As we become more immersed in our queer sensibility and life, we quickly learn not just about our own community but about who our allies are, too.  This week we lost one of our finest.  Many talk the talk, but very few walk the walk so well as the legendary British actor Sir Patrick Stewart, who died this week at age 87. 

He was a major player in great classical plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Arthur Miller, Peter Shaffer, Pinter and Beckett at Stratford-upon-Avon, in London’s West End and on Broadway.  He would, of course, become one of Hollywood’s favorites, making a name for himself in mainstream blockbuster movies such as Star Trek and the X-Men franchise.

But as much as the obituaries focused on Stewart’s impressive performances in these major sci-fi movies, Queerguru has its own memories of this talented Brit for all the times he played gay on the small and large screens. Maybe it helped that one of his best friends was the UK’s most famous gay actor, Sir Ian McKellen, but Stewart turned out one of the most convincing gay screen performances ever in a movie.

That movie was Jeffrey, adapted from Paul Rudnick’s very successful off-Broadway play, in which Stewart played a flamboyant, sharp-witted interior decorator in an AIDS-era romantic comedy.  It was a niche independent/art-house release, and still the movie… some 31 years later. still remains in our list of Top Ten Queer Movies. It had a sharp, humorous, and poignant handling of love and fear during the epidemic, and these were tough times for our community, and we desperately needed to laugh.  And Google reminds us, for Jeffrey,  “Patrick Stewart drew widespread acclaim and generated awards/Oscar buzz for his flamboyant supporting role as Sterling, earning several critic.

Queerguru had the pleasure of interviewing Bryan Batt, his fellow co-star from JEFFREY, earlier this year in London.  When the conversation turned to Jeffrey, without a pause, he quickly added  Patrick Stewart is just heaven. A lovely, lovely gentleman.

The last word, however, must go to McKellan, who said that Stewart was ‘a man to rely on, to admire and in my case, love’.  RIP Sir Pat : you will be missed