Succession (S01E01)
The way he walks straight into that office and the theme kicks inโฆ you instantly know you're entering a completely different world. What an introduction to a series.
SIR PATRICK STEWART (1940-2026)
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.
We first met as ambitious young actors with the Royal Shakespeare Company half a century ago but we werenโt in the same productions. My first strong memory was a few years later, meeting him in the street in central London when he told me about an offer to take over a leading part in 'Star Trek'. โBut Patrick think of your stage career in the UK. Do you really want to riskโgetting lost in Hollywood for years and years?โ. Well, he took the risk and thank goodness for us all that he did for not just his devoted Trekkies but film and theatre audiences, who marvelled at his using international celebrity to star in a string of cinema successes ('X-Men' of course) and in great classical plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Arthur Miller, Peter Shaffer, Pinter and Beckett at Stratford-upon-Avon, in Londonโs West End and on Broadway.
America was his adopted home, where he met his adored Sunny who has cared for him through sickness and health, through thick and thin. But he never forsook his origins: and the proudest achievement of the most respected and beloved actor of his generation on either side of the Atlantic, was his appointment as Chancellor of Huddersfield University in Yorkshire.
His farewell performance in 'Avengers: Doomsday' is yet to be seen.
Ian McKellen 29 October 2026
Photo: University of Huddersfield
And on his deathbed he called her to apologize and say he never stopped loving her. ๐ซ for years he wanted to go back to her, wanted to take her away, but knew he couldnโt cause she already made a life with someone else. ๐ญ
not my mom showing me pics of her first baby daddy ๐ฌ she said โhe loved me a lotโ and Iโm like โnot enoughโ ๐ญ he was rich, she was poor, his grandma got another girl involved, that didnโt work, then she said Iโll write you out the will so he left her and my brother.
I remember when this heart burned into my skin before a first date. The universe telling me love is here but it wonโt stay long. ๐ค Just like the burn faded so did that love but Iโm forever grateful for what it taught me.