‘Avengers: Doomsday’ Star Ian McKellen Leads a Moving Sing-Along To Honor His Late Friend Patrick Stewart

Sir Patrick Stewart’s death has prompted tributes from across the entertainment world, and few have been as personal as Sir Ian McKellen’s. The 2 knights of British theater shared a friendship of roughly 50 years, from their early days as ambitious young actors to sharing a stage on both sides of the Atlantic.

Stewart died at his home in Los Angeles on October 28 at the age of 86, according to a statement from his representative, Kelly Bush Novak. In the days since, McKellen has repeatedly paid tribute to the man he called a close friend.

McKellen’s latest tribute came on stage. In footage shared online by fans and later posted by DiscussingFilm, McKellen led a musical tribute to his late friend in London, wearing a bright yellow scarf as he addressed the audience.

According to Netflix Junkie, the moment took place at a London charity gala linked to the Raise the Roof! event at the Victoria Palace Theatre. The event supported the £26 million Centenary Appeal for Denville Hall, and McKellen is one of the appeal’s presidents alongside Helen Mirren and Daniel Radcliffe.

McKellen asked the crowd to sing “Underneath the Arches,” a 1932 music hall favorite made famous by Bud Flanagan and Chesney Allen, and led the audience without a microphone. He explained that he and Stewart sang the song at the end of each performance when they played the tramps in ‘Waiting for Godot’ in London and on Broadway, and he invited everyone to remember his friend as they sang.

Sir Ian McKellen lead a musical tribute for the late Sir Patrick Stewart yesterday in London. https://t.co/D2fNmqPnWu

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) November 3, 2026

The 2 actors first met through the Royal Shakespeare Company, which Stewart joined in 1966 and stayed with until 1982. In an Instagram post shared the day after Stewart’s death, McKellen recalled that the pair reconnected a few years after first meeting, which he described as his first strong memory of Stewart.

During that meeting in central London, Stewart said he had been offered a major role in ‘Star Trek’. McKellen admitted he urged Stewart to think about the risk of losing years to Hollywood instead of staying in British theater.

McKellen later credited his friend for taking that chance, which brought Stewart international fame while still letting him perform the classics he loved. The post received more than 2 million likes within hours, with 1 fan writing that their friendship was an example for humanity.

SIR PATRICK STEWART (1940-2026) Before everything else, Patrick was defined by being born and bred in Yorkshire, the proud county in the north of England which he loved to the end. You could hear it in his accented voice and in the stern honesty with which he told you what he thought and felt. Yorkshiremen have no truck with half-truths or avoidance of big issues. He wore his heart on his sleeve, which made him a man to rely on, to admire and in my case, love. We first met as ambitious young actors with the Royal Shakespeare Company half a century ago but we weren’t in the same productions. My first strong memory was a few years later, meeting him in the street in central London when he told me about an offer to take over a leading part in ‘Star Trek’. “But Patrick think of your stage career in the UK. Do you really want to risk—getting lost in Hollywood for years and years?”. Well, he took the risk and thank goodness for us all that he did for not just his devoted Trekkies but film and theatre audiences, who marvelled at his using international celebrity to star in a string of cinema successes (‘X-Men’ of course) and in great classical plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Arthur Miller, Peter Shaffer, Pinter and Beckett at Stratford-upon-Avon, in London’s West End and on Broadway. America was his adopted home, where he met his adored Sunny who has cared for him through sickness and health, through thick and thin. But he never forsook his origins: and the proudest achievement of the most respected and beloved actor of his generation on either side of the Atlantic, was his appointment as Chancellor of Huddersfield University in Yorkshire. His farewell performance in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ is yet to be seen. Ian McKellen 29 October 2026 Photo: University of Huddersfield

— Ian McKellen (@IanMcKellen) October 30, 2026

Stewart went on to play Captain Jean-Luc Picard in ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ for 7 seasons, along with 4 ‘Star Trek’ films and the series ‘Star Trek: Picard’. He also became Professor Charles Xavier in the ‘X-Men’ films, while McKellen played Magneto, his on-screen rival.

His screen work also included ‘Dune’, ‘Excalibur’ and ‘Hedda’, and he released a memoir titled ‘Making It So’. Stewart never lost touch with his roots in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, and served as Chancellor of the University of Huddersfield, a role McKellen called his friend’s proudest achievement.

In his tribute, McKellen also noted that Stewart’s final performance has yet to be seen. That performance is in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’, which Marvel has dated for December 18. Marvel Studios issued its own statement after the news broke, and fans have flooded social media with memories of Stewart’s most celebrated roles.

For many, watching McKellen fill a theater with the song the pair once shared captured the bond between the 2 actors in a way no written tribute could. Stewart is survived by his wife, Sunny Ozell, and his 2 children from his first marriage to Sheila Falconer.

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