Gates McFadden Pays Tribute to Patrick Stewart: His Picard 'Gave People Hope Around the World'

The tributes to Patrick Stewart have run for five days, but the one readers searched for on Monday came from the woman who stood next to him on the bridge. Gates McFadden, who played Dr. Beverly Crusher opposite Stewart's Captain Jean-Luc Picard across Star Trek: The Next Generation and its successors, published a personal tribute in Variety on Monday, Nov. 2 - and 'gates mcfadden' rose to the top of the U.S. trending searches as readers went looking for it.

McFadden wrote that Stewart died on Oct. 28 in the arms of his wife, Sunny Ozell. 'How perfect, I thought. That is how Patrick would have wanted to die: in the arms of his beloved Sunny Ozell,' she wrote, calling it a beautiful, peaceful way to go. Stewart was 86. His family said he died at his Los Angeles home after a brief journey with Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia, as the Associated Press and Playbill reported. McFadden wrote that she knew he was very sick, but had still hoped she would see him once more.

Her essay reached past the friendship to the role. She wrote that Stewart's portrayal of Picard gave people hope around the world, called the character the antithesis of many leaders today, and credited Gene Roddenberry's vision and the Star Trek writers while saying Stewart made it real on screen and in public. Other than his wife, she wrote, Stewart loved the theater more than anything.

McFadden also posted a shorter goodbye of her own: a behind-the-scenes photograph from the show's first season, of herself and Stewart in character, with 'O Captain, My Captain' set over the image and a seven-word caption - 'Great memories, unforgettable man. Rest in Peace.' The Variety essay is the fullest account yet from inside the Next Generation cast of Stewart's final days, and it lands as the franchise's cast and its audience continue a week of public mourning for the captain.