Patrick Stewart, stage giant also of 'Star Trek' and 'X-Men' fame, dies at 86

Patrick Stewart, the classically trained stage actor who scaled the Shakespearean canon and added gravitas to a "Star Trek" franchise and the "X-Men" films, has died. He was 86.

Stewart died Wednesday in Los Angeles, following "a brief and poignant journey" with Alzheimer's disease and Lewy Body Dementia, spokesperson Kelly Bush Novak said.

While best known as Professor Charles Xavier and Captain Jean-Luc Picard from the "X-Men" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" series and films, respectively, Stewart spent more of his career onstage than in the X-Mansion or on the USS Enterprise.

Besides playing everyone from Claudius to Macbeth, he often performed a one-man rendition of "A Christmas Carol" and did West End and Broadway runs of Harold Pinter's "No Man's Land" and Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" in repertoire with buddy Ian McKellen.

Associated Press