After a year of selling furniture he enrolled at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and made his first public appearance on stage as walk-ons in As You Like It and Cyrano de Bergerac. In 1959, at the age of 19, he had his first speaking part in Treasure Island playing the part of Morgan. He spent the next two years appearing on stage with the Playhouse Theatre, Sheffield and it was during this period that he endured the traumatic loss of nearly all of his hair. He continued to work in the theatre with regional repertory companies in Manchester and Liverpool and toured with the London Old Vic during 1961 an 1962. It was at this time that he appeared alongside Vivien Leigh in Lady of the Camelias and Twelfth Night. In 1966 Patrick joined The Royal Shakespeare Company winning his first widespread critical acclaim as Hippolito in The Revenger's Tragedy. He stayed with the RSC for 27 years and his theatre work has earned him a reputation as one of the brightest lights in British theatre. His stage roles included leads in Shakespeare's Henry V and Titus Andronicus; Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1978; The Iceman Cometh; and George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Young Vic in 1986, for which he won the London Fringe Theatre Best Actor Award.

His television career began in 1974 when he played Enobarbus in Antony and Cleopatra and in 1976 he was Sejanus in the mini-series I, Claudius alongside Derek Jacobi (picture on the left shows Patrick as Sejanus with Stratford Johns). He also appeared in The Madness in 1976 and then as Karla in the serialisation of John Le Carré's novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy in 1978. In 1980 he appeared in the BBC production of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark playing Claudius and he was Wilkins in Little Lord Fauntleroy. In 1982 he again appeared in a John Le Carré story, Smiley's People playing Karla once more, and 1984 he played himself in the mini-series Playing Shakespeare. However, it was in 1987, at the age of 47, that Patrick first appeared on TV screens as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation taking over the helm of the Enterprise from Captain Kirk. In 1993 he appeared as Jean-Luc in another Star Trek series Deep Space Nine; and in totally different role as Malcolm Philpott in Alistair MacLean's Death Train. In 1994 he was Sgt. Mulvaney in In Search of Dr. Seuss, and as Jean-Luc for the final time on television in the last of the Star Trek: The Next Generation series. In 1996 he was Sir Simon de Canterville in The Canterville Ghost, and in 1998 he was Captain Ahab in Moby Dick.

His film career has been just as varied, beginning in 1975 when he played Ejlert Loevborg in Hedda supporting Glenda Jackson; and Tilney in Hennessy. In 1978 he appeared in When the Actors Come and he was Leondegrance in Excalibur in 1981. In 1984 he was Mr Duffner in Uindii and Gurney Halleck in Dune. Other film roles include Prof. Macklin in The Doctor and the Devils (1985); Colonel Peters in Code Name: Emerald (1985); Doctor Armstrong in Lifeforce (1985); Russian General in Wild Geese II (1985); Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk in Lady Jane (1986); Maitre d' in L.A. Story (1991); King Richard in Mel Brooks' Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993); Loomis in Gunmen (1994); John in Let It Be Me (1995) when he danced with Leslie Caron; and the gay decorator in Jeffrey (1995). In 1997 he was Dr Jonas in Conspiracy Theory with Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts; Raif Bentley in Masterminds. In 1998 he played the title role in Dad Savage and in 1999 he was Mace Sowell in the thriller Safe House in which his co-star was Kimberley Williams.

Since The Next Generation came off the air in 1994, Patrick has played Jean-Luc Picard in four Star Trek films - Generations (1994), First Contact (1996), and Insurrection (1998). He gave voice to Jean-Luc in Star Trek: A Final Unity in 1995. Patrick's film for 2000 was X-Men - a science fiction film also starring Ian McKellen.

He has narrated several documentaries such as Discovering Hamlet (1990); The Secret Life on Earth (1993); Stargazers (1994); Liberation (1994); Whales (1997); and given voice to cartoon characters and TV series including Major in The Plague Dogs (1982); the voice of King Richard in Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos (1994); The Pagemaster (1994); 500 Nations (1995); and Pharaoh Seti in The Prince of Egypt (1998) which includes voices from other actors such as Helen Mirren, Ralph Fiennes and Val Kilmer.

