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Ian McKellen has paid tribute to his “X-Men” co-star and longtime friend Patrick Stewart, who died Wednesday at the age of 86.
McKellen and Stewart’s relationship goes back decades to their time as young theater actors with the Royal Shakespeare Company. They became inextricably linked to each other for general audiences when they appeared opposite each other in Marvel’s “X-Men” film series, playing the frenemies Magneto and Professor X. Over the years, the two have shared a public friendship, often appearing at the premieres of each other’s work and serving as two of the main global ambassadors of British theatres. In 2009, they appeared in the West End production of “Waiting for Godot.”
“Above all else, Patrick was defined by being born and raised in Yorkshire, the proud county in the north of England that he loved so much to the end. You could hear it in his strong voice and in the harsh honesty with which he told you what he thought and felt. “He wore his heart on his sleeve, which made him trust him, respect him and in my case, love.”
McKellen went on to recall Stewart’s decision to play Jean-Luc Picard on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” in the late ’80s — a role that cemented his presence in Hollywood and made him a household name for general audiences.
“We first met as ambitious young actors with the Royal Shakespeare Company fifty years ago, but we weren’t in the same productions. My first vivid memory was a few years later, of meeting him on the street in central London when he told me about an offer to take over the lead role in ‘Star Trek’. “Well, he took the risk and he thanked us all for not doing it. not only for his passionate Trekkies but film and theater audiences, who marveled at how he used international fame as a star in a series of cinema successes (‘X-Men’ of course) and in great classic plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Arthur Miller, Peter Shaffer, Pinter and Beckett at StraAtford-End-upon and Broadway.
“America was his adopted home, where he met a distinguished Sunny who has cared for him through sickness and health, through thick and thin. But he did not abandon his origin: and it was the proud achievement of the most respected and beloved actor of his generation on both sides of the Atlantic, who appointed him Chancellor of the University of Huddersfield in Yorkshire.”
McKellen and Stewart will appear together on screen for the last time in Marvel’s “Avengers: Doomsday,” which will be released in theaters in December. The two reprise their respective roles of Magneto and Professor X.
