Queen Elizabeth Knights Patrick Stewart Today, 6/2

As Eonline reports, Patrick Stewart officially became a knight today during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace performed by Queen Elizabeth II.

Perhaps best known for his role as Capitan Jean-Luc Picard on 'Star Trek: The Next Generation,' Stewart is also one of the core members of the Royal Shakespeare Company, of which he has been a member since the age of 26. Stewart has performed in over 60 productions with the Royal Shapeaspeare Company.

When accepting the honor Stewart said, "It was an unlooked-for honor but as I grew up as a child, falling in love with the theatre and Shakespeare, my heroes were Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir John Gielgud, Sir Alec Guinness. The knights of the theater represented to me not only the pinnacle of the profession but the esteem in which the profession was held. And now to find myself, to my astonishment, in that company is the grandest thing that has professionally happened to me."

Stewart is set to return to Broadway in David Mamet's A LIFE IN THE THEATRE next season. Stewart will portray the lead character of 'Robert', a role he previously played in the 2005 production at London's Apollo Theatre. Additional casting has yet to be announced.

In 2009, Stewart won an Evening Standard Award, a Critics' Circle Award, a TMA Theatre Award, a Theatregoers' Choice Award nomination, an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination, a Laurence Olivier Award nomination, and a Tony Award nomination for playing the title role in Rupert Goold's Chichester Festival Theatre production of Macbeth which subsequently transferred to the West End and then Broadway. His many other appearances for the RSC include Hamlet, The Tempest and Antony and Cleopatra both in Stratford and at the Novello Theatre. His other London theatre credits include Waiting for Godot opposite Ian McKellen, A Life in The Theatre and The Masterbuilder and in New York his credits include Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Ride Down Mount Morgan and The Tempest. Stewart performed his acclaimed, award winning one-man show, A Christmas Carol, both in the West End and on Broadway. His many film and television credits include the X-Men films, Moby Dick, King of Texas and King Lear, as well as his role as Jean-Luc Picard in the Star Trek series. Stewart was made an OBE in 2001.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.