(Photo via Sir Patrick Stewart’s Facebook)
Star of stage and screen Sir Patrick Stewart passed away in his Los Angeles home Oct. 28 after “a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia,” according to spokesperson Kelly Bush Novak.
Stewart will be remembered for his iconic roles as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the “Star Trek” franchise and as Professor Charles Xavier in the film adaptation of the “X-Men” comic series.
He will also be celebrated in the queer community as a lifelong ally and advocate for LGBTQ+ equality, best exemplified through Stewart’s enduring friendship with gay actor and frequent collaborator Ian McKellen.
Stewart and McKellen became good friends while working as actors in stage productions across the UK before becoming movie stars. When McKellen came out publicly as gay in 1988 and began advocating for queer causes, Stewart remained by his side. The pair would eventually co-star as Charles Xavier and Magneto in the X-Men film franchise in the early 2000s and perform critically acclaimed runs of “Waiting for Godot” in 2009 and 2013.
As a stage actor, Stewart grew up among queer performers and said that his advocacy grew from the experiences he had working with them. “There was never a moment when I made an intellectual choice that I would be a supporter of gay civil rights,” Stewart told The Advocate in 2015. “It was always a natural and uncomplicated choice.”
Stewart was also not afraid to take on queer stories in his work, starring in 1994’s “Jeffery” as Sterling, a gay man living with his HIV-positive partner during the height of the AIDS epidemic in New York City, playing a gay opera director in “Frasier,” and portraying a queer Juilliard dance instructor in the 2014 indie film “Match.”
Stewart received the Straight for Equality in Entertainment award from PFLAG in 2013 for his efforts to break the “don’t play gay” barrier in his work.
In lieu of flowers, Stewart’s family is requesting that memorial contributions be made to the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Fund and the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America Caregiver Resources.
The National LGBT Media Association represents 13 legacy publications in major markets across the country with a collective readership of more than 400K in print and more than 1 million + online. Learn more here: NationalLGBTMediaAssociation.com.
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