Sir Patrick Stewart remembered as 'Mirfield's finest'

Sir Patrick Stewart once said he had to drop his Yorkshire accent for Hollywood, but he never forgot his roots.

The Mirfield-born actor, best known for his roles in Star Trek and the X-Men films, died at the age of 86 at his home in Los Angeles on Wednesday after suffering with Alzheimer's Disease and Lewy Body Dementia.

His death has prompted an outpouring of love from the community he proudly called home, along with his beloved Huddersfield Town - the club he followed from childhood.

Stewart's friend and fellow legendary actor Sir Ian McKellen said Stewart "never forsook his origins".

He added:"Before everything else, Patrick was defined by being born and bred in Yorkshire, the proud county in the north of England which he loved to the end."

Referencing a trait often associated with people from the region McKellen said Stewart "told you what he thought and felt".

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he was "very sad" to hear about Stewart's death, describing him as "one of the very best" who "never forgot his working-class Yorkshire roots".

In a TV interview with fellow Yorkshireman Michael Parkinson, Stewart said "we did toy" with using his regional accent when playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the Star Trek franchise.

But he added: "It was incomprehensible to the producers."

In 2004 he became chancellor of the University of Huddersfield - a role he filled until 2015. A year later the university's drama building was named after him.

Speaking at the time, he said: "I'm thrilled. It still makes me a little self conscious to think there's a building named after me."

Bob Cryan, the Vice Chancellor of the university, said Stewart was "very proud" of being chancellor and his success never changed him.

"It's something he took very personally," he said.

"He saw it as a way of paying back to Yorkshire because he was very proud of the fact that he was given a scholarship from what was then the West Riding of Yorkshire, but he felt he had never paid back."

• Sir Ian McKellen leads tributes to 'beloved actor' Sir Patrick Stewart after death aged 86

Born in Mirfield in 1940, Stewart attended Crowlees Church of England Junior and Infant School before moving onto Mirfield Secondary Modern School.

His mother Gladys was a textile worker. She was active in amateur dramatics and encouraged her three sons to take part.

His father was a former Sergeant Major in the Parachute Regiment, whose experience during the wartime evacuation of Dunkirk had badly affected his mental health.

Stewart's love of drama came at school when one of his teachers introduced him to Shakespeare and encouraged him to perform.

His first public performance was in a local church production of Cinderella.

He left school at 15 and eventually got a job as a reporter and obituary writer on the Dewsbury Reporter.

He later won a scholarship to the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School launching a career that would take him from Yorkshire to the world stage.

Although he became one of Britain's most celebrated actors through roles including in Star Trek and Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men film series, Stewart spoke of his pride in being from West Yorkshire.

Childhood friend David Pinder described him as a "thoroughly nice man" and said the pair would meet up when they were both in Mirfield.

"I came back here when I retired from the Foreign Office and got into local politics," he said.

"We couldn't have been more different. He was very firmly old Labour and I at the time was Conservative, verging on Independent so we kept off politics."

Pinder said the men would have lunch in the town and added: "People would come and go.

"They'd know it was Patrick and of course by then he was internationally famous, but people were very good. They'd just say hello and not pester him."

Mirfield Free Grammar, which Stewart attended as a child, said he held a "special place" in its history.

The school said he had last visited in 2011, when he was presented with a commemorative plaque "made out of the very stage boards on which he made his first theatrical appearance".

In a tribute, the school said: "Staff and students who met him during his visit remember him as a warm, friendly, compassionate and charismatic gentleman who left a last impression.

"We feel privileged to have been part of his story."

Spen Valley MP Kim Leadbeater described Stewart as "Mirfield's finest".

Posting on X, the Labour MP described him as "an outstanding talent and someone who came across as a thoroughly decent and lovely".

Leadbeater said she had met the actor at Huddersfield Town football matches and corresponded with him several times, adding: "He was incredibly kind and he will be greatly missed."

A lifelong Huddersfield Town supporter, Stewart attended games when his schedule allowed and celebrated the Terriers' promotion to the Premier League at Wembley in 2017.

The club's chief operating officer David Threlfall-Sykes said: "Obviously it was Sir Patrick Stewart walking around so people would get star-struck, but he would get star-struck by seeing the players and the manager because they were his heroes.

"It was a weird dichotomy but it just shows how much this place meant to him, just like it does to everyone that comes here every weekend to fill the ground. He was no different in that respect."

For many, it was the combination of worldwide fame and his down-to-earth Yorkshire roots that made him such a star across the world.

Reflecting on his sense of humour, Cryan, of the University of Huddersfield, said: "He had a great sense of fun.

"I remember saying to him we were hosting a dinner for staff at the university to say thank you for all their hard work and we decided he and I were going to be waiters.

"You can imagine peoples' faces when Patrick served them their meal."

The statement announcing Stewart's death, which was shared on his Instagram account, ended with a quote from his memoirs: "Like me, Jean-Luc has lived an unusual life that has taken him far beyond the bounds of normal human experience.

"But he is also someone who remains true to his earthbound roots, for they are what gave him his identity. In the end, he feels the call of home, as do I."

Additional reporting by Tom Ingall and David Spereall

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