From Pontiac to Paramount, Patrick Stewart Lent His Star Power to Brands

In 2024, Paramount trotted out a small army of celebrities and characters for a Super Bowl ad, including Drew Barrymore, Jeff Probst, Peppa Pig, Creed, and Patrick Stewart. As the group frets over how to escape the freezing slopes of Paramount Mountain, Stewart shrugs off his shearling coat to reveal his 1920s football gear, ties a rope to the football-headed Arnold Shortman, and throws a perfect pass high over the ridge. Watching from the side, Reno 911!’s Lieutenant Jim Dangle whispers to himself, “Damn, he’s cool.” Patrick Stewart, who died yesterday at the age of 89, was indeed cool. It was an aura he maintained throughout a 67-year career that saw him play a range of parts few actors could pull off, from Macbeth for the Royal Shakespeare Company to Avery Bulluck on Fox’s American Dad, to Star Trek’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard. In a recent interview, Stewart admitted that he never expected to have such a wide-ranging career. "There are times when I simply cannot believe what it is that I'm surrounded by," he said. "It thrills me so much, and I feel blessed and fortunate." Stewart’s panache, thunderous voice, and ability to touch audiences with a persona that could be grave or funny—yet was still somehow always avuncular and trustworthy—was the combination that also made him a prodigious brand endorser. Mastercard Gold, RCA, Goodyear Tires, Uber Eats, Paramount+, Porsche, National Car Rental, AstraZeneca—all have sought out the Englishman to give their products the sort of respectability that Hollywood central casting just couldn’t deliver. Arguably not since Yul Brynner has a bald-pated actor exuded the style and commanded the reverence that Stewart could. (The actor’s 2010 knighting that put a “Sir” before his name didn’t hurt.) But Stewart’s real power was his stentorian voice, which cultural critic Emily St. James once said “sounds like it emerged, freshly hewn, from the center of an oak tree.” Born to a working-class family in Mirfield in 1940, Stewart worked as a furniture salesman to pay the tuition for Bristol Old Vic Theater School, where a teacher told him he’d have to shake off his Yorkshire accent if he wanted to get anywhere in life. Stewart not only perfected the King’s English, he fortified it with the sonorous power needed to reach the cheap seats. He played Shakespearean roles for nearly a decade before venturing into anything mainstream, which began with the role of a fireman on the U.K. soap Coronation Street. On this side of the pond, landing the role of Picard in 1987 gained Stewart the cultural clout that brought major brands knocking. His advertising work started with narrations. In 1990, Stewart voiced a spot for Pontiac, whose lineup included the soccer-momish Trans Sport minivan. But thanks to Stewart’s locution—“fuel-injected, multi-value engines! Dent-resistent composite door panels!”—Pontiacs momentarily felt like Porsches. (Five years later, Stewart would voice a Porsche ad, too.) A 2003 spot for Marks and Spencer—one of Stewart’s earliest on-camera commercial appearances—showed him seated in a leather chair at the fireplace of his study, cementing his bona fides as a proper English gentleman. Indeed, Stewart's confidence and urbanity were such that he brought credibility to endorsements without even mentioning the brand. There was the 2015 Strongbow hard cider spot where Stewart merely holding a glass and uttering “how dare you!” was enough. Or the 2017 ad for AT&T, played opposite Mark Wahlberg, in which Stewart declared himself “more handsome, talented, and British,” before walking off screen. Ads like these also illuminated Stewart’s capacity for humor. In a 2020 spot for Uber Eats, Stewart resurrected Star Wars’ famous light saber duel between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker with Mark Hamill. After correcting Hamill’s pronunciation of tomato (“toh-mah-toh”), a smoldering Stewart raises his cricket bat. “Careful, Hamill,” he said, “daddy’s not here to save you.” Stewart never sought to downplay his advertising appearances. In 2022, a U.K. spot for Yorkshire Tea gave him a minute to deliver a flawless Shakespearean soliloquy before switching to a thick Yorkshire accent and inviting everyone around the corner for a pint. Stewart later referred to the commercial as a “career highlight.”

In Memoriam

From Pontiac to Paramount, Patrick Stewart Lent His Star Power to Brands

Even with his Shakespearean credentials, the late Stewart never shied from starring in ads

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