James Stewart

At 89 years old, James Stewart has this physical status:

James "Jimmy" Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997), an American actor and military officer who is one of the most respected and famous actors in film history.

Stewart, who is best known for his distinctive drawl, down-to-earth authentic personas, and everyman acting style, he had a film career that spanned over 55 years and 80 films.

Stewart epitomized the "American ideal" in the twentieth-century United States, with the strong morals he portrayed both on and off the screen.

His characters covered a variety of topics and attracted a large audience.

His emotional film performances contributed to his cinematic acclaim. Stewart began his career as a performer on Broadway, earning him a film contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).

He first established himself as a film actor with Frank Capra (1938) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), the former of which earned him his first of five Academy Award nominations for Best Actor.

Early life

James Maitland Stewart was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, on May 20, 1908, the eldest child and only son born to Elizabeth Ruth (née Jackson; 1875-1962) and Alexander Maitland Stewart (1872–1962). Mary (1912–1977) and Virginia (1914–1972). Stewart had two younger sisters, Mary (1912–1977) and Virginia (1912–1972). He ancestry was of Scottish and Scotch-Irish origins. For many generations, the Stewart family has lived in Pennsylvania. The J.M., Stewart's father, operated the family firm. Stewart and Company Hardware Store, who wished Stewart would take over as an adult after attending Princeton University, as was the family's tradition. Stewart, who was raised as a Presbyterian by his deeply religious father, was a devout churchgoer for a significant portion of his life.

Stewart's mother was a pianist, and music was a huge part of family life. Stewart's father accepted an old accordion as payment when a customer at the store was unable to pay his bill. Stewart learned to play the instrument with the help of a local barber. During his acting career, his accordion became a fixture offstage. Stewart, a shy boy, spent a lot of his time after school in the basement working on model airplanes, mechanical drawings, and chemistry, all with a dream of going into aviation. He attended Wilson Model School for primary school and junior high school. He was not a gifted student and earned average to low grades. This was not a lack of intelligence, according to his teachers, but because of being creative and having a tendency to daydream.

Stewart began attending Mercersburg Academy prep school in fall 1923 because his father did not believe he would be accepted into Princeton (his father was a member of the Class of 1898) if he attended public high school). Stewart, a student at Mercersburg, was involved in a variety of extracurricular activities. He was a member of the track team (coming as a high jumper under coach Jimmy Curran), the school yearbook's art editor, a member of the glee club, and a supporter of the John Marshall Literary Society. Due to his slender physique, he was relegated to the third-tier football team. In 1928, Stewart appeared in Buquet's onstage appearance as Buquet in the play The Wolves. During summer breaks, he returned to Indiana, first as a brick loader and then as a magician's assistant. In 1927, he was forced to miss time from school due to scarlet fever that progressed into a kidney disease. He remained passionate about aviation, with his curiosity raised by Charles Lindbergh's first solo transatlantic flight, but he gave up on becoming a pilot after his father led him toward Princeton.

Stewart was enrolled at Princeton in 1928 as a member of the Class of 1932, majoring in architecture and becoming a member of the Princeton Charter Club. He excelled academically, but the Princeton Triangle Club attracted many students to the school's drama and music clubs, including the Princeton Triangle Club. On his graduation in 1932, he was given a scholarship for graduate studies in architecture for his thesis on an airport terminal layout, but he instead joined University Players, an intercollegiate summer stock firm based in West Falmouth, Massachusetts.

Personal life

Margaret Sullavan, as a mentor, mentor, and reminder of his early romantic feelings, had a special influence on Stewart's life. They met while they were both playing for the University Players; he was captivated by her and invited her on a date. Stewart regarded him as merely a close friend and coworker, and they never started a romantic relationship, but she felt unrequited romantic love toward her for many years. Though Sullavan was already aware of his feelings, he never shared them to her. Sullavan loved Stewart but wasn't involved in him romantically; rather, she felt safe and maternal. However, H.C. Potter's director said that they may have married each other if Stewart had been more forthcoming with his feelings. "Made [him] a star," she said of actor Edward H. Griffith's "made [him] a star"; they went on to co-star in four films: Next Time You Love (1936) and The Mortal Storm (1940).

