Ian McKellen Eulogizes Patrick Stewart, Says He Tried to Stop Actor From Taking ‘Star Trek’ Role

McKellen penned a memorial to his longtime friend, recalling their early days at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

ByJade Gomez
October 30, 2026

Key Takeaways

• Ian McKellen memorialized his longtime friend Patrick Stewart, who died of Alzheimer’s and dementia on Oct. 29, 2026.
• Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart became friends in the 1970s at the Royal Shakespeare Company and later played Magneto and Professor X in five X-Men films from 2000 to 2014.
• Stewart says McKellen has since acknowledged he was wrong and Stewart was right, and McKellen officiated Stewart’s 2013 wedding to Sunny Ozell.

Sir Ian McKellen penned a heartfelt eulogy to his friend Patrick Stewart, reflecting on their youth at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

On X, McKellen wrote, “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. You could hear it in his accented voice and in the stern honesty with which he told you what he thought and felt.”

“He wore his heart on his sleeve, which made him a man to rely on, to admire and in my case, love,” McKellen continued.

The veteran actor recalled crossing paths with Stewart “half a century ago,” and said he tried to steer his friend from accepting what would become one of his most iconic roles.

“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,’” McKellen wrote. “But Patrick think of your stage career in the UK. Do you really want to risk—getting lost in Hollywood for years and years?”

As he goes on to tell, McKellen was glad Stewart didn’t take his advice. “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.”

McKellen ends his tribute with a reflection on Stewart’s love for America. “America was his adopted home, where he met his adored Sunny who has cared for him through sickness and health, through thick and thin. 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.”

In his memoir Making It So, Stewart also retold the story of McKellen attempting to sway his Star Trek decision.

“When I told him I was going to sign the contract, he almost bodily prevented me from doing so,” Stewart wrote.

The two go back to the 1970s, when they became friends as members of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Their bond later carried over to the screen. McKellen played Magneto opposite Stewart’s Professor X in five X-Men films, starting with 2000’s X-Men and running through 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past.

The friendship reached into Stewart’s personal life as well: McKellen officiated his 2013 wedding to Sunny Ozell.

Stewart died Oct. 29, 2026 at the age of 86 of Alzheimer’s Disease and Lewy Body Dementia. He is survived by his wife, Sunny Odell, and his two children, Daniel and Sophia.