Stage giant Patrick Stewart, of Star Trek and X-Men fame, dies at 86

<p>Patrick Stewart, the classically trained stage actor who scaled the Shakespearean canon and added gravitas to a Star Trek franchise and the X-Men films, has died. He was 86.</p> <p>Stewart died in Los Angeles, following "a brief and poignant journey" with Alzheimer's disease and Lewy Body Dementia, spokesperson Kelly Bush Novak said.</p> <p>While best known as Professor Charles Xavier and Captain Jean-Luc Picard from the X-Men and Star Trek: The Next Generation series and films, respectively, Stewart spent more of his career onstage than in the X-Mansion or on the USS Enterprise.</p> <p>Besides playing everyone from Claudius to Macbeth, he often performed a one-man rendition of A Christmas Carol and did West End and Broadway runs of Harold Pinter's No Man's Land and Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot in repertoire with buddy Ian McKellen.</p> <p>He achieved some of the best reviews of his career when he finally tackled Macbeth for…