Stewart did not marry until his twenties, which attracted a substantial amount of current media interest; gossip columnist Hedda Hopper dubbed him the "Great American Bachelor." Nonetheless, he had multiple intimate relationships before marrying. Henry Fonda, Stewart, and Ginger Rogers had a brief acquaintance in 1935. During the production of The Shopworn Angel (1938), Stewart dated actress Norma Shearer for six weeks. Later, he dated Loretta Young; she wanted to settle down but Stewart did not, and their friendship ended when Young's other boyfriend proposed to her. When filming Destry Rides Again (1939), Stewart had an affair with Marlene Dietrich, who was married at the time. Dietrich was reported pregnant at the time, but it was swiftly dismissed. After the shooting was complete, Stewart and his partner decided to split up. Hurt by Stewart's disapproving, she barely mentioned him in her memoir and dismissed him as a one-time affair.

Olivia de Havilland dated her in the late 1930s and early 1940s, as well as suggested marriage to her, but she turned down the offer because she was not ready to settle down. She ended the relationship right before he began his military service as she had fallen in love with director John Huston.

Stewart, a licensed amateur pilot, joined the Army Air Forces just after the Second World War began in 1941. He rose to the rank of colonel after serving in Europe and received several awards for his services. In 1959, he was promoted to brigadier general in the Air Force Reserve and then resigned in 1968, when the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal was presented to him. Several reports indicate that President Ronald Reagan promoted Stewart to the honorary rank of major general in May 1985 at the same time as awarding his Medal of Freedom, but this assertion is unsupported by facts, as the evidence shows no such thing. President Reagan incorrectly said he was corrected by Stewart himself at a White House briefing.

Stewart met singer Dinah Shore at the Hollywood Canteen, a servicemen's club, in 1942, when serving in the military. They began a loving relationship and were almost married in Las Vegas in 1943, but Stewart called off the wedding before they arrived, citing cold feet. When Stewart first started filming The Stratton Story (1949), he began a friendship with Myrna Dell. Although gossip columnists mistook them for wedding, Dell denied it.

Gloria Hatrick McLean, Stewart's first meeting with his future wife, was at Keenan Wynn's Christmas party in 1947. He had crashed the party and became inebriated, giving the appearance of him with Hatrick. Hatrick and Stewart were invited to a dinner party by Gary Cooper and his partner Veronica, and the two of them began dating. Hatrick, a former model, was divorced with two children. Stewart and Hatrick were married at Brentwood Presbyterian Church on August 9, 1949, and they remained married until her death from lung cancer in 1994.

In 1951, the couple bought a house in Beverly Hills, where they remained for the remainder of their lives. From 1953 to 1957, the Winecup Gamble Ranch in Nevada had been owned by the two families. Ronald (1944–1969) and Michael (born 1946), and Gloria he had twin children Judy and Kelly on May 7, 1951. Ronald was killed in combat in Vietnam on June 8, 1969, at the age of 24, while serving as a lieutenant in the Marine Corps.

Stewart was guarded about his personal life, and, according to biographer Scott Eyman, he tried to avoid the emotional association he was known for in his films but preferred to keep his thoughts and feelings private. He was described as a loner who did not have personal acquaintances with many people. "You don't get to know Jimmy Stewart," Stewart said of him; Jimmy Stewart gets to know you."

Stewart's 50-year association with Henry Fonda began in Manhattan when Fonda invited Stewart to be his third roommate (in comparison to Joshua Logan and Myron McCormick) in order to pay the rent. As Stewart went to Hollywood in 1935, he rented an apartment with Fonda, and the two became known as playboys. They appeared in four films together: On Our Merry Way (1948), How the West Was Won (1962), Firecreek (1968), and The Cheyenne Social Club (1970). Both Stewart's and Fonda's children discovered that their favorite pastime when not working was actually sharing time together when designing and painting model airplanes, which had been a passion they had pursued in New York years ago. Stewart and Fonda used to build and fly kites, play golf, and reminisce about the "good days" before building model airplanes. Stewart's only public statement after Fonda's death in 1982 was "I've just lost my best friend." Hank and Jim, Scott Eyman's biography, chronicled their friendship.

In addition to Fonda, Stewart's close friends included Leland Hayward, Stewart's former agent; photographer John Swope, Stewart's former roommate; and Billy Grady, the talent scout who discovered Stewart and later served as the best man at his wedding. Gary Cooper, another close friend of Stewart's, was too ill (with cancer) to attend the 33rd Academy Awards ceremony, so Stewart accepted the honorary award on his behalf on April 17, 1961.

