Patrick Stewart: Acting, Movies and TV Shows, Education - Interview (1997)
Sir Patrick Stewart OBE (born 13 July
1940) is an
English film, television, and stage actor, who has had a distinguished career on stage
and screen. He is most widely known for his roles as
Captain Jean-Luc Picard in
Star Trek: The Next Generation and its successor films, as
Professor Charles Xavier in the
X-Men film series of superhero movies (
2000–2014), his prolific stage roles with the
Royal Shakespeare Company, and his many voice acting roles, most notably as
C.I.A deputy director
Avery Bullock in
American Dad!.
In
1993, TV
Guide named him the best dramatic television actor of the
1980s.
Following a period with
Manchester's
Library Theatre, he became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966, remaining with them until
1982. He was an Associate
Artist of the company in
1968.[18] He appeared with actors such as
Ben Kingsley and
Ian Richardson. In
January 1967, he made his debut TV appearance on
Coronation Street as a
Fire Officer. In
1969, he had a brief TV cameo role as
Horatio, opposite Ian Richardson's
Hamlet, in a performance of the gravedigger scene as part of episode six of
Sir Kenneth Clark's
Civilisation television series.[19] He made his
Broadway debut as
Snout in
Peter Brook's legendary[20] production of
A Midsummer Night's Dream, then moved to the
Royal National Theatre in the early 1980s. Over the years,
Stewart took roles in many major television series without ever becoming a household name. He appeared as
Vladimir Lenin in
Fall of Eagles;
Sejanus in
I, Claudius;[21]
Karla in
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and
Smiley's People;
Claudius in a
1980 BBC adaptation of Hamlet. He even took the romantic male lead in the
1975 BBC adaptation of
Mrs Gaskell's
North and South (wearing a hairpiece). He also took the lead, playing Psychiatric Consultant Dr.
Edward Roebuck in a
BBC TV series called
Maybury in
1981.
Stewart continued to play minor roles in several films, such as
King Leondegrance in
John Boorman's
Excalibur (1981),[21] the character
Gurney Halleck in
David Lynch's film version of
Dune(
1984)[21] and Dr.
Armstrong in
Tobe Hooper's
Lifeforce (
1985).
While not wealthy, Stewart had a comfortable lifestyle as an actor; he found that despite a lengthy career, his reputation was not great enough to bring a production of
Who's Afraid of
Virginia Woolf? to a
West End theatre. Stewart thus in
1987 agreed to work in
Hollywood, after
Robert H. Justman, a producer working on Star Trek: The Next Generation, saw him while attending a literary reading at
UCLA.[22][23] Stewart knew nothing about the original show,
Star Trek, or its iconic status in
American culture. He was reluctant to
sign the standard contract of six years but did so as he, his agent, and others Stewart consulted with, all believed that the new show would quickly fail and he would return to his
London stage career after making some money.
Known for his strong and authoritative voice, Stewart has lent his voice to a number of projects. He has narrated recordings of
Prokofiev's
Peter and the Wolf (winning a
Grammy),
Vivaldi's
The Four Seasons (which had also been narrated by
William Shatner[48]),
C. S. Lewis's
The Last Battle (conclusion of the series
The Chronicles of Narnia),
Rick Wakeman's
Return to the
Centre of the Earth; as well as numerous
TV programmes such as
High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman. Stewart provided the narration for
Nine Worlds, an astronomical tour of the solar system and nature documentaries such as
The Secret of Life on
Earth and
Mountain Gorilla.[49] He is also heard as the voice of the
Magic Mirror in
Disneyland's live show,
Snow White – An Enchanting
Musical. He also was the narrator for the
American release of
Dragons: A
Fantasy Made
Real. He is narrator for two fulldome video shows produced and distributed by
Loch Ness Productions, called MarsQuest and
The Voyager Encounters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Stewart
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