Patrick Stewart(I)

According to Brent Spiner, Stewart largely affected the way Americans pronounce the word "data". On Star Trek: La nouvelle génération (1987), the name of Spiner's character, Data, was intended to be pronounced "dat-uh", as was commonly used in American English as the time, but Patrick Stewart's used the British pronunciation "day-tah" during the first table read and that was subsequently used for the series. Spiner credits Stewart's pronunciation, coupled with the popularity of the series, for making "day-tah" the more commonly used pronunciation in American English vernacular.

[on whether or not he is typecast by audiences as Jean-Luc Picard] I think perhaps when I first walk in front of the camera they'll say, "Aha, there, ah, yeah, Jean-Luc, we recognize him despite that charming little mustache." I believe that audiences are really smart enough to let go of that pretty quickly, but that's also my job as an actor to persuade them that, you know, Jean-Luc Picard is left behind and this is someone entirely different... I mean, I'm an actor dedicated to transforming myself and to creating original pieces of work, and I will not accept that my life is going to be forever connected to Jean-Luc Picard in the roles that I play. On the other hand, I'm absolutely delighted that he's still in my life. 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 United States.

[on his love for Beavis et Butt-Head (1993)] Oh, yes, my passion for them remains the same... I think it's one of the most original and brilliant pieces of television that we've seen in recent years. The dialogue is delightful. I simply sit and giggle and laugh all the time.