Sir Patrick Stewart gushed about love in a touching final video recorded before his death at 86 — sharing what he hoped listeners would glean from his readings of Shakespeare’s sonnets.
The celebrated English actor and Royal Shakespeare Company veteran’s final creative endeavors was an audio series dedicated to the Bard’s timeless works.
“I hope it has brought pleasure and curiosity, but more than anything else, I want it to have communicated all the multiple features that love might have,” he said of the recordings in video posted on May 20.
The “Star Trek” icon died at his Los Angeles home after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia, according to a family statement posted to his Instagram page.
“He has been held in the warm embrace of family and friends, surrounded by live music, prayer, tears, laughter, and the kind of profound emotion that only he could inspire after a lifetime of devotion to us all,” the statement read, adding that he was “in the loving care of his beloved wife Sunny.”
“We will forever cherish the peaceful ease and reflection on his face, an enduring reminder of his invincible grace,” the tribute concluded.
Born in Yorkshire, England, in 1940, Stewart enjoyed a decades-long career on stage and screen and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2010 for his contributions to drama.
He credited early knights of the theater as his initial inspiration for dramatic performance.
“… as I grew up as a child, falling in love with the theatre and Shakespeare, my heroes were Sir Laurence Olivier [and] Sir John Gielgud,” he said after he was knighted on June 2, 2010, according to the BBC.
“The knights of the theatre represented to me not only the pinnacle of the profession but the esteem in which the profession was held. To find myself, to my astonishment, in that company is the grandest thing that has professionally happened to me.”
His English teacher, Cecil Dormand, was the first person to push him to pursue acting.
“He was the one that put a copy of Shakespeare in my hand [and] said, ‘Now get up on your feet and perform,’” Stewart said.
