Patrick Stewart's life had the odds against in him in many ways. Abusive father suffering from PTSD. A bald british man in Hollywood invites typecasting. Constant imposter syndrome from growing up poor while entering a profession where many came from more educated or affluent backgrounds.
Shakespeare effectively changed his life, and it's incredible to think that you could map everything he did and his success to his love of the bard.
If I had to take a lesson from his life, it's to have something you love, even if it isn't trendy (especially if it isn't) because most good things flow from that.
Godspeed, captain.
It is worth watching the BBC 'Who do you think you are' documentary about his genealogy. He talks movingly about his violent father's war trauma and how it affected the whole family.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01mfw63
(not sure if it is regionally restricted) also:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZsy4Rj7uAiT2NL8RIgH0...
He was born the same year as my dad, and like my dad, was born after his dad was posted overseas in the war.
I remember my father saying how strange it was to meet HIS father for the first time when he was 5 - suddenly there was this stranger in the house.
My grandfather fortunately wasn't violent, or a drinker, but I never saw the same closeness between him and dad that I did between my mother and her parents.
Also shows that government funding of the arts can be a force for good. It was his local council that gave him a grant, which enabled him to attend acting school. That single grant probably created a huge amount of downstream value.