Sir Patrick Stewart Talks About Receiving Invitation To Become A Knight

During a recent visit on Conan, Sir Patrick Stewart shared what a prestigious honor being knighted [...]

By Dennis Upkins

Sir Patrick Stewart

During a recent visit on Conan, Sir Patrick Stewart shared what a prestigious honor being knighted has been. The actor also revealed that it was an honor that almost didn't happen.

"It's a big deal for me because it was totally unexpected," Stewart said. "And it almost didn't happen because it came -- the invitation to accept or not this honor came in a brown envelope and it was put into a plastic shopping bag with a whole lot of other mail and when I arrived at my destination that weekend, I put it in the closet and found it 10 days later."

When Stewart discovered the letter, he says he was still in disbelief.

"And just like in the movies, I read it three times because I couldn't make sense of it," Stewart said. "That this was directed at me. I looked at the envelope, surely it's addressed to the wrong person, they meant the other Patrick Stewart, not me. Then there was a second piece of paper. And this literally has two boxes. And you're asked to pick one of them and it says yes, I accept, or no, I do not."

Conan replied, "Wait a minute. In this country, that's called jury duty. You're being made a knight. This is a thousand year old tradition and there's two boxes you check?"

"Well it's better than jury duty," Stewart said. "An extraordinary honor, I was thrilled to accept it. Astonished but proud to be joining the company of long time dear friends of mine like Ian McKellan and Peter Jacoby. But I grew up worshiping Hardwicke and Olivier and Sir Alec Guinness, all these great knights. You wake up one morning and you find you're no longer 14, you know. 71. And I'm actually older but I was 71 when I got the knighthood."

Conan airs weeknights at 11 p.m. ET on TBS.

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