Games Industry Pays Tribute to Sir Patrick Stewart, Voice of Oblivion’s Emperor

Sir Patrick Stewart died on October 28, 2026 at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 86. His family announced the news on his official social media accounts the next day, saying he passed “in the loving care of his beloved wife Sunny” after “a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s Disease and Lewy Body Dementia.” Tributes have come from across film, theatre and television, and from the games industry, where Stewart voiced Emperor Uriel Septim VII in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Zobek in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and Captain Jean-Luc Picard in a decade of Star Trek games.

Bethesda’s tribute

Bethesda Game Studios posted on X on October 29: “Rest in peace to Sir Patrick Stewart, an emperor, a captain, and an inspiration to us all. Our thoughts are with his loved ones.”

Stewart’s role in Oblivion (2006) is one of the most recognized voice performances in PC gaming. As Uriel Septim VII he opens the game, greeting the player in the Imperial prison and setting the main quest in motion before his assassination. His original recordings were carried over unchanged into The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered in 2025, which brought the performance to a new generation of players.

Journalist Stu Smith recalled on X that Bethesda sent Stewart nearly a hundred pages of lore about Tamriel before recording, and that Stewart called it “the best character preparation he had ever received.”

Star Trek players gather in-game

The Star Trek Online team said Stewart’s warmth gave fans hope when the franchise’s future was uncertain, and players have been gathering inside the MMO to pay tribute. Stewart voiced Picard in around ten Star Trek games, from Star Trek: The Next Generation: A Final Unity (1995) to Star Trek: Legacy (2006). William Shatner wrote: “Captain Picard stood for the best of us, and so did the man who played him.”

Castlevania, X-Men and more

Konami and MercurySteam cast Stewart as Zobek in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, released on October 5, 2010 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, where he also served as the game’s narrator. He returned for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 in 2014. He voiced Professor Charles Xavier in several X-Men games, including X-Men Legends, and narrated the opening cutscene of LEGO Universe. NME counts well over two dozen game credits in total.

Beyond games

Stewart was born on July 13, 1940 in Mirfield, West Riding of Yorkshire, and spent years with the Royal Shakespeare Company before Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987 to 1994) made him a global star. He played Charles Xavier from X-Men (2000) through Logan (2017) and returned as Picard in Star Trek: Picard (2020 to 2023). He was knighted in 2010 for services to drama. Marvel Studios said he brought Xavier to life “with extraordinary grace, intelligence, and humanity, defining the character for generations of fans.” Hugh Jackman wrote: “We lost one of the greats of stage and screen today.”

The family’s statement closed with a line from Stewart’s memoir Making It So: “In the end, he feels the call of home, as do I.” In lieu of flowers, they asked for donations to the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Fund and the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America’s caregiver resources. He is survived by his wife Sunny Ozell, whom he married in 2013, and two children.

Sources: Player.One, NME, Inven Global, GameBastion