Patrick Stewart Played Two Very Different Characters On The Simpsons Nearly 20 Years Apart

In addition to his iconic roles as Captain Picard on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and Professor Charles Xavier in the "X-Men" films, the late Patrick Stewart was a prolific voice actor. One of his many voice roles was on "The Simpsons," and he actually played two different characters nearly 20 years apart from one another: the Stonecutter leader Number One and Homer's proudly bald co-worker.

Stewart's first appearance was in the classic Season 6 episode, "Homer the Great," which premiered on Fox in January 1995. The Shakespearean actor played the stern leader of a secret society known as the Stonecutters. (They control the British crown and keep the metric system down, among other accomplishments.) Stewart is, unsurprisingly, great in the role as he leads all the Stonecutters' various rituals and is exasperated by Homer before briefly being forced to hail him as a chosen one. It takes a Shakespearean actor to really put some gusto into line readings like, "Attach the Stone of Triumph!" and, "Now, let's all get drunk and play Ping-Pong!"

In a 2000 interview with the BBC, Stewart had high praise for his performance, saying, "Actually, I think my appearance in 'The Simpsons' and an appearance that I did on 'Sesame Street' — in praise of the letter B — were perhaps the two most distinguished bits of work that I've done in the U.S."

Nearly two decades went by before Patrick Stewart made another appearance on "The Simpsons." Fans of adult animation on Fox's Sunday nights still heard plenty of him, though, as he voiced the CIA's Deputy Director Avery Bullock on "American Dad" for well over 100 episodes.

In May 2013, Stewart made a smaller but memorable cameo in the Season 24 episode "The Fabulous Faker Boy." While the A-plot followed Bart taking piano lessons and featured Justin Bieber voicing himself, the B-plot involved Homer losing what was left of his hair and feeling distraught about being bald. It's only when a confident chrome-dome co-worker encourages him to embrace his baldness that Homer starts to feel better. "I've slept with thousands of bald women," Stewart's character brags.

Stewart, who was one of our foremost bald actors, started losing his hair at a young age. It began to thin at 19 and by 20 it was basically gone. "The worst part about it was I thought it meant my romantic life was over, would never happen, because what woman would like to go out with a bald 19-year-old?" Stewart recalled in an interview with Rolling Stone. The upside, he said, was that he could easily put on a wig and play two characters for the price of one. "That's it. Romance is dead for me, so just throw yourself into your work, Patrick. Make the best of it." As evidenced by his second "Simpsons" role, Stewart came to own his baldness.