Teachers Matter! Sir Patrick Stewart Celebrates Knighthood With His English Teacher

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Patrick Stewart, known for his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, a Star Trek favorite character, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II today, and he says he owes it all to his old English teacher from school.

Sir Patrick said he would be celebrating with Cecil Dormand, the teacher who put a play by Shakespeare in his hand and told him to get up and perform!

“Although many people in my life have had great influence on me, without this man none of it would have happened,” said Sir Patrick.

Besides playing the captain in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Sir Patrick also played Professor Charles Xavier in the “X-Men” movie. More recently, he played William Shakespeare in a Chichester theatre for the play “Bingo.”

“But as I grew up as a child, falling in love with the theatre and Shakespeare, my heroes were Sir Laurence Olivier [and] Sir John Gielgud,” he continued.

“The knights of the theatre represented to me not only the pinnacle of the profession but the esteem in which the profession was held.

“To find myself, to my astonishment, in that company is the grandest thing that has professionally happened to me.”

Image courtesy of bbc.co.uk