Jimmy Stewart Biography

James Maitland Stewart served in the US Army Air Forces in World War II and was heavily decorated. His final mission was a bombing mission over Vietnam that he specifically requested as a close for his military career.

After the war, he was an appropriate choice to play the title role in 'The Glenn Miller Story'. He also played another famous aviator, Charles Lindbergh. In an episode of 'The World at War' he is one of several former airmen interviewed about his World War II flying career.

Stewart spoke in a faltering style, which was sometimes hard on sound men, but came through as sincerity to his audience. His career was built around playing a clean-cut person with good values, and his hesitating acting style gave his characters a natural feel not seen in many movies of his time. His portrayal of the central character in 'It's a Wonderful Life' was a defining moment in his career.

He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in 1940's 'The Philadelphia Story', which he starred in along with Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. In 1980 he was awarded an American Film Institute lifetime achievement award.

At the age of forty-one, Stewart married his wife Gloria, and was devoted to her until her death. She already had two children from a previous marriage, and they had two children together.

Later in his career, Stewart tried for a slight change of image. Although still the hero, he began to play more challenging parts with a harder edge to them. He starred in four Alfred Hitchcock films: 'Rear Window', 'Rope', 'The Man Who Knew Too Much' and 'Vertigo'. He also starred in many classic westerns, and in 'Anatomy of a Murder', 'Harvey' and 'Mr Smith Goes to Washington'.

After a progression of lesser western films in the late '60s and early '70s, Stewart moved from cinema to television. He first starred in the The Jimmy Stewart Show, which featured Stewart as a college professor. He followed it with the CBS mystery Hawkins, in which he played a small town lawyer investigating his cases. The series earned him a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Dramatic TV Series.

During this time, Stewart periodically appeared on Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show, sharing poems he had written at different times in his life. His poems were later compiled into a short collection titled Jimmy Stewart and His Poems (1989).

Stewart finished the decade with a major role in John Wayne's final film, The Shootist (1976) where Stewart played a doctor giving Wayne's gunfighter a terminal cancer diagnosis. At one point, both Wayne and Stewart were fluffing their lines repeatedly and Stewart turned to director Don Siegel and said, "You'd better get two better actors."

Stewart also appeared in supporting roles in Airport '77, the 1978 remake of The Big Sleep with Robert Mitchum, and The Magic of Lassie (1978).

He died in July 1997 from a pulmonary bloody clot following a long illness from respiratory problems. He had also suffered from Alzheimer's disease.