Australian actor Hugh Jackman and Star Trek legends William Shatner and George Takei are among stars paying tribute to British actor Patrick Stewart after his death at 86.

Stewart – best known for his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: ⁠The Next Generation and Professor X in the ⁠X-Men film franchise – died on Wednesday (local time) at his home in Los Angeles in the care of his wife, Sunny.

His passing followed a “brief and poignant journey” with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy Body Dementia, according to a statement shared by his spokesperson Kelly Bush Novak.

“He has been held in the warm embrace of family and friends, surrounded by live music, prayer, tears, laughter and the kind of profound emotion that only he could inspire after a lifetime of devotion to us all,” said the statement, shared on X.

“We will forever cherish the peaceful ease and reflection on his face, an enduring reminder of his invincible grace.”

It added that the four-time Emmy nominee, who was also an acclaimed stage actor and philanthropist, “explored the human condition in all its poetic complexity” throughout his six-decade career.

“His sonorous voice and singular talent will forever be synonymous with indelible performances in every genre.”

 

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Numerous acting colleagues and entertainment industry heavyweights have paid tribute to Stewart, who was born in the Yorkshire town of Mirfield on July 13, 1940, and first gained acclaim on the stage as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company from the 1960s.

Jackman – who starred alongside Stewart in the X-Men movies and, more recently, in the surprise box-office hit The Sheep Detectives – said he would miss the actor “all of my days”.

“We lost one of the greats of stage and screen today. And, in my book, a tremendous friend and man. I learned so much from him,” he wrote on Instagram.

 

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William Shatner, who played Captain James T Kirk in the original Star Trek series and first seven films, said it had been a “heartbreaking week”, with Stewart’s death coming just days after that of Walter Koenig, who had played Starship Enterprise navigator Pavel Chekov.

“Sir Patrick Stewart was a friend, a colleague, and a magnificent actor,” Shatner said.

“From the stage to the bridge of the Enterprise, he brought intelligence, grace, and a deep sense of humanity to everything he did. Captain Picard stood for the best of us, and so did the man who played him. I was filled with affection and admiration for him and his work.”

 

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Fellow Star Trek cast member George Takei (Sulu) said that as Captain Picard, Stewart “took the starship Enterprise to places it had never gone before”.

“He inspired a whole next generation of star-gazers who looked longingly ahead to a brighter future for all humanity. Our hearts are heavy, indeed. Rest in the heavens, Captain.”

Sir Ian McKellan, who was Stewart’s longtime friend and his castmate in the X-Men, said he first met him more than 50 years ago when they were both “ambitious young actors” at Royal Shakespeare Company.

“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’,” he wrote on Instagram.

McKellan tried to disuade him, suggesting he should stick with his stage career rather than 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,” McKellan wrote in his tribute.

It was after being hired at 47 for Star Trek: The Next Generation –  which ran from 1987 to 1994 as a sequel to the original Star Trek – that Stewart gained mainstream fame. He went on to star in 176 episodes over seven seasons of the series, as well as in several Star Trek films and the ‌later streaming series Star Trek: Picard.

Stewart made his debut as telepathic mutant and mentor Professor X in the first X-Men movie in 2000, and went on to reprise the role in multiple other movies in the franchise.

 

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Marvel Studios, which said it was heartbroken to learn of the actor’s death, confirmed that his final on-screen appearance will be as Professor X in the upcoming film Avengers: Doomsday, which will open in cinemas in December.

Speaking about the film during an interview with TV Insider in July, the actor – who became Sir Patrick Stewart when he was knighted by the Queen at Buckingham Palace in 2010 – said he would never “retire” from acting.

“As any actor my age will tell you, there are fewer and fewer available roles as we get older. That being said, I still continue to receive interesting offers and I love being challenged by new work,” Stewart said at the time.

“I can’t imagine ever officially retiring. I’ll always and forever be an actor.”

Stewart was married three times and had two children. His third marriage, in 2013, was to American musician Sunny Ozell.

–with AAP and Reuters