British actor Patrick Stewart is best known to most audiences as Captain Jean-Luc Picard on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-94). Throughout the 1960s and '70s Stewart was active with the Old Vic Company, the Manchester Library Theater and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and he followed his stage appearances with roles in television series and movies. He was memorable as Karla, the Soviet spymaster in the mini-series Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979) and Smiley's People (1982), both based on novels by John LeCarré. Stewart really became an international star as the thoughtful, quietly commanding Picard, commander of the starship Enterprise. He played the role in both the television series and the feature films that followed, including Star Trek: Generations (1994, with William Shatner) and Star Trek: First Contact (1996, with James Cromwell). Stewart has put his classical training to good use in voice work and on film, playing characters with an authoritative bearing in TV movies like Moby Dick (1998) and A Christmas Carol (1999) and in feature films such as Conspiracy Theory (1997, starring Mel Gibson) and the X-Men movies (with Hugh Jackman).