Patrick Stewart

Sir Patrick Stewart OBE was born in Yorkshire in 1940, and is one of Britain's finest actors. Fom the age of 12, he was involved in several local theatre groups and in 1957 he was accepted at The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Between 1966 and 1982, he was a part of the Royal Shakespeare Company, taking on roles in many Shakespearean productions including The Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra and The Winter's Tale. 

He wrote and performed in a one-man adaptation of A Christmas Carol, performing on Broadway throughout the 1990s. In 2005, he brought the production to the Noel Coward Theatre, and you can read a review of A Christmas Carol starring Patrick Stewart here. In the 2000s, Stewart returned to the West End in a run of Shakespeare productions, playing Prospero in The Tempest in 2006, and you can read a review here. 

That year also saw him appear with the RSC in Antony and Cleopatra at the Novello Theatre, and playing the title role in Macbeth at the Gielgud Theatre. Read a review for Macbeth starring Patrick Stewart here. In 2008, he starred alongside David Tennant in Hamlet, winning an Olivier for playing Claudius. All the Shakespeare plays in Stewart's career definitely helped him portray the Bard in Bingo at the Young Vic in 2012, and you can read a review here.

Stewart and his X-Men co-star Sir Ian McKellen appeared together in Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in 2009. Seven years later, they returned to the West End together, starring in No Man's Land at the Wyndham's Theatre. 

Outside of his work in theatre, Stewart is best known for his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series and films, from 1987 - 2002. He also plays Professor Charles Xavier in The X-Men franchise.