Ian McKellan pens long note as tribute to Patrick Stewart

Ian remembered their long friendship and called Patrick “a man to rely on, to admire and love”

Published - October 30, 2026 11:01 am IST

Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart | Photo Credit: Alberto Pezzal and ianmckellan/Instagram

As everyone mourned the death of legendary actor Patrick Stewart, his long time friend and actor Ian McKellan penned a long note as tribute.

Ian, who worked alongside Patrick in the X-Men films, took to Instagram and shared a photo of Patrick. He began his note by acknowledging that Patrick “was defined by being born and bred in Yorkshire”. “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,” Ian said.

Remembering their first meeting fifty years ago as young actors working with Royal Shakespeare Company, where they didn’t work in the same production, Ian said, “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?”.

Ian added, “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.”

Ian further said that America was Patrick’s adopted home. “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,” Ian wrote.

Ending the note, Ian said that Patrick’s farewell performance in the upcoming ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ is yet to be seen.

Patrick died on October 28, 2026 at his Los Angeles home. He is well-known globally for starring in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Picard as well as his iconic role in the X-Men franchise. For stage, he worked for a long time with the Royal Shakespeare Company and on Broadway and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2010.

View this post on InstagramA post shared by Ian McKellen (@ianmckellen)

Published - October 30, 2026 11:01 am IST

entertainment (general) / arts, culture and entertainment / cinema / English cinema

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