Sir Patrick Stewart passed away at home on Wednesday, October 28th, at the age of 86. A statement from his spokesperson Kelly Bush Novak, shared by CBS News, says he passed following "a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer's Disease and Lewy Body Dementia."
Most of the world knows him as Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Professor Charles Xavier. For a LOT of gamers, his voice is the very first thing they ever heard in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
Bethesda announced him back in September 2005 as the voice of the Emperor, alongside Sean Bean as the Emperor's lost son and heir. Stewart played Emperor Uriel Septim VII, and the game opens on his narration: "I was born 87 years ago. For 65 years I've ruled as Tamriel's Emperor." A few minutes later he's standing in front of your prison cell, telling you "You are the one from my dreams," and leading you out through a secret passage while his Blades bodyguards fight off assassins.
His screen time lasts about as long as the tutorial. Members of the Mythic Dawn cult kill him before it's over, and the Amulet of Kings he hands you on the way out drives the entire main quest.
Stewart took home Best Performance by a Human (Male) at the Spike TV Video Game Awards in December 2006 for Oblivion, on the same night the game won Game of the Year, per Engadget's winners list.
That performance is still out there for new players. When The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered arrived in April 2025, Bethesda kept his original voice work for the Emperor, and it has been on Nintendo Switch 2 since August. If you've never heard that opening for yourself, the PS5 Deluxe Edition is on Amazon.
Bethesda paid its respects on Thursday. The studio posted to X calling him "an emperor, a captain, and an inspiration to us all," alongside an image of Uriel Septim from the remaster.
Then there's Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.
MercurySteam and Konami's 2010 reboot cast Stewart as Zobek, a member of the Brotherhood of Light who guides Gabriel Belmont through the story, and he also narrates it. He came back as Zobek for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 in 2014. On PC, the first game is still sold as Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Ultimate Edition on Steam.
Those are the two everyone remembers, but his game credits go back much further. He was Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation: A Final Unity (1995), Star Trek: Armada (2000), Star Trek: Elite Force II (2003) and Star Trek: Legacy (2006). He voiced Charles Xavier in X-Men Legends (2004) and X-Men: The Official Game (2006), and even played King Richard in Westwood's Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos way back in 1994.
PC Gamer reports that Star Trek Online players are holding public vigils for him. According to Dexerto, players gathered at Earth Spacedock and Starfleet Academy, where crowds held torches aloft, and on the Klingon homeworld of Qo'noS. Outside Spacedock, roughly 40 to 50 Galaxy-class starships, the same class as Picard's Enterprise-D, lined up as an honor guard and set off fireworks.
Players on the game's subreddit are now asking Cryptic Studios for something permanent, like a recreation of Chateau Picard, the family vineyard from the show, or a Picard statue at Starfleet Academy. There's precedent: the game added Spock statues and memorial plaques after Leonard Nimoy died in 2015. Cryptic hadn't responded as of Saturday morning, per Dexerto.
Rest in peace, Sir Patrick.
Where did YOU first hear that voice in a game? If Cryptic does build a memorial in Star Trek Online, what would you want it to be?
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