Sir Ian McKellen remembers dear friend Sir Patrick Stewart as ‘man to rely on’

In a devastatingly emotional tribute to Sir Patrick Stewart, who died on Wednesday (28 October), Sir Ian McKellen shares his love for the late Star Trek actor.

McKellen stated that Stewart was someone he relied on, admired, and loved Stewart.

Stewart died aged 86 after what his longtime spokesperson described as “a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia”.

The X-Men stars may have been rivals on screen, with Stewart playing Professor Charles Xavier and McKellen as antihero Magneto. However, in reality, they were close friends for decades.

Stewart has long been regarded as a dedicated LGBTQ+ ally and had a beautiful close friendship with McKellen. The pair have been photographed on several occasions sharing a kiss on red carpets.

On Friday (30 October), McKellen shared a social media statement honouring the late actor.

“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.

“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 then went on to detail that they met as you actors at the Royal Shakespeare Company around 50 years ago. They both starred in Tom Stoppard’s play “Every Good Boy Deserves Favour” in 1977.

‘A man to rely on, to admire and in my case, love’

He continued: “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 admits to advising Stewart against the role, worried he would be “getting lost in Hollywood” and leaving his UK stage career.

“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 also concluded that Stewart settled in America with his wife, singer Sunny Ozell. McKellen officiated their wedding in 2013.

“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.”

Stewart’s posthumous performance in Avengers: Doomsday will be among his last on the big screen.

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