Today is the birthday of the engaging Sir Patrick Stewart.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]

On this day 74 years ago, the theatre, TV, and movie star Sir Patrick Stewart was born. Almost certainly best known for playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation and the films; Stewart’s road to Trek was a long and unexpected one.

Patrick Steward in 2012.Born in Mirfield, England, Stewart had an interest in theatre from a very early age. After being knighted in 2010, Stewart told the BBC that he owed "literally everything" to one of his very early English teachers, Cecil Dormand, who first encouraged him to act. "Although many people in my life have had great influence on me, without this man none of it would have happened… He was the one that put a copy of Shakespeare in my hand [and] said, 'Now get up on your feet and perform'."

Stewart did just that, and left school at the age of 15 to increase his participation in local theatre. When he was 18, he started losing his hair. This was devastating to Stewart, and he would wear a wig or hats to disguise it. In an interview with Michael Parkinson, Stewart lamented that when it came to women, "I felt I was inhibited by it…" His professional stage debut was in 1959, as Morgan in a stage adaptation of Treasure Island. In 1966, Stewart became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, staying with them until 1982.

In 1987, after a performance at UCLA, Stewart was approached by Robert Justman, a producer for a continuation of the long-cancelled television show Star Trek. Justman managed to convince Stewart to try out for the revival, pushing through Gene Roddenberry’s disapproval. Justman told the BBC that "we watched Patrick drive away in his rental car … and Gene closed the door, turned around, faced me and said, and I quote 'I won’t have him'… I knew why. I knew that he had conceived of a Frenchman. And, you know, who was masculine, virile, and had a lot of hair. And Patrick didn't fit that at all. Patrick was not so handsome, he was distinctive, and he was quite bald." Eventually, Justman managed to wear Roddenberry down, and Roddenberry chose Stewart for the role.

Stewart knew nothing about Star Trek, nor how prominent it was in American culture, and was less than enthusiastic to sign the standard six-year contract. Since him and his agent both believed the new show would fail quickly and he would return to the stage in England with some extra money afterwards, he agreed to work on the show. For the first six weeks of filming TNG's first season, Stewart lived out of his suitcase because of his aforementioned skepticism.

Stewart did not enjoy being around his less disciplined American castmates, and even pulled them aside to lecture them about being more serious. Brent Spiner told The New York Times that "in the beginning he approached [TNG] as you would a serious Shakespearean role. It was serious work, but when you’re working 16 to 20 hours a day on a soundstage with no windows, you better be having a good time with the people you’re working with, or else you’ll go berserk." Eventually he settled in and was used to the show and his rowdy castmates, thanks to the cast setting a goal: each actor had to get one laugh out of him a day. "By the end of the first year we’d broken him down, and he became perhaps the silliest of us all," Spiner concluded.

Picard on the Bridge of the Enterprise-E.Stewart only realized how huge his role was after the conclusion of the first season. In an interview with the BBC, he explained, "We knew that the series was doing well, but it really wasn't until the first season ended that I went to my first Star Trek convention. It was in Denver and [I] had expected that I would be standing in front of a few hundred people and found that there were two and a half thousand people and that they already knew more about me than I could ever possibly have believed." The show continued to be one of his most successful endeavors into acting, and it helped him make many friends. Brent Spiner is still one of Patrick Stewart’s best friends, being Stewart’s best man for his marriage to TNG and Voyager producer Wendy Neuss and often crashing his panels.

Now, Stewart is a world-renowned actor, having been in countless films, TV shows, 178 episodes of Star Trek, participating in English theatre, even being knighted by the Queen of England. Stewart’s experiences have given him a humbled view on life, and in an interview with Stephen Colbert, he explained, "I like to be close to the people, to the real people. I don’t believe in privilege. I don’t believe in hierarchies. So you’re going to ask me, 'Why did you accept a knighthood, Patrick?'… I accepted a knighthood on behalf of the people."

Now, let’s all appreciate Stewart’s efforts in acting and how his life unexpectedly continued the legacy of a legendary TV show. I invite you to join me in wishing Sir Patrick Stewart a very happy 74th birthday.

WRITTEN BY FLICKY
EDITED BY TORINTH - STEPHEN.HALL@UFPLANETS.COM