Stewart had diversified investments, including real estate, oil wells, the charter-plane firm Southwest Airways, and membership in major corporate boards in addition to his film career, and he became a multimillionaire. He had been an avid amateur pilot with a private pilot license and a commercial pilot license, as well as over 400 hours of flying time before his enlistment in the Air Corps. He entered a cross-country competition with Leland Hayward in 1937 and was one of the early investors in Thunderbird Field, a pilot-training school operated by Southwest Airways in Glendale, Arizona. He was a skilled pilot with a keen eye for detail.

Over the years, Stewart was involved in philanthropy. He served as the national vice chairman of entertainment for the American Red Cross' fund-raising effort for wounded soldiers in Vietnam, as well as contributions for upgrades and restorations to Indiana, Pennsylvania's hometown. "The Jimmy Stewart Relay Marathon Race," his annual charity run in Santa Monica, California, has raised millions of dollars for the Child and Family Development Center.

Stewart was a lifelong supporter of scouting, having been a Second Class Scout and winning the Silver Buffalo Award as a youth and being a recipient of the National Youth Award. He was also a youth leader and ran Boy Scouts of America in the 1970s and 1980s, earning him to be characterized as an Eagle Scout. Since 2003, "The James M. Stewart Good Citizenship Award" has been given to Boy Scouts. Stewart was also a Life Member of the Sons of the Revolution in California.

Stewart was a committed Republican throughout his life. According to some reports, a political dispute in 1947 culminated in a fist fight with friend Henry Fonda, but the two friends stayed friends by not discussing politics again. The fist fight may have been apocryphal, as Jhan Robbins quotes Stewart as saying, "Our beliefs never interfered with our feelings for each other." We didn't discuss such topics at all. I can't remember ever having an argument with him—ever!"

Stewart ran for conservative presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964, but biographer Marc Eliot argued in favor of the obsessive ahead of the election. Stewart was a Vietnam War expert and said that his son, Ronald, did not die in vain. Following Senator Robert F. Kennedy's assassination in 1968, Stewart, Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas, and Gregory Peck released a statement urging for President Lyndon B. Johnson's Gun control Act of 1968.

In 1976, Stewart endorsed Ronald Reagan's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. In one address assuaging that he was more conservative than ever, he attended Reagan's campaign rallies, boasting that he was more conservative than ever, despite the death of his son in the Vietnam War. Stewart, along with Burt Lancaster, Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, film producer Martin Scorsese, and others, protest Ted Turner's decision to 'colorize' classic black and white films, including It's a Wonderful Life. "The coloring of black-and-white films is incorrect," Stewart said. These profiteers should leave our film industry alone, and it's morally and artistically wrong. Stewart founded the American Spirit Foundation in 1989 to develop innovative ways to public education and support the emergence of democracy movements in the former Iron Curtain countries. He contributed to Bob Dole's campaign in the 1996 presidential election in the last years of his life.

Gloria Stewart died of lung cancer on February 16, 1994. Stewart's death left him distraught and "lost at sea," according to biographer Donald Dewey. Stewart grew more reclusive, spending the majority of his time in his bedroom, leaving only to eat and visit with his children. He kicked out the majority of people from his life, not just media and followers, but also his co-stars and friends. Stewart was not angry or sad, according to Leonard Gershe and Gregory Peck, but he was finally allowed to rest and be alone.

After suffering in December 1995, Stewart was hospitalized. He had planned to have the battery in his pacemaker changed in December 1996 but chose not to have it done. He was hospitalized in February 1997 for an irregular heartbeat. A thrombosis developed in his right leg on June 25, resulting in a pulmonary embolism the next week. Stewart died of a heart disease triggered by the embolism at the age of 89, surrounded by his children at his Beverly Hills home on July 2, 1997. America had lost a "national treasure," according to President Bill Clinton, "a great actor, a gentleman, and a patriot." Stewart was buried in Glendale, California, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. More than 3,000 mourners attended his memorial service, including his relatives and coworkers June Allyson, Carol Burnett, Lew Wasserman, Nancy Reagan, Esther Williams, and Robert Stack. The service featured full military awards and three volleys of musketry.

