The passing of Sir Patrick Stewart at the age of 86 has prompted an outpouring of grief, with fans sharing tributes to the British actor known for roles in X-Men and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Alongside his acting career, he was widely recognised as one of the most famous bald men of all time, though he admitted in his memoir Making It So that he felt anxious when he began losing his hair as a teenager.
Screen test wig confirmed by producer
For years, rumours have circulated among Star Trek fans that Captain Picard was originally intended to have hair, with Sir Patrick reportedly wearing a wig during a screen test. In 2017, Star Trek producer Rick Berman confirmed the story in an interview with StarTrek.com, saying executives had wanted the actor to wear a toupee for the role before changing their minds at the last minute.
Berman described how Sir Patrick wore the toupee when reading for the president of Paramount Television, and that the response afterwards was: "He's your guy, but lose the wig." Berman added that he was delighted, as the wig always seemed awkward to him because he knew the actor was bald.
Viral images revealed as hoaxes
While the rumour is based in fact, many pictures circulating online claiming to show Sir Patrick with a full head of hair in costume are not from the fabled screen test. Most of these images actually come from a real episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called The Inner Light, in which Captain Picard is portrayed with hair during a sequence where he experiences an alternative lifetime as a man named Kamin.
A more dramatic picture of Picard with a perm is a Photoshop job that has been used by internet hoaxers for years. Researcher Jörg Hillebrand, who has worked on the Star Trek franchise, tracked down the original frame used for the fake image, which comes from the season one episode The Neutral Zone.
Real toupee in BBC role
Despite the hoaxes, Sir Patrick did wear a toupee for his role as Sejanus in the BBC show of the same name. The actor also wrote in his memoir about wanting to pay for treatment at a hair clinic in Bristol, recalling that he had grown up with thick, dark, wavy hair before it started thinning during his first year of drama school at the age of 17.
