Patrick Stewart has died at age 86, according to a message posted to his Instagram account. The message says the actor died Wednesday in his Los Angeles home "following a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer's Disease and Lewy Body Dementia."
Stewart was born in 1940 in Mirfield, Yorkshire, England. He began his career in theater. He is best known for playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, which ran from 1987 to 1994. He returned as the captain in several Star Trek films, including Star Trek: Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002). He also played Professor Charles Xavier in several X-Men movies. Queen Elizabeth II knighted him in 2010.
The Instagram message praised his "sonorous voice and singular talent." It said he "explored the human condition in all its poetic complexity."