Source

Career

During the summer of 1932, Stewart appeared in bit parts in the University Players' productions in Cape Cod. Joshua Logan, Bretaigne Windust, and Charles Leatherbee were among the company's other actors, Henry Fonda and Margaret Sullavan, who became Stewart's close friends. Stewart and his Players friends Logan, Myron McCormick, and newly single Henry Fonda joined New York at the end of the season. Stewart debuted on Broadway in the short run of Carry Country, and a few weeks later, alongside McCormick, appeared as a chauffeur in the comedy Goodbye Again in which he had a walk-on line. "Mr. James Stewart's chauffeur..." comes on for three minutes and leads away to a round of spontaneous applause," the New Yorker wrote. Stewart took up stage management in Boston after seven months of Goodbye Again, but he was dismissed after consistently missing his cues. He then landed a small part in Spring and a small role in All Good Americans, where he was required to throw a banjo out of the window. "Throwing a $250 banjo out of the window at the concierge is constructive harassment, and should be lauded," Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times wrote. After only short runs, both players were forced to return to their studies.

When he was directed in the lead role of Yellow Jack, Stewart was compelled to continue acting, playing a soldier who is the subject of a yellow fever study. In March 1934, it appeared at the Martin Beck Theater for the first time. Stewart received unanimous praise from the experts, but the performance was unpopular with audiences and was cancelled by June. Stewart made his film debut in the Shemp Howard comedy short Art Trouble (1934), shot in Brooklyn, and appeared in summer stock performances of We Die Exquisitely and All Paris Knows at the Red Barn Theater on Long Island. He received raves for his work in Divided by Three at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in the fall, which he followed with the modestly profitable Page Miss Glory and the tragic loss A Journey by Night in spring 1935.

Stewart agreed a seven-year deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), headed by talent scout Bill Grady, who had been following Stewart's career from the start of Night, seeing him perform in Princeton. The Murder Man (1935), Spencer Tracy's first Hollywood appearance, was a minor role. His appearance was largely ignored by observers, but the New York Herald Tribune, which was remembering him in Yellow Jack, said he was "engaged in a bit that he does with characteristically engaging skill." Leland Hayward, MGM's lead-man in Stewart, who was described by biographer Michael D. Rinella as a "lanky young bumpkin with a reticent demeanor" at this time, decided that the best option for him would be through loan-outs to other studios.

Stewart appeared in just two films, from Next Time We Love to After the Thin Man, but it did lead to his appearance in seven other films in a year. He also received vital assistance from University Players friend Margaret Sullavan, who lobbied for him to be her leading man in the Universal romantic comedy Next Time We Love (1936), which was shot right after Rose Marie. Sullavan rehearded extensively with him, building his self-confidence and assisting him in incorporating his mannerisms and boyishness into his screen persona. We Love This is Our Next Time was a box-office smash that received mainly positive feedback, causing Stewart to be spotted by critics and MGM executives. "The key role of [the film] in the advancement of the cinema industry is likely to reside in [the film's presence in the presence of James Stewart," TIME reported, and The New York Times named him "a welcome addition to the list of Hollywood's top guys."

Stewart appeared in two commercially successful romantic comedies, Wife vs. Secretary (1936), alongside Myrna Loy and Small Town Girl (1936). In both cases, he played the betrayed boyfriend of the leading lady, as played by Jean Harlow and Janet Gaynor. Both films received rave reviews. Stewart appeared in the short film "B" (1936), in which he played both a mechanic and speed racer competing in the Indianapolis 500, he had his first top-billed role. The film was a commercial failure, but Frank Nugent of The New York Times said, "Mr. Stewart [and the rest of the cast] perform as pleasantly as possible."

Stewart's last three film debuts in 1936 were all box-office hits. He appeared in The Gorgeous Hussy for a brief period, but he appeared in Eleanor Powell's musical Born to Dance. Stewart's appearance in the latter was not well received: The New York Times announced that his "singing and dancing will (fortunately) never win him a song-and-dance man class," and Variety described his "performance and dancing [that] calls for a shy youth." After the Thin Man, Stewart's last film to be released in 1936, After the Thin Man, a shattering emotional climax. "He has one grand scene in which he demonstrates most convincingly that he is more than a musical comedy juvenile," Kate Cameron of the New York Daily News said.

Stewart was loaned to 20th Century-Fox to play a Parisian sewer worker in a revival of Frank Borzage's stumbling masterpiece released a decade before. Simone Simone and his co-star were miscast, and the film was a commercial and cultural failure. Stewart's performance, according to William Boehnel of The New York World-Telegram, was emotionless, and Eileen Creelman of The New York Sun said he made no attempt to appear or sound French. Edward G. Robinson's next film, The Last Gangster (1937), was also a failure, but it was followed by a highly acclaimed appearance in Navy Blue and Gold (1937) as a football player at the United States Naval Academy. Stewart received the best reviews of his career up to that point, despite being a box-office hit. "The end leaves us with the understanding that James Stewart is a sincere and likable triple-threat man in the [MGM] backfield," Variety described him as "fine."

