Patrick Stewart Played Ebenezer Scrooge In A Dark Movie Adaptation Of The Christmas Classic

The acting world has lost a beloved icon with the passing of Sir Patrick Stewart. While best known for his science fiction roles like Jean-Luc Picard in the Star Trek franchise or Charles Xavier in the X-Men movies, he was a classically trained stage actor with a wide range of parts in his filmography. In fact, he played an iconic character in a Christmas classic many people tend to overlook when remembering him, but a rewatch this holiday season in his honor might be in order.

Stewart played Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1999 made-for-TV film "A Christmas Carol." He plays the miserly moneylender who's visited by three (technically four) ghosts in a single evening to change his heart before it's too late. As expected, it's a masterful performance. Michael Speier of Variety praised Stewart's talents, writing, "Stewart as Scrooge is such a perfect piece of casting that it will be hard to imagine anyone else as the sour ol' tightwad in years to come."

"A Christmas Carol" is one of the most adapted pieces of literature of all time. Heck, there's another one starring Johnny Depp coming out on November 13. But with Stewart taking the helm, it's no wonder why this version is seen as one of the very best "Christmas Carol" adaptations of all time. 

Patrick Stewart was a great fit for Ebenezer Scrooge, bringing his classical training to the role and making Scrooge feel like a true representation of the upper class. He's not a parody of a curmudgeon, and he rarely goes for laughs in the role. There's a genuine iciness to him, in a performance that deserved a far wider audience than what the film could get when it aired on TNT.

It makes sense how good Stewart is playing Scrooge because he had years to refine the part. Around the time he was on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," the actor embarked on presenting "A Christmas Carol" as a one-man show live on stage. As he put it on "Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee," "It evolved at a time when I realized that Star Trek was going to last for a year or two, and I knew that I had to find some way of keeping in touch with the live theater." He plays all the characters in "A Christmas Carol" — several dozen of them — and later in the interview, he admitted that Scrooge was the most difficult to pin down because it was too easy for him to descend into caricature. 

Even after the film adaptation, Stewart's affinity for Charles Dickens' novel didn't go away. In 2022, he uploaded a series of videos onto social media of him reading the story. Stewart may have credited Star Trek as the most important thing in his life, but it's obvious his passion for "A Christmas Carol" also knew no bounds.