Ian McKellen pays tribute to long-time friend Patrick Stewart

Sir Ian McKellen has joined a host of stars honouring the late Sir Patrick Stewart.

The Lord of the Rings star paid his respects to his beloved friend on Thursday, following the stage and screen star's death at 86.

McKellen, who is 87, recalled his five-decade friendship with the legendary actor, and began with a nod to their shared Northern English roots.

"Before everything else, Patrick was defined by being born and bred in Yorkshire, the proud county in the north of England which he loved to the end. You could hear it in his accented voice and in the stern honesty with which he told you what he thought and felt," McKellen wrote.

"Yorkshiremen have no truck with half-truths or avoidance of big issues. He wore his heart on his sleeve, which made him a man to rely on, to admire and, in my case, love."

The X-Men star recalled when the two met "as ambitious young actors" at the Royal Shakespeare Company half a century ago.

He also remembered his advice that Stewart should turn down the Star Trek role that made him an international star.

"But Patrick, think of your stage career in the UK. Do you really want to risk getting lost in Hollywood for years and years?" McKellen told his friend at the time.

"Well, he took the risk and thank goodness for us all that he did, not for just his devoted Trekkies, but film and theatre audiences, who marvelled at his using international celebrity to star in a string of cinema successes and in great classical plays at Stratford-upon-Avon, in London's West End and on Broadway."