Despite strong reviews, Stewart was still a minor actor, and MGM was reluctant to cast him in leading roles, preferring to loan him out to other studios. After a well-received support role in Of Human Hearts (1938), he was loaned to RKO to perform opposite Ginger Rogers in the romantic comedy Vivacious Lady (1938). In 1937, the company was out of commission for months as Stewart recovered from an undisclosed disease, which had been hospitalized. RKO had hoped to replace Stewart, but the initiative was eventually cancelled. Rogers' success in a stage musical led to the film's revival. Stewart was recast in Vivacious Lady Rogers' insistence and as a result of his appearance in Of Human Hearts. It was a critical and commercial success, as it showcased Stewart's ability in romantic comedies; The New York Herald named him "one of the most knowledgeable and engaging young actors appearing on television at present."

Stewart's third film release of 1938, the First World War II drama The Shopworn Angel, saw him collaborate with Margaret Sullavan once more. Stewart drew on his own feelings of unrequited love against Sullavan, who was married to his agent, Leland Hayward, in his appearance. Although Stewart's film was generally well received, critics were split on him. In this melodramatic film, Bland Johaneson of the New York Daily Mirror likened him to Stan Laurel, although Variety said his performance was unfocused. "Just another confirmation that this young man is one of the finest actors of the young roster," Irene Thier of The New York Post said.

Stewart was hired out to Columbia Pictures to star in Frank Capra's "You Can't Take It With You (1938), opposite Jean Arthur. Stewart played the son of a banker who falls in love with a woman from a poor and eccentric family. Capra had recently completed several well-received films and was searching for a new sort of leading man. Stewart's involvement in Navy Blue and Gold (1937) had him intrigued. Stewart, one of the finest actors to have landed on film, intuitively understood character archetypes, and needed no directing, according to Capra. You Can't Take It With You is the year's fifth highest-grossing film of the year and received the Academy Award for Best Picture. The film was also highly acclaimed, but Variety said Stewart and Arthur's performance brought "much of the laughs." The bulk of the critical praise went to Lionel Barrymore and Edward Arnold.

Stewart's first three film debuts in 1939, despite the success of You Can't Take It With You, were all commercial disappointments. He and Carole Lombard appeared on the screen in Made for Each Other (1939). Stewart criticized its box-office results on its poor box-office results, despite its directing and screenwriting. Nonetheless, the film received rave reviews, with Newsweek noting that Stewart and Lombard were "fully cast in the leading roles." The Ice Follies of 1939 and It's a Wonderful World were two of 1939's film failures.

He appeared in Stewart's fourth 1939 film, he co-starred Capra and Arthur in the political comedies Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Stewart was thrown into the political arena as an idealist. It received critical acclaim and became the year's third-best-grossing film. "Stewart] ranks first among Hollywood actors, according to the Nation...Now he is mature and gives a challenging part, with many nuances and moments of tragic-comic impact." Stewart's performance was described as "lean, gangling, hopeful to the point of being tongue-tied," later in describing the action hero's emotional ambivalence. Stewart received his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor from the New York Film Critics Circle award, his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

In 1949, Stewart's last screen appearance of 1939 appeared in the Western Destry Rides Again, in which he portrayed a pacifist lawman and Marlene Dietrich, a saloon girl who falls in love with him. It was both technically and commercially profitable. "James Stewart, who had just turned in a top-quality film as Jefferson Smith in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, gives as good a show or better as Thomas Jefferson Destry," TIME magazine said. Stewart had started working in radio and had a strong presence on the Lux Radio Theater, The Screen Guild Theater, and other programs. So well-known, comedians started impersonating him.

In 1940, Stewart and Sullavan were reunited for two films. They were not able to understand each other but became romantic penpals in Ernst Lubitsch's romantic comedy The Shop Around the Corner. It received positive feedback and was a box-office hit in Europe, but it didn't succeed in the United States, where less popular screwball comedies were more popular. It was regarded as the best film of his career by director Lubitsch, and later critics, such as Pauline Kael and Richard Schickel, have praised it highly.

