// KOTAKU — GAMING
The Entire Internet Is Mourning Sir Patrick Stewart Right Now
Ow. This one hurts. Sir Patrick Stewart, a cultural icon and all-around good frickin’ guy, has passed away at the age of 86. A classically trained actor, he was perhaps best known for his portrayal of Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Later generations would also know him as Professor Xavier in the X-Men movies, and his reprisal of the role in this December’s Avengers: Doomsday could be his last movie appearance. But I knew him as Aelius Sejanus, the vicious and ambitious praetorian guard in the BBC production of I, Claudius. He had hair then, and even though he played a relatively minor role, when he was on, he stole that show. It was a hoot to see a guy I typically associated with do-gooders play a villain with the same exacting gravitas he lent to his hero roles.
The internet is awash in tributes to the man, and as I share them here, I do so through a vision-clouding veil of tears. The Shakespeare-themed ones hit particularly hard.
Rest peacefully, Sir Patrick Stewart. Thank you for enriching all our lives.
"He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again." -Hamlet (Act I: Scene 2)…
— ReGen Magazine (@regenmag.bsky.social) 2026-10-29T20:09:33.460Z
Considering his role in The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, I can hear this one in his voice.
We have lost Sir Patrick Stewart, the actor best known as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men films as well as voicing Emeperor Uriel Septim in The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.
— IRL Loading Screens (@irlloadingscreens.bsky.social) 2026-10-29T20:10:38.898Z
— Eboneezer Goode – FDT – Trump Broke America. (@egoode.bsky.social) 2026-10-29T20:49:16.166Z
Most people knew Patrick Stewart through his justly famous role as Jean Luc Picard, but to me he'll always be first and foremost the tyrannical Praetorian captain Aelius Sejanus from I, CLAUDIUS, a performance so effortless and natural it felt like he might reach through the TV and get you.