Patrick Stewart, best known as Captain Picard in Star Trek The Next Generation, has passed away at age 86. He had a varied acting career playing everyone from Sejanus to Lenin.
Like many British actors he was a trained Shakespearean actor, and by the time he starred in Star Trek Next Generation he had acting skills and experience that allowed him to usually dominate every scene he appeared in.
An atheist and Socialist, his views were the predictable ones of most contemporary actors and actresses. As to atheism he knows better now, and I hope he had time to embrace God before he died.
He burned through two marriages and was on his third one when he died. He leaves behind a son and a daughter from his first marriage.
Odd that he died in the same week as Walter Koenig. He is the first Captain of the Enterprise to pass away in the Star Trek series, if one does not count Jeffrey Hunter who portrayed Captain Christopher Pike. Okay Captain, I know you have been waiting to say it:
A superb actor no matter his role. I would like to think his exposure to these varying roles gave him to further contemplate at the end the possibilities that he denied in life.
Patrick Stewart died from complications related to Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia. I don’t think he would have had the mental faculties to contemplate anything regarding his impending death. His missteps in his personal life (multiple marriages and many affairs) are typical of too many actors and actresses, and certainly forgiveable (otherwise I as a former submarine sailor am doomed). But I pray that by some miracle he repented of his atheism and socialism before the end because if he didn’t, then likely his finally fate is something that none of us should want. A great actor. I am very sad. But I hated his atheism and socialism which from time to time bled through his many speeches on the Enterprise.
The mind and the soul have considerable overlap, but are not the same. The soul survives the demise of the body.
I pray that the soul is still very much active during Alzheimers, however addled the mind may be. It would give me far greater hope for relatives who have departed in a state of dementia.