Patrick Stewart, the British actor known as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek and Professor Charles Xavier in X-Men, has died at 86. His representative announced his death on 29 October.

Stewart died at his home in Los Angeles on 28 October, according to his spokesperson, Kelly Bush Novak. Tributes have come from colleagues including Ian McKellen, his friend and fellow X-Men actor.

In a January 2015 interview, Stewart explained how his support for gay civil rights grew out of his early years in the theatre, among gay and lesbian colleagues and friends. “It was always a natural and uncomplicated choice,” he said.

He recalled being comfortable in that company and said he had been happy to join campaigns and marches. He called McKellen “the dearest of friends”. McKellen had performed the wedding ceremony for Stewart and Sunny Ozell in 2013.

The friendship also took them onto stages in London and New York, in Waiting for Godot and No Man's Land. McKellen remembered Stewart on Instagram as “a man to rely on, to admire and in my case, love.”