Star Trek: 10 Biggest Takeaways From Patrick Stewart's Memoir (and One That Wasn't)

4. Eye Of The Steiger

Patrick Stewart Book Memoir Picard Star Trek
American International Pictures

Back in his Yorkshire Mirfield days, the young Patrick Stewart would earn cash by collecting the street's fish and chip orders on a Friday and adding in a modest delivery fee. This money would be saved and used so that he could head off to the cinema to catch a movie and the one which saw him returning again and again was On the Waterfront with Marlon Brando and Rod Steiger.

Slipping in via the assistance of other cinemagoers who would buy tickets for the underage Stewart, he was mesmerised by the lives of the characters on screen. He could relate to them because of the similarities that did exist in their impoverished backgrounds, though Brooklyn and Yorkshire were many miles apart.

It would be in the 1970s and Stewart's first motion picture role in Hennessey that would place him in contact with veteran actor Steiger. This time it would be face to face in a car, with Patrick holding a gun to his movie idol.

Steiger left a big impression from this meeting as he insisted (fairly strongly) to remain and read his lines so that Stewart could have his close-ups filmed. The two would have dinner together after with Stewart amazed Steiger would take the time to eat with him.

 
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A Star Trek fan from birth, I love to dive into every aspect of the franchise in front and behind the screen. There's something here that's kept me interested for the best part of four decades! Now I'm getting back into writing and using Star Trek as my first line of literary attack. If I'm not here on WhatCulture then you're more than welcome to come and take a look at my blog, Some Kind of Star Trek at http://SKoST.co.uk or maybe follow me on Twitter as @TheWarpCore. Sometimes I force myself not to talk about Star Trek.