Sir Patrick Stewart thinks about death "every day" now

He said: "It really has been absolutely brutal. There have been individuals who I’ve not been able to fully absorb: Alan Rickman, Roger Rees, Alan Howard. They were my contemporaries. My friends ...

"[I think about mortality] every day now. It’s giving me a focus that I haven’t had before ... My wife is half my age. So we talk frankly about it, her career, my career, how we use our time. I mean, why not? We’ve got to face it."

And the 76-year-old actor - who is married to Sunny Ozell -also opened up about his childhood, which saw his father turn to the bottle to cope with his shell shock.

He told The Sunday Times newspaper: "Nobody ever talked about it. Nobody knew; my mother, I don’t think she knew that he was shell-shocked. Nothing justifies violence against women or children. Nothing. But it puts it into a context that at least makes it understandable ...

"It took me years to finally be able to say that this is part of who I am. Now I’m either going to benefit from it, or I’m not. I’m going to take it on board and not deny it and say it never happened ...

"One of the great things about living in Los Angeles is you’ve got access to five-star therapists. They’re everywhere ... There’s all this s**t there, but that’s one of the fortunate things about being an actor: no experience is ever wasted."