Gates McFadden Remembers Patrick Stewart: 'Jean-Luc Gave Us Hope'

Gates McFadden spent decades beside Patrick Stewart on the bridge of the Enterprise. Now she's saying goodbye.

The Star Trek: The Next Generation actress, who played Dr. Beverly Crusher opposite Stewart's Captain Jean-Luc Picard, paid tribute to her late costar in a heartfelt essay published by Variety on Monday, Nov. 2.

Stewart died on Wednesday, Oct. 28, at his home in Los Angeles. He was 86.

In her essay, McFadden wrote about how she felt when she learned how he had died, about the hero he played, and about the man behind the captain's chair.

"Jean-Luc gave us hope," she wrote.

"In the arms of his beloved Sunny Ozell"

McFadden opened her tribute with the news of how Stewart spent his final moments.

"On Oct. 28, Patrick Stewart died in his wife's arms," she wrote.

For McFadden, that detail brought a kind of comfort. She described it as a "beautiful and peaceful death."

"How perfect, I thought," she continued. "That is how Patrick would have wanted to die: in the arms of his beloved Sunny Ozell."

She also admitted she had been holding on to hope that she would get to see her old friend again. "Many of us would have loved to have seen him once more," McFadden wrote. "Even though I knew he was very sick, somewhere in my mind, I hoped I would see him again."

Costars for nearly four decades

McFadden and Stewart's story goes back to 1987, when Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered. Stewart was cast as Captain Picard, and McFadden joined the crew as the Enterprise's chief medical officer, Dr. Beverly Crusher.

Her path on the show wasn't a straight line. McFadden left after Season 1 when her contract wasn't renewed, sat out Season 2, then returned for Season 3 and stayed through the series finale in 1994.

When the crew moved to the big screen, the two went with it. McFadden played Beverly again in all four Next Generation movies: Star Trek Generations in 1994, Star Trek: First Contact in 1996, Star Trek: Insurrection in 1998 and Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002.

Years later, they had one more reunion. McFadden came back as Beverly for the third season of Star Trek: Picard, the series that brought Stewart's captain back to TV. That final season premiered in 2023, the same year the photo above was taken.

Beverly and Jean-Luc

For many fans, Beverly Crusher and Jean-Luc Picard were always more than coworkers, and the bond between the doctor and the captain stayed part of their story across the series, the movies and finally Picard.

"Patrick understood the need people have for heroes," she wrote in Variety.

She also wrote about the kind of leader he was. In her words, "he seems to have been everyone's captain because of how he walked in the world."

And she wrote about the ideal Jean-Luc Picard embodied: "A desire to do good in the world works better with both kindness and focus, and it works better when we are surrounded by art and invention that lifts us."

"The loss of Picard"

McFadden acknowledged that for a lot of fans, the grief runs in two directions at once. They're mourning a beloved actor, and they're mourning the character he brought to life.

"Patrick's death means the loss of Picard," she wrote, "which for some hurts even more than the loss of Patrick Stewart."

It's a line that will feel familiar to anyone who grew up watching the Enterprise. Picard was the steady, principled captain viewers trusted, and for millions of people, Stewart and the character were hard to separate.

McFadden ended her essay on the character, not the actor. "Jean-Luc gave us hope," she wrote.

She shared a "Captain" photo days earlier

The essay wasn't McFadden's first tribute. Shortly after Stewart's death, she shared a behind-the-scenes photo from the first season of The Next Generation, showing herself as Beverly and Stewart as Picard. The words "O Captain, My Captain" appeared over the image.

Her caption was short: "Great memories, unforgettable man. Rest in Peace."

Gates McFadden's Instagram post.

The rest of the Enterprise crew said goodbye too

McFadden wasn't alone. Her Next Generation castmates shared their own tributes in the days after Stewart's death.

Jonathan Frakes, who played Picard's first officer, Will Riker, and later directed episodes and films in the franchise, shared the announcement of Stewart's death on his Instagram Story and wrote, "Rest in peace my friend."

Marina Sirtis, who played Counselor Deanna Troi, shared her own tribute on Instagram.

LeVar Burton, who played Geordi La Forge, put it simply: "He was family. There is no other context in which to hold him that makes sense."

And Wil Wheaton, who grew up on the show as Beverly's son, Wesley Crusher, shared a two-word goodbye on Instagram: "Godspeed, Captain."

Marina Sirtis's Instagram reel.

"In the loving care of his beloved wife"

McFadden's focus on Sunny Ozell echoed the statement Stewart's longtime spokesperson, Kelly Bush Novak, released when his death was announced on Thursday, Oct. 29.

According to the statement, Stewart died "in the loving care of his beloved wife Sunny" after "a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer's Disease and Lewy Body Dementia."

The statement went on to describe a man surrounded by love at the end. "He has been held in the warm embrace of family and friends, surrounded by live music, prayer, tears, laughter," it read. "We will forever cherish the peaceful ease and reflection on his face, an enduring reminder of his invincible grace."

Stewart and Ozell, a singer-songwriter, began dating in 2008 and married in 2013. Their wedding was officiated by his close friend Ian McKellen, a bond we looked back on in Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen's half-century friendship.

Stewart is also survived by his two children from his first marriage.

A career that started on the stage

Before he was Picard, Stewart was a stage actor through and through.

Born on July 13, 1940, in Mirfield, England, he left school at 15. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966 and stayed until 1982, and he made his TV debut in 1967 on the British soap Coronation Street.

Star Trek: The Next Generation made him a household name in 1987, and he played Picard for seven seasons and several movies before reviving the role in Star Trek: Picard. In 2000, he took on another iconic role as Professor Charles Xavier in X-Men, a part he went on to play in several more films over more than two decades.

He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1996.

One last role still to come

Fans will see Stewart on screen one more time. Before his death, he filmed his return as Professor X in Avengers: Doomsday, which opens in theaters on Friday, Dec. 18.

For McFadden, though, his legacy is already clear. It isn't just a career or a captain's chair. It's the feeling Picard gave the people who watched him.

As she put it, "Jean-Luc gave us hope."