Acting, luvvy

Sharing the day, as he does, with a typically mismatched handful of names including Kenneth Clark, Harrison Ford, Ian Hislop (65), Chris Serle and - ahem - Tulisa, it is the 85th birthday today of Captain Jean-Luc Picard/Professor Charles Xavier - aka Sir Patrick Stewart!

A stalwart of the West End stage, after sixteen years with the Royal Shakespeare Company [indeed I saw him in Antony and Cleopatra way back in 1978 in Stratford-upon-Avon, opposite Glenda Jackson and Alan Howard in the titular roles] he got the biggest break of his career in 1987, when he was "head-hunted" by producer Robert H. Justman for a new Gene Roddenberry series Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the rest is history.

Despite his [and his best friend Sir Ian "Serena" McKellen's] initial skepticism, he not only became a household name but also made himself a small fortune in the process. Indeed, he wryly commented in an interview that he made more money in a short break between filming scenes for that series than he did in ten weeks in the West End playing the lead "George" in Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf!

Yet he never seems to have lost his charm, nor his self-deprecating sense of humour:

Captain Picard Dancing and Singing on the Bridge

He's also never been afraid to "play gay", despite being married three times [at his last wedding, to current wife Sunny Ozell, Serena McKellen officiated] - not least in one of my fave films of its genre, including one of my most-quoted scenes:

Patrick Stewart in Jeffrey

However, who knew he had sung a whole album of "cowboy classics"?!!

P Stew's Cowboy Classics

[Or was it all just an elaborate joke with a serious fundraising cause?]

He's brilliant! - and has one of the sexiest speaking voices in the business, to boot.

Many happy returns, Sir Patrick Stewart (born 13th July 1940)!