‘Patrick Stewart brought virile star power to the stage, from clowns to kings to wounded lions’

With his striking voice, so rich and resonant, the actor blazed through the RSC – and his time in Hollywood only enriched him. Yet he was a great team player, capable of anything, as his double acts with Ian McKellen showed

Patrick Stewart, who has died aged 86, was a classic example of the company actor who becomes a star: a natural Enobarbus who winds up playing Mark Antony. It would be easy to say that he had fame thrust upon him through his roles in Star Trek and X-Men, but I would argue that it was a two-way process. As Peter Bradshaw points out, Stewart brought his RSC-trained gravitas to the screen, but his roles in popular franchises gave him an extra layer of confidence and authority on stage.