The Lock Screen Message I Couldn't Swipe Away

I got up in the morning, glanced at my phone, and there was a notification hanging on the lock screen. Sir Patrick Stewart had died. He was 86. His representative's statement mentioned Alzheimer's and Lewy body dementia, and said his wife, Sunny, was by his side. I put the phone down and went to boil water. By the time the water boiled, I remembered the tea tin was on the top shelf of the cupboard. I reached for it, couldn't get it, and moved a chair over. After all that, the notification was still sitting on the lock screen.

Years later, rewatching an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, I saw what he was doing. Picard is sitting in the captain's chair, facing an alien life form that can barely communicate. His lines run as long as an essay. Complete sentences, logic stacked layer upon layer. With another actor, those lines would turn into recitation. When Stewart delivered them, you felt he had just thought the thing through and then decided to say it. In interviews late in life, his speech had slowed, but he still placed every word steadily, like a chess player's hand hovering for a moment before setting down a piece. Picard memes were popular online for a while; the most famous one is him covering his face with one hand. But in the original scene, before he covers his face, he glances at a point on the bulkhead, then puts his hand up. The meme cropped out that first glance.

He was born on July 13, 1940, in Mirfield, Yorkshire. At 12 he was already on stage in small theaters. At 15 he dropped out of school and became a trainee reporter at a local newspaper. A year later, the editor complained that he spent too much time at the theater, and he left the paper. In 1957 he entered the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School to study acting. In 1959 he made his official stage debut as Morgan in Treasure Island and toured with the Bristol Old Vic company in Australia, New Zealand, and South America. In 1966 he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, performed in The Investigation in London, and spent several years as an assistant designer. In 1974 he appeared in the TV movie version of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra; it was his screen debut. Those credits explain the leaders he later played in space and at a school for mutants. Their posture, their pauses, where their gaze landed, all came from the stage. He never let that training turn into airs.

In 1986 he was offered Star Trek: The Next Generation. Ian McKellen's first reaction was to urge him not to go, worried Hollywood would waste his stage career. Stewart went anyway. The show ran from 1987 to 1994. Later, Picard had his heart replaced, met the Borg Queen, and faced his clone Shinzon; Commander Data sacrificed himself in that storyline. Later still, in Star Trek: Picard, he returned to space to investigate the Romulan Empire affair. McKellen later wrote in his tribute: Thank God he made that choice. In 2013, when Stewart got married, the person standing between him and his wife and officiating the ceremony was McKellen.

Professor X is another image people remember. Starting in 2000, he played Charles Xavier in the X-Men films. In the scene where he first appears, Jean is on stage talking about mutants, and Professor X notices Magneto standing at the back of the hall. Magneto turns and walks out; Professor X follows in his wheelchair, hoping he will understand humans a little better. Magneto says mutants will eventually surpass humans. Professor X answers: "I'm looking for hope." That line was later quoted by many people, but in the original film he doesn't pause for a reaction. The wheelchair is already turning in another direction, as if the line were just something he said in daily life.

In the original trilogy, their chess matches begin at the end of the first film and continue through the trilogy. In X-Men: The Last Stand, Professor X is torn apart by Jean, and his last glance goes to Magneto. Later, Pyro jokes about Professor X's death, and Magneto goes straight at him. "He was my friend." Professor X appeared again in a post-credits scene in The Wolverine in 2013. In Days of Future Past, the younger Professor X speaks through Wolverine's body with the older version. The older one says: "Sometimes you have to reach out and help." After that scene was shot, Stewart and McKellen played a real game of chess on set, and the sound of the pieces landing was included in the behind-the-scenes footage. Later, in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the Professor X of a parallel universe joins the Illuminati and is killed by Wanda. Many fans refuse to accept that part. I don't accept it either.

Avengers 5, due at the end of this year, is very likely the last film he appeared in. In the trailer there is a shot of him and Magneto standing shoulder to shoulder against the enemy. Marvel's tribute statement included this film as well. An actor's last scene has already been shot; he waits quietly for the audience to come see it. That is probably the most dignified ending. Hugh Jackman's tribute was short. He said that today we lost one of the greats of stage and screen, and that to him Stewart was also a wonderful friend from whom he had learned so much.

The water had gone cold. I went to boil it again. The phone lit up once more: a follow-up push from the same news story. The message was still on the lock screen. The photo was a still of Picard sitting in the captain's chair, one hand on the armrest, his gaze fixed on some point outside the frame. I turned the phone face down on the table and put the teacup beside it. The tea had still not been made.