Photo by Raph_PH, cropped (CC BY)
The Lowdown
There have been thousands of tributes to Patrick Stewart since he died last week. The one worth your five minutes came out Monday, and it’s from Gates McFadden, who played Dr. Beverly Crusher next to him for decades. She doesn’t just say goodbye to a friend. She argues that Jean-Luc Picard was a model of the kind of leader people are starving for, and that this is why his death landed so hard (Variety). We think she’s right.
Key Takeaways
- Gates McFadden wrote a personal tribute to Patrick Stewart for Variety, published Monday, Nov. 2 (Variety).
- She calls Stewart everyone’s captain and says Picard was “the antithesis of many of our leaders today” (Variety).
- She credits the vision to Gene Roddenberry and the Star Trek writers, but says Stewart made it real on screen and in public (Variety).
- Stewart died on Oct. 28 at his home in Los Angeles, aged 86, after what his family called a brief journey with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia (AP; Playbill).
What McFadden Wrote
McFadden opens with the moment itself. She notes that Stewart died in his wife’s arms, and calls that a fitting, gentle way for him to go (Variety). Then she does something only a stage actor would do. She imagines the exit he might have chosen instead: collapsing mid-performance like Molière, maybe during A Christmas Carol, or as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, a performance she names as her favorite of his on stage (Variety). She admits why. It would have meant seeing him one more time.
The heart of the essay is about leadership. McFadden says Stewart’s reach was massive, that he wasn’t just the captain of the Enterprise crew but “everyone’s captain” because of how he moved through the world (Variety). Of Picard, she writes: “What a breath of fresh air to have a leader who cared about the ethics of what he said!” The result, in her words, was “eloquence. Seriousness. Intellect.” (Variety)
Scrolling through the tributes, McFadden says, what struck her was “how much we humans desire good leaders.” We work for people we respect, she argues, and we copy them because they give us hope and make hard problems feel solvable. That, she says, was Picard and the crew around him (Variety). She is careful to give the credit to Gene Roddenberry and the Star Trek writers and producers, but she says Stewart fulfilled “our collective dream” through the way he played the part and the way he carried himself off camera (Variety). Her line on him is simple: “Patrick understood the need people have for heroes.”
She closes on a point a lot of fans have felt this week without saying out loud. For some people, losing Picard hurts even more than losing the actor. “Jean-Luc gave us hope,” she writes (Variety).
Our Take: Why This Hits Now
This is opinion, but it’s hard to read McFadden’s essay and not nod along. Picard’s whole thing was that he talked his way out of problems most TV heroes would shoot their way out of. He listened, he admitted when he was wrong, he took responsibility for his crew and he treated the rules as something that meant something. On paper that sounds boring. In Stewart’s voice, it was the most commanding thing on television.
McFadden never names a politician, and she doesn’t need to. When she calls Picard the antithesis of many of today’s leaders, every reader fills in their own blank. That is probably why the grief online has felt bigger than a normal celebrity death. People aren’t only mourning an actor they loved. They’re mourning a picture of decency that a lot of them grew up with, at a moment when it feels in short supply.
And there’s something fitting about who wrote this. Dr. Crusher was the one person on the Enterprise who could tell the captain he was wrong and make it stick. Decades later, she’s the one making the case for him.
The Background
Stewart died on Oct. 28, 2026, at his home in Los Angeles. He was 86. His family announced his death in a statement shared through his spokesperson and on his social accounts (AP; Playbill). The tributes that followed came from across his career, with Ian McKellen and William Shatner among the first (BBC). Read our obituary for the full story of his life and work.
McFadden played Beverly Crusher opposite Stewart in all but the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, in four feature films, and in the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard on Paramount+, which reunited the original crew (Variety). Stewart also played Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men films. Our hero photo shows Stewart on stage at London’s Royal Festival Hall in October 2023. For more sci-fi and fandom coverage, head to our Sci-Fi section.
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People in This Story
Bios from PCP’s Who’s Who. Tap a name for the full profile.
Actor · Choreographer
American actor and choreographer who played Dr. Beverly Crusher in The Next Generation, its films and Picard’s final season.
Actor · Stage & Screen
English stage and screen actor who led Star Trek: The Next Generation as Captain Jean-Luc Picard and played Professor Charles Xavier across the X-Men films.
Television Writer · Television Producer
Gene Roddenberry was the television writer and producer who created Star Trek.
Actor · Voice Actor
British actor who plays Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto in Avengers: Doomsday (2026). Credits also include The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002).
Actor · Author
Canadian actor who created the role of Captain James T. Kirk in the original Star Trek series and seven feature films.
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More Context
- Variety — Gates McFadden pays tribute to Patrick Stewart: his portrayal of Jean-Luc Picard gave people hope around the world ↗
- AP — Patrick Stewart, legendary actor of ‘Star Trek’ and ‘X-Men’ fame, dies at 86 ↗
- BBC News — Ian McKellen leads tributes to Patrick Stewart after his death aged 86 ↗
- Playbill — Beloved actor Patrick Stewart has died at 86 ↗