Sir Patrick Stewart: Actor who moved effortlessly between Star Trek and Shakespeare

Sir Patrick Stewart, who has died at the age of 86, was a stage and screen great who balanced Hollywood stardom with an equally stellar career in classical theatre.

While many actors are typecast, he moved effortlessly from Shakespeare and Dickens to the command of the USS Enterprise and his famous wheelchair in X-Men.

In a career that spanned seven decades, Sir Patrick received multiple awards, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II.

One of the world's most versatile actors, he mastered both comedy and tragedy, science-fiction and historical drama - despite the entertainment industry's traditional dislike of bald heads.

Patrick Stewart in the Royal Shakespeare Company's 1970 production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona

His first public performance was in a local church production of Cinderella.

He left school at 15 and eventually got a job as a journalist and obituary writer on the Dewsbury Reporter.

He also threw himself enthusiastically into the flourishing local theatre. "I used to recite Shakespeare from memory," he said. "I just learned all these big speeches."

But he found it impossible to concentrate on both his job and his acting. Eventually his editor told him to choose between journalism and the "foolhardy" acting.

At the age of 18, he had the traumatic experience of losing all his hair, a huge blow to an aspiring actor and self-conscious teenager - who worried that girls would no longer find him attractive.

He won a scholarship to the Bristol Old Vic and later joined the Royal Shakespeare Company - playing a variety of roles across the company's repertoire.

And when not appearing as Oberon or Enobarbus, he made his TV debut as a fireman in a 1967 episode of soap opera Coronation Street.

His Broadway debut came in 1970 as Snout in Peter Brook's critically acclaimed production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

In 1974, he played Lenin in the BBC's 13-part drama series The Fall of Eagles.

Watch: "A big loss" - Fans react to death of Sir Patrick Stewart

In 1984, Stewart left the RSC and moved to the National Theatre. By then in his mid-40s, he had only ever been unemployed for three weeks, but was rarely cast as a main character.

He had landed a number of supporting film roles: including playing Guinevere's father in Excalibur, a warrior-minstrel in Dune, and a riding instructor in Little Lord Fauntleroy.

But even he described the first half of his career as "sound but never spectacular".

Then came the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

A producer named Robert L Justman was intent on reviving the Star Trek franchise, and was looking for a successor to William Shatner's legendary James T Kirk.

He had hoped to find a sexy, hirsute Frenchman to play the role - but chanced upon Stewart giving a lecture to his wife's Shakespeare class in Los Angeles.

He knew nothing about the original Star Trek and his great friend, Sir Ian McKellen, told him not to throw his stage career away on a wild goose chase into space.

But in need of a boost to his finances, Stewart signed a six-year contract, firmly believing the show wouldn't last and he'd be back on the boards before long.

"Everybody told me it would be a flop," he recalled. "A friend of mine said, 'Get a suntan, make some money, go home.'"

He'd tried wearing a wig in early screen tests, but it looked ratty and - in the end - Star Trek's founder Gene Roddenberry told him to ditch it.

Stewart, who was billed by the New York Times as "an unknown British Shakespearean actor", found it hard adapting to his new job.

After his stage experiences, he found the 20 hours a day on set tiring, and he also struggled to work with a fairly laid-back and fun-loving US cast.

Image source, Getty Images

"It was really awful, being dressed down by the captain," said Brent Spiner, who played Data, the android. "We really thought, 'Well, please, get over it'."

Despite his initial reservations, Star Trek: The Next Generation both survived and prospered - making its star a very wealthy man.

And, after playing all those Shakespearean princes and dukes on the London stage, Stewart became fiercely proud of him, and of the show's ability to connect with younger audiences.

In addition to the television series, Stewart played Picard in four Star Trek films. But while commanding the Enterprise, he managed to not neglect the theatre.

For years, he performed a one-man version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol on Broadway - playing all 40 characters.

In 1995, he appeared as Prospero in a memorable performance of The Tempest and, two years later, he starred as Othello - who he presented as a white mercenary in a black African nation.

"No director wanted to cast this grand, deep-voiced, bald English guy," he told the Times. "Because everybody knew he was Picard and couldn't possibly be anybody else."

Eventually, he took the role of Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men film franchise, essentially playing a telepathic Picard in a wheelchair.

Alongside his work in America, he won critical acclaim opposite Harriet Walter in Antony and Cleopatra in 2007.

And, in the same year, he played Macbeth for the first time - despite a 30-year age gap between him and Kate Fleetwood, playing Lady Macbeth.

Critic Nicholas de Jongh decided it was "the best Macbeth I have ever seen", and hailed him as "one of our finest Shakespearean actors".

Sir Patrick Stewart received his knighthood in 2010

It was a moment of personal fulfilment for Sir Patrick who, as an awed teenager, remembered watching Peter O'Toole in the play at the Bristol Old Vic.

His deep and authoritative voice made him much in demand for voice-over roles - including a reprise of his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek video games.

He also voiced a host of TV commercials both in Britain and the US.

Away from acting, he was a passionate political activist and a long-time supporter of the Labour Party, as well as a campaigner for victims of domestic abuse.

In 2013, he married his third wife - singer-songwriter Sunny Ozell - in Nevada.

Sir Ian McKellen officiated at the ceremony, which had to be restaged at a Los Angeles restaurant when someone discovered that his legal power to do so did not extend to the Silver State.

Sir Patrick made a video for Amnesty International on the subject of domestic violence, referencing his father's brutality towards his mother.

Once named the third greatest Yorkshireman after Michael Palin and Sean Bean, he never lost touch with his roots - keeping a house in God's Own Country, and remaining a lifelong supporter of Huddersfield Town football club.

"For huge numbers of people I will always be Jean-Luc Picard, and that's fine," he said. "I really believe we created an admirable individual."