“Half a Century” of Friendship: Ian McKellen’s Moving Farewell to Sir Patrick Stewart
They met as young actors in the British theater more than 50 years ago. They went on to share stages, film sets, Broadway marquees and even a wedding. This week, Sir Ian McKellen said goodbye to the man many fans considered his other half.
Sir Patrick Stewart died on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, at his home in Los Angeles, aged 86. His spokesperson, Kelly Bush Novak, said he died in the loving care of his wife, Sunny Ozell, following a brief struggle with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia. He had never publicly revealed either diagnosis.
McKellen, 87, responded with a long, tender tribute on Instagram that has since been shared around the world.
Yorkshire Before Everything
McKellen chose to open not with Hollywood, but with home.
Stewart, he wrote, was first and foremost a Yorkshireman, born and raised in the proud northern county he loved for the rest of his life. McKellen said you could hear it in his friend’s voice, and in the frank, no-nonsense way he always said exactly what he thought and felt.
Because Stewart “wore his heart on his sleeve,” McKellen wrote, he was “a man to rely on, to admire and in my case, love.”
McKellen described Stewart as the most respected and beloved actor of his generation, on both sides of the Atlantic. Though America became Stewart’s adopted home, and the place he met Sunny, McKellen stressed that he never abandoned his roots.
The proof, McKellen said, was what Stewart considered his proudest achievement. It wasn’t an award or a famous role. It was serving as Chancellor of the University of Huddersfield, not far from his hometown of Mirfield. McKellen even used a photo of Stewart taken by the university to accompany his post.
He also thanked Sunny for caring for Stewart throughout his illness, and ended by remembering the final time the two friends appeared together.
The Advice Stewart Ignored
One of the most charming details in McKellen’s tribute was an admission: he once warned Stewart to think carefully before accepting the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Fortunately for millions of fans, Stewart didn’t listen. The show premiered in 1987 and turned a respected Royal Shakespeare Company actor into a global icon.
Xavier and Magneto
Thirteen years later, the two friends were cast as mortal enemies. In Bryan Singer’s X-Men (2000), Stewart played Professor Charles Xavier, the telepath who dreams of peace between humans and mutants, while McKellen played Magneto, his old friend who believes war is inevitable.
The pairing worked because the affection between the characters was real. Across several films, Xavier and Magneto argued, fought and betrayed each other, yet never stopped loving each other. Audiences could feel the decades of friendship underneath.
The Two Sirs Take Broadway
Their most beloved collaboration, though, happened on stage.
In 2009, they starred in a hit London revival of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. In 2013, they brought it to Broadway, alternating performances with Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land. New Yorkers fell in love with “the two Sirs,” especially after photos of the pair touring the city in matching bowler hats went viral.
That same year, McKellen officiated Stewart’s wedding to Sunny Ozell. Stewart later said it had been his wife’s idea.
The friendship had its own running jokes. Stewart once confessed that as a young actor he had idolized McKellen and found him intimidating. The two also loved teasing each other about the old rivalry between Yorkshire and McKellen’s home county of Lancashire, a feud dating back to the Wars of the Roses.
In 2023, McKellen summed up the experience of being out in public with his friend: “Going around with Patrick is like going around with the pope.” Nobody bowed, he explained, but Stewart had touched an enormous number of lives.
The World Responds
McKellen’s tribute led a wave of grief across the entertainment world. Hugh Jackman, who shared the X-Men films with both men, called Stewart one of the greats of stage and screen. William Shatner paid tribute to his fellow Star Trek captain. Marvel Studios, which recently brought Stewart back as Professor X, said it was deeply saddened.
The U.K. charity Alzheimer’s Society also expressed sorrow, drawing attention to the illness Stewart had faced privately.
For Star Trek fans, the timing was especially painful. Stewart died only days after Walter Koenig, Ensign Chekov from the original series.
Words That Now Feel Prophetic
Earlier this year, McKellen spoke to The Sunday Times about growing older after a frightening fall on stage in 2024. He said he had accepted that he wasn’t immortal, and that one of the hardest parts of aging is watching friends die. Death, he said, becomes ever-present. But he added that he still had more to do.
Stewart felt the same way. In a TV Insider interview published in July, he said he could never imagine officially retiring, because he would always be an actor.
One Last Look
Audiences will see Stewart as Professor X one final time when Avengers: Doomsday reaches theaters on December 18, 2026. For many, it will also be a chance to remember the friendship that gave Xavier and Magneto their heart.
