Bethesda, Star Trek Online fans honor Sir Patrick Stewart, dead at 86

Sir Patrick Stewart is dead. The actor died Wednesday night at his home in Los Angeles. He was 86. ¹

A statement from his spokesperson, Kelly Bush Novak, said he died after “a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s Disease and Lewy Body Dementia.” ²³ His wife, Sunny, was with him, and he is survived by two children, Daniel and Sophie. ¹

Most of the world knew him as Captain Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek: The Next Generation and as Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men films. ²³ Gamers knew him from the other side of the screen, too.

The games industry has now answered. Bethesda posted an image of Emperor Uriel Septim from the recent Oblivion remaster, with the words “an emperor, a captain, and an inspiration to us all.” ⁴ In Star Trek Online, the community gathered in large numbers and lined up spaceships in long rows to mark his passing. ⁴

His best-known game role is Emperor Uriel Septim VII in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, one of the first characters a player meets in the game. ² He narrated the intro with gravitas, then turned up in the player’s prison cell and let them go free. ⁴ He also voiced Zobek in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. ²

The franchise work ran deep. Stewart played Picard in roughly 10 different Star Trek games, among them a 1994 Super Nintendo release, and Xavier in five X-Men games. ² Eurogamer also notes smaller projects, including the Polish Holocaust game My Memory of Us. ⁴

The tributes from his own world kept coming. William Shatner said Stewart “brought intelligence, grace, and a deep sense of humanity to everything he did.” ¹ Marvel Studios called him “a singular talent, a generous collaborator, and a true gentleman.” ¹³ Hugh Jackman, who shared the X-Men set with him, said the world “lost one of the greats of stage and screen.” ¹ Sir Ian McKellen, his longtime friend, called him “the most respected and beloved actor of his generation.” ¹

Born in Yorkshire in 1940, Stewart joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966 before the screen came calling. ¹ For two decades he was a mainstay of that company, then Star Trek: The Next Generation arrived in 1987 and changed his life. ⁵ He played Picard through the show’s 1987-1994 run, and Paramount+’s Star Trek: Picard brought him back from 2020 to 2023. ³⁵

He kept working into his 80s. He is set to appear again as Xavier in Avengers: Doomsday, due in December. ³⁵

Away from the cameras, his family’s statement pointed to his work on human rights, survivors of domestic violence, refugees, veterans’ mental health and animal welfare. ⁵ The same statement called him a lifelong Huddersfield Football fan. ⁵

Our read: Stewart’s game credits are a reminder that a voice can do the work of a whole cast. An emperor who greets you at the start of a 2006 role-playing game and a starship captain on a cartridge in 1994 are the same man, and players carried both with them for decades. The industry has lost a rare actor who treated a game script with the same weight as a Shakespeare speech.

Earl Grey, hot. Lights down, press card on the table.

Footnotes

1. BBC News, “Star Trek actor Sir Patrick Stewart dies aged 86”. Retrieved October 29, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

2. Game Informer, “Sir Patrick Stewart, Star Trek, X-Men, And Myriad Video Games Actor, Passes Away”. Retrieved October 29, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

3. CNN, “Patrick Stewart, ‘Star Trek’ and ‘X-Men’ actor, dead at 86”. Retrieved October 29, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. Eurogamer, “Games industry honours beloved actor Sir Patrick Stewart, as the legendary Star Trek and X-Men actor passes away”. Retrieved October 30, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

5. Variety, “Patrick Stewart, ‘Star Trek’s’ Captain Picard and ‘X-Men’s’ Charles Xavier, Dies at 86”. Retrieved October 29, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