Star Trek actor Patrick Stewart died on October 28.
The actor had been struggling with Alzheimer's.
His old friend and Oscar-nominated actor, Ian McKellen, delivered a sobering musical tribute.
Sir Ian McKellen honored the late Sir Patrick Stewart with a moving musical tribute at a London charity gala, leading the crowd in a song tethered to their decades-long bond.
Stewart, celebrated for his iconic roles as Star Trek’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard and X-Men’s Professor Charles Xavier, passed away peacefully at his Los Angeles home on October 28 at age 86. A spokesperson confirmed his passing the following day, disclosing that the beloved actor had been battling both Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia.
Ian McKellen's Tribute To His Late Friend
Honoring his late friend just days after a touching Instagram post, Ian paid tribute to Patrick at the Raise the Roof! gala at London’s Victoria Palace Theatre. The benefit concert raised funds for Denville Hall's £26 million Centenary Appeal, a retirement home for showbiz veterans where Patrick long served as ambassador.
Clad in a dark suit paired with a vibrant yellow scarf, Ian took the stage mic-free to address the crowd before leading a venue-wide singalong of Bud Flanagan and Chesney Allen's classic 1932 music-hall anthem, "Underneath the Arches."
He said, “When we played the tramps in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, Pat Stewart and I sang that song – here in London and on Broadway- at the end of the show. And we’re going to sing it now for you, I hope you enjoy. Now I’ve reminded you of some of the words. As we sing it, let’s remember Pat Stewart, a great actor.” A video of the moment has gone viral on social media, with many fans moved by the personal memory behind the tribute.
The Oscar nominee had earlier shared a tribute on his social media platforms on Thursday, writing, “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. 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.”
Beyond anchoring 20th Century Fox’s original X-Men franchise as ideological arch-rivals Magneto and Professor X, Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart forged a legendary real-world bond off-screen. The iconic duo is set to reunite as their mutant counterparts one final time in Marvel's Avengers: Doomsday this December.
