in 1997. Ten years later, it was the turn of ‘Macbeth’, which earned him a Tony Award. Charles Spencer wrote in the Daily Telegraph: “He is an actor of great charisma. Someone who can make himself a ham sandwich on stage and turn it into the most terrifying gesture you’ve ever seen”. Did the popularity he gained from “Star Trek” bother him? Not at all, he declared: “I’m proud of it. It’s well-made television; there are ideas and arguments, and it tells magnificent stories”.