I heard the news about Patrick Stewart as I was arriving to give a class on Macbeth, for which I had used the masterful production in which played the role so well. Why was he so good? How shall we count the ways? He was a self-avowed Left Wing Socialist, a Human Rights activist who supported sometimes unfashionable causes like LGBQT rights - and the heroism of the all too often overlooked Clement Attlee the Labour PM who defeated Winston Churchill and laid the ground for prosperity for a war-devastated Britain. And despite his acclaimed acting skills, he kept his Northen demotic vowels and diction for which his rendering of iambic pentameters was eminently clearer. All this and progressive SF as well!
I had not heard about his suffering from Alzheimer's and Lewey Body syndrome, but it is extra poignant that they should afflict such a keen intellect who would have been aware of the encroachment. Withal he lived long and prospered .
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