The two actors balanced careers in Shakespearean theatre with global film franchises.
Sir Ian McKellen has issued a tribute to his longtime friend and X-Men co-star Sir Patrick Stewart, who died Wednesday at age 86. The English actors first met as young performers at the Royal Shakespeare Company before building parallel careers in theatre and cinema. McKellen recalled advising Stewart against moving to Hollywood for the role of Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation during the late 1980s. Despite concerns about his UK stage career, Stewart took the risk, eventually using his celebrity to star in classical plays by Ibsen, Pinter, and Beckett on Broadway and in the West End. The duo later starred together in a 2009 production of Waiting for Godot. Their final onscreen appearance together will be in the upcoming film Avengers: Doomsday, scheduled for release in December.
Stewart’s trajectory demonstrates how international film celebrity can be leveraged to sustain a high-level career in classical stage performance. His success proves that taking risks on commercial roles does not necessarily diminish a creative professional's credibility in serious theatre.
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