Ian McKellen Honors Close Friend Patrick Stewart: ‘A Man to Rely On, to Admire and In My Case, Love’

Ian McKellen has paid tribute to his longtime friend and colleague, English actor Patrick Stewart, who died on Wednesday at 86.

In his remembrance, McKellen recalled meeting him “half a century ago” as young actors and how Stewart stayed true to his origins throughout his life. In a social media post, McKellen began his tribute by addressing his friend as “Sir Patrick Stewart.” In 2001, Stewart was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire, known as an OBE, and in 2010, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his contributions to the arts.

“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,” McKellen wrote. “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.”

McKellen said that they first met when acting with the Royal Shakespeare Company “half a century ago,” although they weren’t performing in the same productions then. “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,'” said McKellen. At the time, he questioned whether Stewart should risk leaving the stage and losing himself in Hollywood.

Luckily, “he took the risk.” McKellen added, “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.”

While “America was his adopted home” (and where Stewart met his wife, singer Sunny Ozell), he “never forsook his origins.” McKellen, who included a photo of Stewart taken by the University of Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, said that the actor’s “proudest achievement” was his appointment as Chancellor of the university.

Stewart and McKellen’s friendship has been one of the most celebrated in Hollywood. In 2000, Stewart was cast as popular Marvel comic-book character Professor Xavier in X-Men, and would continue the role as Professor X in X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand, and later in X-Men: Days of Future Past. It was in these films that Stewart built a deep friendship with McKellen, who played his character’s nemesis Magneto. Throughout his career, Stewart continued appearing onstage, notably joining McKellen for Waiting for Godot in 2009 and again in 2014.

“Going around with Patrick is like going around with the pope,” McKellen said of Stewart in 2023. “Not that people genuflect, but he’s touched so many lives.”