Ian McKellen Pays Tribute to Patrick Stewart, Recalls Warning Him About ‘Star Trek’
Ian McKellen is remembering his decades-long friendship with Patrick Stewart in light of the Star Trek actor’s recent passing.
Ian, 87, paid tribute to Patrick in a heartfelt post on Instagram, remembering his longtime friend as an actor, a Yorkshireman, and someone he loved.
“Before everything else,” Ian wrote, Patrick was “defined by being born and bred in Yorkshire.” He said Patrick‘s pride in his home county came through in his voice and in the honesty with which he shared what he thought and felt. “He wore his heart on his sleeve,” Ian added, calling him “a man to rely on, to admire and in my case, love.”
Ian once questioned Patrick’s Star Trek decision
The actors first met as young performers with the Royal Shakespeare Company, though Ian said they weren’t in the same productions at the time. Years later, they ran into each other on a London street, where Patrick told Ian he had been offered the lead role in Star Trek. Ian would even go on to be the officiant at Patrick‘s wedding to Sunny Orzell.
Ian recalled asking him: “Do you really want to risk—getting lost in Hollywood for years and years?” Patrick ended up taking the role anyway, becoming Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation and returning to the character in films and the series Star Trek: Picard.
“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,” Ian wrote, along with acknowledging Patrick‘s performances 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 Lord of the Rings star and Patrick eventually shared the screen as X-Men rivals Professor X and Magneto, and appeared together onstage in Waiting for Godot and No Man’s Land.
Ian concluded by looking ahead to Patrick‘s upcoming appearance in Avengers: Doomsday, where he will return as Professor X. He described it as Patrick‘s “farewell performance.” The film will open in theaters on December 18, 2026.
Read Ian McKellen’s full tribute
SIR PATRICK STEWART (1940-2026)
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.
We first met as ambitious young actors with the Royal Shakespeare Company half a century ago but we weren’t in the same productions. 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’. “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. 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.
His farewell performance in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ is yet to be seen.
Ian McKellen 29 October 2026
Keep clicking through the gallery to see more photos of Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart together over the years…
Posted To:Ian McKellen Patrick Stewart Star Trek
