Animation lost one of its great voices this week. Sir Patrick Stewart passed away at his home in Los Angeles on Wednesday, October 28th, at the age of 86. His spokesperson, Kelly Bush Novak, said his death followed "a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer's Disease and Lewy Body Dementia."
Most of the tributes this week lead with Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Professor Charles Xavier. Star Trek fans and X-Men fans lost a giant. But for more than two decades, Stewart was ALSO the voice of CIA Deputy Director Avery Bullock on American Dad!, and his cartoon résumé runs a whole lot deeper than Picard and Xavier.
Seth MacFarlane, who gave him his longest-running animated gig, said it on X better than I could: "Patrick was one of those icons who we somehow all took for granted would always be with us." MacFarlane also called him "that rare actor who could take any bit of dialogue and elevate it." Avery Bullock proved it for more than 20 years!
So here are the cartoon roles I'll remember him for most, ranked!
1. Avery Bullock, American Dad! (2005 to 2026)
Bullock is Stan Smith's boss at the CIA. He was there from the very first season, and the show rolls on without him on Fox. He started out as a fairly serious spymaster and got stranger every year, until the writers were building entire gags around handing one of the most respected Shakespearean actors alive the most ridiculous lines they could think up.
The joke landed every time because Stewart played every ridiculous line completely straight.
The show's official account posted its own goodbye this week, and it opened with "We at American Dad! have so much gratitude and love for Patrick Stewart." The team also shared that Stewart told them how happy he was to be on the show, because he was so rarely asked to do comedy.
The post closed on this: "You turned Avery Bullock, Deputy Director of the CIA, into someone the world loved and couldn't get enough of."
2. Pharaoh Seti, The Prince of Egypt (1998)
DreamWorks' The Prince of Egypt hit theaters on December 18th, 1998, and Stewart voiced Seti, Rameses' father and Moses' adoptive father, the Pharaoh who rules Egypt as the story opens. Stewart plays Seti calm and fatherly, which makes his cruelty land even harder. The film went on to gross $218 million worldwide, and "When You Believe" won the Oscar for Best Original Song.
3. Number One, The Simpsons (1995)
Did you know Stewart joined Springfield's most secret society? In "Homer the Great," which aired on Fox on January 8th, 1995, he played Number One, the leader of the Stonecutters lodge that Homer talks his way into. Executive producer David Mirkin later singled it out as one of the show's best guest performances, and he praised how committed Stewart was to the character. The episode is a season 6 classic, and you can still catch it with the rest of the series on Disney+ (Disney even launched a 24/7 Simpsons stream last year).
4. King Goobot V, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001)
An entire generation of Nickelodeon kids knows Stewart as the egg-shaped alien king who stole their parents. Goobot leads the Yolkians, who abduct every adult in Retroville and plan to sacrifice them to their god, Poultra. The movie opened on December 21st, 2001, earned about $103 million worldwide, and landed a nomination for the very first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 74th Academy Awards, where it lost to Shrek.
5. Max Winters, TMNT (2007)
The 2007 CG TMNT movie opened on March 23rd, 2007, and gave Stewart a villain with a twist. Max Winters looks like a wealthy businessman, but he's really Yaotl, an immortal warlord who wants to become mortal again. It's a sad, strange role for a Turtles movie.
6. Adventure, The Pagemaster (1994)
Before Avery Bullock, there was a talking pirate book!
In The Pagemaster, released November 23rd, 1994, Stewart voiced Adventure, the swashbuckling book who tags along with Macaulay Culkin's character alongside Whoopi Goldberg's Fantasy. If you grew up renting this one on VHS, that voice is probably burned into your memory.
7. The Narrator, Ted (2012)
Ted is live action, but the talking teddy bear at its center is computer animated, and Stewart's narration kicks the whole thing off with the story of a boy's Christmas wish in 1985 Massachusetts. He came back to narrate Ted 2 in 2015, too, and MacFarlane listed American Dad!, Family Guy and Ted among the projects he worked on with Stewart "for many years."
The honorable mentions could fill a whole second list. He voiced Mr. Woolensworth in Disney's Chicken Little (2005), Lord Yupa in Disney's 2005 English dub of Studio Ghibli's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, the Great Prince of the Forest in Bambi II (2006) and Bill Shakespeare himself in Gnomeo & Juliet (2011). He also popped up on Family Guy several times, sometimes playing himself, and voiced a long list of video game characters too. One of his final voice roles came this year, voicing Sir Ritchfield in The Sheep Detectives, which hit theaters in May.
And yes, Sir Patrick Stewart was the voice of Poop in The Emoji Movie. Now THAT'S some range and talent!
Rest in peace, Sir Patrick.
What do you think? Which Patrick Stewart voice role is your favorite, and did I get the order right?
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