An English film, television and stage actor. He has had a distinguished career in theatre and television for around half a century. He is most widely known for his television and film roles, as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation and as Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men films. Stewart was born in Mirfield near Dewsbury in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, the son of Gladys, a weaver and textile worker, and Alfred Stewart, a Regimental Sergeant Major in the British Army who served with the King's Own Yorkshire Lig…