When Patrick Stewart visited the Dubai International Film Festival in December 2017, he had spent three decades playing two of his best-known roles: Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men films. But his acting career stretched much further back, beginning on the British stage in the 1950s before taking him to Hollywood.
Stewart died at his home in Los Angeles on Wednesday, October 28, at the age of 86 after a period with Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia, according to a statement released by his family the following day. He was with his wife, Sunny Ozell, at the time of his death.
Knighted in 2010 for his services to drama, Stewart enjoyed a career spanning more than six decades, moving from Shakespearean theatre to two of Hollywood's biggest franchises. Yet during his visits to the UAE, Stewart offered a glimpse into the man behind those famous roles, sharing stories about his career, the people he admired and the encounters that had stayed with him over the years.
A Star Trek to Dubai
At the 2017 Dubai International Film Festival, Stewart was among the recipients of the festival's career achievement awards, alongside Indian actor Irrfan Khan and Egyptian screenwriter Wahid Hamed.
His arrival was met with enthusiastic cheers from fans, and he used the occasion to reflect on the unlikely journey that had taken him from the Royal Shakespeare Company to the captain's chair of the USS Enterprise.
Speaking to The National at the festival, Stewart recalled how his life changed when he was unexpectedly invited to meet Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry in Los Angeles.
"It was a mystery. I just got this call to go to a meeting in LA with Gene Rodenberry," he said. "Eventually I learnt that one of his co-producers on Star Trek had been signed up for a course of public lectures at UCLA that I was involved in. One night he turned up with his wife and I was there doing some Shakespeare. He turned to his wife and said, 'We've found our captain.'"
That encounter would eventually lead to his casting as Picard, the role that transformed his career when Star Trek: The Next Generation had its premiere in 1987.
By the time he visited Dubai, Stewart had also spent nearly two decades playing Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men franchise.
Earlier that year, he had appeared alongside Hugh Jackman in Logan, a film that he initially believed would mark his farewell to the character.
Recalling watching the film with Jackman at the Berlin International Film Festival, Stewart told The National that the two actors became emotional during the screening.
"Hugh and I were sitting side-by-side, and at one point he reached over and took my hand because we were both very emotional at the way the film ends. It's very emotional and very bad things happen," he said.
He subsequently announced his departure from the franchise, although he left the door open to returning.
For Stewart, however, the significance of his work went far beyond the success of the films and television programmes. "People forget how much Star Trek had to say, politically and about society and our roles in it," he said.
He recalled being approached by viewers who credited the series with helping them through difficult periods in their lives.
One particularly moving example involved a police sergeant in Las Vegas who wrote to Stewart about turning to Star Trek when he felt overwhelmed by the darker aspects of humanity.
"He told me about his job and his life and what he does, but then he said 'there are days when I despair of humanity and what we do to each other. And on these days I get home, and I reach up to my shelf and take down Star Trek, and I'm reminded that it's all worth fighting for.'
"What can I say? When people say that about your work, it’s just meaningful."
A visit to Louvre Abu Dhabi
Stewart's 2017 trip also coincided with the opening weeks of Louvre Abu Dhabi, which had welcomed its first visitors in November that year.
"We’d heard about this huge, incredible new gallery, The Louvre, opening in Abu Dhabi, so I was delighted when I learnt we would have enough time to visit Abu Dhabi and take a look tomorrow," he said.
He subsequently visited the museum with Academy Award-winning actor Adrien Brody, with photographs of the two stars shared on social media.
The visit was a notable celebrity appearance for the newly opened cultural landmark, and Stewart later praised the museum during his appearance at the Dubai festival, describing it as "sensational".
A date at Burj Khalifa
Three years before his Dubai International Film Festival appearance, Stewart visited the emirate in December 2014 to be honoured at the Chivas Legends Dinner, held at the Armani Hotel in Burj Khalifa.
Speaking to The National ahead of the event, Stewart, who was 74 at the time, reflected on his career and his desire to take on more comedic roles after years of playing the comparatively serious Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Professor Charles Xavier.
"I've had an urge to do more comedy for years, but I was so rarely offered parts," he said.
The conversation also turned to the people Stewart admired. Asked what the word "legend" meant to him, he recalled an unexpected encounter with Nelson Mandela in a London lift.
"He said good morning and gave me a wonderful smile and I couldn't say a word back," Stewart recalled. "I was frozen by the shock and excitement."
The encounter left such an impression that Stewart said his legs could barely support him as he walked along Piccadilly afterwards.
He also revealed one of his biggest career regrets: passing up the opportunity to meet Marlon Brando, an actor he had admired since his early years in the profession.
"I once had the opportunity to meet the great Marlon Brando and I pulled out at the last minute. I've regretted it all my life," he said.
Stewart also spoke about his close friendship with fellow British actor Ian McKellen, with whom he had worked on X-Men: Days of Future Past before heading to Broadway, calling him "a great friend and colleague".
McKellen was among the many stars to pay tribute to Stewart following his death, remembering a friendship that stretched back more than half a century to their early days with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
"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 on Instagram. "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."
Stewart was most recently in the mystery-comedy The Sheep Detectives. His final film appearance will be in Avengers: Doomsday, scheduled to be released on December 18.