Patrick returned to stage work when in 1995 he delivered a performance as Prospero in the well received production of The Tempest in both New York's Central Park and Broadway. His one-man dramatisation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (he plays all 35 roles) has been a regular Christmas favourite since 1991 and has won him the New York Theatre Critics Drama Desk Award for Best Solo Performance in 1993 and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment in 1994. In 1997 he played the title role in Othello at The Shakespeare Theatre of Washington, DC and recently starred off-Broadway as Lyman Felt in Arthur Miller's The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, which transferred to Broadway in March 2000.

Patrick is an Honorary Associate Artist of the RSC and was awarded his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in December 1996. He was divorced from his wife of 24 years, Sheila Falconer, in 1990 and they have two grown-up children - Sophie and Daniel. He divides his time between his two homes in Northern England and Hollywood Hills. In September 1997 he announced his engagement to Star Trek: Voyager producer Wendy Neuss. In August 2000 Patrick and Wendy (40) were married in California shortly after he celebrated his 60th birthday. Patrick and Wendy live in fashionable Pacific Palisades. He has his own production company, and for those that were wondering - Patrick went bald at the age of 19 as a result of inherited alopecia.

On July 12th 2001 Patrick Stewart was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for his services to acting and the cinema. He was accompanied by his wife Wendy and his children Sophie and Daniel, when he went to Buckingham Palace to collect his award. On 9th July he had awarded been awarded an honorary fellowship by the University of Wales in Cardiff. For more information visit the BBC web site by clicking this link - Star Trek Captain collects OBE.

Patrick appeared on British television screen in Christmas 2000 when his production of A Christmas Carol was shown on Christmas Eve. Patrick played Scrooge, a character which he says he identifies with, and Richard E. Grant played the part of Bob Cratchit. We also saw Patrick on television in December 2000 when he played Captain Ahab in Hallmark Entertainment's production of Moby Dick. The award-winning film tells the epic tale of adventures on the high seas, pitting Patrick (with one leg strapped behind him) against Moby Dick, a huge, digitally enhanced whale. The captain's quest to find and kill this creature of the deep centres on his urge for revenge against the beast that destroyed his leg. Patrick found it difficult getting to grips with his phantom leg. "I was forever falling over," he laughs. "But eventually I became so adept at walking on the peg that I could rush up and down a pitching, tilting deck without a second thought. There is one scene, of which I'm immensely proud, where I actually vault over the side of the ship and climb down a rope onto a small boat."

In June 2001 Patrick trod the boards of the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds in his one-man show - Shylock: Shakespeare's Alien. The play was written and performed by Patrick and ran from 22nd June to 7th July 2001. You can read more about Patrick's exploration of Shylock on the BBC Website - Patrick Stewart Beams onto the Stage. He followed this appearance in the Autumn of 2001 when he look over the lead in in JB Priestley's Johnson Over Jordan which is one of Priestley's lesser-known and least naturalistic pieces; it has not been revived since its original London opening in 1939. Director Jude Kelly has described it as a "Yorkshire version of It's a Wonderful Life", about a dead man who looks back over his life. For more information visit the Whatsonstage.com web site by clicking this link - Stewart Headlines WYP's JB Priestley Season.

Patrick returned to London's West End in the summer of 2003 when he appeared in Ibsen's The Master Builder. Starring alongside him was Sue Johnson, known for her roles in Brookside, The Royle Family and Cold Case. The play toured the country from the middle of May, and eventually ended up in the West End in June for a strictly limited season.

In February 2005 Patrick was back on the West End stage once more when he appeared in David Mamet’s A Life In The Theatre at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue. While it might sound like the name of an autobiography or one of those anecdotal An-Evening-With affairs; A Life In Theatre is in fact an acclaimed comedy about the friendship and rivalry which springs up between two actors, both at opposite ends of their careers. A Life In The Theatre follows Robert (Patrick Stewart) and aspiring newcomer John (Joshua Jackson). Set both on stage and behind the scenes in a fading small town rep, the piece follows their friendship and their rivalry as they battle with the notoriously cruel uncertainties of their profession. Inspired by Mamet's early backstage experiences and his own brief career as an actor, this acutely observed, bittersweet comedy delivers all the absurdity, larks and hardship associated with a life in the theatre.

