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Patrick Stewart, Order of the British Empire|OBE,
(born July 13, 1940 in Mirfield, Yorkshire,
England) is a United Kingdom|British film,
television and stage actor best known for his
roles in William Shakespeare|Shakespearean
productions, Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek:
The Next Generation, and Professor Xavier in both
X-Men and X2. His baldness|bald head and
classically trained vocal mannerisms are his
trademarks.

His first appearance on stage was at a local
outdoor history pageant as Tom Of Towngate when he
was nine years old. 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 (Shakespeare)|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.

At 16 he was a furniture salesman, and at 17, he
registered in the Bristol Old Vic. 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, and
divorced in 1990.fn|1

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 Aelius
Sejanus|Sejanus in I, Claudius; Karla in Tinker,
Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People; Claudius
in a 1980 BBC adaptation of Hamlet and took the
romantic male lead in the BBC adaptation of
Elizabeth Gaskell|Mrs Gaskell's North and South
(wearing a hairpiece).

Diehard fans will recognize him in a minor role as
Leondegrance|King Leondegrance in John Boorman's
Excalibur (movie)|Excalibur (1981). He played the
character Gurney Halleck in David Lynch's 1984
film version of Dune (novel)|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 on
the television broadcast of the film on Fox
Television.

In 1987 Stewart went to Los Angeles,
California|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 was engaged to Voyager
production assistant Wendy Neuss and they married
On August 25, 2000, only to later divorce on
October 14, 2003. 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."

The accolades included being called the "Sexiest
Man on Television" one year in the 1990s, which
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":

:In the 24th century, they wouldn't care.

Stewart has said that at this point, another Star
Trek film with the Next Generation cast is
unlikely.

In 1991, he performed his one-man-play adaptation
of Charles Dickens|Charles Dickens' A Christmas
Carol in which he performed the roles of all of
the 40-plus characters himself. His radiant energy
and marvellous performance was repeated the
following year in 1992 and then 1993, 1994, 1996
and then again, to benefit September 11, 2001
terrorist attacks|September 11th charities in
2001. 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. In 1998, he performed Prospero in William
Shakespeare's The Tempest (play)|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 (movie)|Jeffrey to King Henry II of
England|Henry II in Lion in Winter and Captain
Ahab in Moby Dick.

Stewart has also starred in X-Men (movie)|X-Men
and X2 (movie)|X2 as Professor Professor X|Charles
Xavier and the film's success has appeared to have
resulted in another lucrative regular role in the
burgeoning superhero film series. Most recently,
he has signed up to play the role of Professor
Alan Hood, the lead character in the forthcoming
ITV science-fiction thriller series The Eleventh
Hour, created by Stephen
Gallagher.http://www.eleventhhour.tv/

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

Stewart has lent his extremely recognisable voice
to a number of projects. He has narrated
recordings of Sergei Prokofiev|Prokofiev's Peter
and the Wolf, Antonio Vivaldi|Vivaldi's The Four
Seasons (Vivaldi)|The Four Seasons, and Rick
Wakeman's Return to the Centre of the Earth. His
voice-acting work includes Computer and video
games|video games (not only in the Star Trek and
X-Men franchises, but in games such as  Forgotten
Realms: Demon Stone and The Elder Scrolls IV:
Oblivion) and many animated films, including
English translations of Japanese anime such as
Steamboy and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
He also voiced Napoleon in a TV adaptation of
Animal Farm.

Stewart is currently the chancellor of the
University of Huddersfield. He is probably the
most famous supporter of Huddersfield Town
A.F.C.|Huddersfield Town Football Club, following
in the footsteps of former British Labour Prime
Minister Harold Wilson. Stewart is a lifelong
supporter of the Labour (UK)|British Labour Party.

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

==External links==
* http://www.patrickstewart.org/
PatrickStewart.org - The Patrick Stewart Network
(official fan club).
* fnb|1imdb name|id=0001772|name=Patrick Stewart
* ibdb name|id=9608|name=Patrick Stewart
*
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_ra
dio/3455463.stm Trek star's space travel unease
BBC interview
* memoryalpha
*
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/desertislanddi
scs_20050417.shtml Interview with Sue Lawley on
Desert Island Discs