RIP Patrick Stewart. Thank You

Like many others I was saddened to hear that Patrick Stewart had died. Star Trek: TNG was how I first came to know him in my teens, and I believe it’s not an exaggeration to say that I loved whatever characters he played or voiced. As an adult, I grew to admire him further, especially after I learned he’d moved relatively close to me — to Park Slope in Brooklyn (at least when he was in New York). I used to work in that neighborhood, and I remember thinking that maybe I’d run into him one day. The house has since sold to an unknown buyer — probably a friend or a relative. I didn’t know about his deep friendship with Ian McKellen until the Lord of the Rings films, when I suspected the two had a certain chemistry on the screen. I was excited and felt dumb at the same time when I learned that my hunch was a well-known fact to everyone other than me. I looked into it more and learned that the two played together in Waiting for Godot on Broadway, and I’ve been trying to get a copy of that…