In March 2005 Patrick took part in a charity performance at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. One Knight Only, in aid of the Asian Tusnami Appeal, was billed as an evening of music, comedy and drama and compèred by Ned Sherrin, it featured a number of dames but only one knight, when Sir Antony Sher joined Dames Joan Plowright, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren, Diana Rigg and Eileen Atkins on stage. They were also joined by other guests, including Kim Cattrall, Edward Fox, Celia Imrie, Joanna Lumley, Sian Phillips, Patrick Stewart and Zoe Wanamaker.

In August 2005 Patrick appeared as a wonderfully nudity-obsessed version himself in episode six of Extras. Excited about writing a screenplay for himself, based on Professor Charles Xavier from his X-Men movies, he sits with Andy Millman (Ricky Gervais) and talks shop. Andy asks Patrick for help with his own script, a sitcom based on a boss Andy used to work for. Patrick's Picard Productions really 'make it so' for Andy, and send him 'boldly going' to see a man at BBC Comedy.

Patrick is currently providing the voice for a number of films, including High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman, Mysterious Island, Chicken Little, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The Water Warriors and Bambi II. He has recently finished filming a new TV series - a thriller called Eleventh Hour in which he plays Professor Alan Hood and is currently filiming X-Men 3 which is due to be released in the UK in May 2006.

In December 2005 Patrick returned to the West End when he revived his classic performance in his own adaptation of Dickens's festive favourite A Christmas Carol. Patrick plays all the characters in this one-man adaptation of Dickens's Christmas classic, which won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment last time it was staged in London. "Patrick, using only a table, a chair, a desk and a stool, plays every character in the story of Ebenezer Scrooge's redemption, while also narrating. This inevitably leads to moments when Stewart is having a conversation with himself, but far from appearing like the stereotyped comedy split-personality, Stewart's stage technique means he can slip between characters with ease; a slight change to the body language or a different intonation to his voice and he is no longer Scrooge but his over-exuberant nephew Fred."
Extract taken from a review of the play by Matthew Amer The Official London Theatre Guide.

In January 2006 Patrick returned to television when he starred in Eleventh Hour, the ITV1 series of investigative thrillers set in the constantly shifting world of contemporary science. Professor Hood (Patrick Stewart) is an emeritus professor of physics and an unaffected Yorkshireman. He has been employed by the government to act as a man in the field, to investigate scientific issues first hand. He isn't afraid to speak his mind and, if need be, upset the status quo. He is passionate about defending the cause of good science and rooting out bad science. This new series also starred Ashley Jensen as a Special Branch Officer from Dumfriesshire.

In March 2006 Patrick appeared on Sky One when he played Captain Nemo in the latest adaptation of Jules Verne's novel Mysterious Island. Escaping from a Confederate prison camp by balloon, five survivors land on an uncharted island in the Pacific. Far from a sanctuary, the island is home to carnivorous monsters, bloodthirsty pirates, and the mad genius, Captain Nemo, who inhabits the mysterious island for his own strange ends.

The mini-series also stars Roy Marsden as Joseph, Kyle MacLachlan as Captain Cyrus Smith, Gabrielle Anwar as Jane Spillet and Vinnie Jones as Bob Harvey. For more information go to the Mysterious Island website.

NEWS

February 2007

Patrick Stewart leads a company of actors in Macbeth and Twelfth Night, giving audiences the opportunity to celebrate the actor’s craft as they perform two contrasting plays by Shakespeare in Chichester’s two distinctly different theatres.

He takes the lead in Macbeth and plays Malvolio in Twelfth Night.

Macbeth
Venue: Minerva Theatre
Dates: 25 May - 1 September 2007

Twelfth Night
Venue: Festival Theatre
Dates: 14 July - 31 August 2007

For more information on these and other plays visit the Chichester Festival Website