Sullavan and Stewart were among the lovers thrown in limbo as a result of Hitler's ascension to power in the film The Mortal Storm, directed by Frank Borzage. It was one of the first blatantly anti-Nazi films to be produced in Hollywood, but it had "absolutely made no impact" because it did not show the persecution experienced by Jews or other ethnic groups. Despite being well-received by critics, it was not successful at the box office. Stewart began filming No Time for Comedy (1940) with Rosalind Russell ten days after filming The Mortal Storm. Stewart's performance was lauded by critics; Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called Stewart "the best thing in the show"; but the film was still not a box-office hit, despite being praised.

George Cukor's romantic drama The Philadelphia Story, in which he played an obsessive, fast-talking reporter, was her last film to be released in 1940 with the help of her ex-husband (Cary Grant). The film was one of the year's biggest box-office hits, and it received widespread critical attention. "Stewart...contributes the bulk of the show," the New York Herald Tribune said. "In addition, he provides some of the show's most irresistible romantic moments." His achievement earned him his first Academy Award in a competitive category for Best Actor, defeating Henry Fonda, who had voted and with whom he had once met, both of whom he had barely broken in the early 1930s in New York. Stewart himself rated Mr. Smith's work as outstanding, and believed the Academy was recompensing for not giving him the award a year earlier. In addition, Stewart's role was a supporting one, not the male lead. He gave the award to his father, who held it at his hardware store alongside other family awards and military awards.

Stewart appeared in two comedies, including Hedy Lamarr (1941), and Pot o' Gold (1941), which paired him with Hedy Lamarr, and Paulette Goddard (1941), which were both box-office losses. Stewart considered this to be his worst film of his career. Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr, and Lana Turner were the last film he saw before the military service. It was a critical loss but also one of the year's best box-office performers.

Stewart became the first major American movie star to enlist in the United States Army to combat in World War II. His family had deep military roots: both of his grandfathers served in the Civil War, and his father was a soldier in both the Spanish-American War and World War I. He enlisted in February, 1941 after being refused for low weight in November, 1940. On March 22, 1941, he applied for induction as a private in the Air Corps. He was over the age of aviation Cadet training, the traditional path for pilots, navigators, and bombardiers, and so he applied for an Air Corps commission as both a college graduate and a licensed commercial pilot. Stewart was first appointed as a second lieutenant on January 1, 1942.

Stewart made no new commercial films after enlisting, but MGM retained him on a long-term basis. His public appearances were limited to Army Air Forces appearances. The Air Corps and Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy appeared on network radio with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy and on the radio program We Hold These Truths, a tribute to the United States Bill of Rights, which was broadcast a week after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Stewart appeared in a Winning Your Wings, a First Motion Picture Unit short film, to assist in recruiting airmen. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1942, and it debuted in movie theaters around the country in late May, 1942, which resulted in 150,000 new recruits.

Stewart was worried that his celebrity would have relegated him to committees behind the lines. He appealed to his commander and was flown to England as part of the 445th Bombardment Group, and was stationed at RAF Tibenham before heading to RAF Old Buckenham.

Following a trip to Ludwigshafen, Germany, Stewart was promoted to Major. On January 7, 1944, he was posted to Munich, Germany. He was given the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions as deputy commander of the 2d Bombardment Wing, as well as the French Croix de Guerre with palm and the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters. Stewart was appointed to full colonel on March 29, 1945, making him one of the few Americans to ever rise from private to colonel in only four years. Stewart, the presiding officer of a court martial of a pilot and navigator who mistakenly bombed Zürich, Switzerland, at the start of June 1945.

In early fall 1945, Stewart returned to the United States. After the war, he continued to serve in reserve of the Army Air Forces and was one of the 12 founders of the Air Force Association in October, 1945. After the Army Air Forces pulled Stewart out of the Army in 1947, he'd eventually transfer to the reserves of the United States Air Force. He served with the Strategic Air Command and completed transition training as a pilot on the B-47 and B-52 during active duty.

In February, 1957, Stewart was first nominated for brigadier general; however, Senator Margaret Chase Smith first opposed his appointment. "He trains regularly with the Reserve every year," the Washington Daily News reported at the time of the nomination. He was the first pilot of a B-52, and he's been with him for 18 hours. Stewart was appointed to brigadier general on July 23, 1959, becoming America's highest-ranking actor. He served in a B-52 on a B-52 on a Non-duty observer mission in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. He served for 27 years, officially retiring from the Air Force on May 31, 1968, when he attained the mandatory retirement age of 60. On his retirement, he was given the Distinguished Service Medal of the United States Air Force. Stewart seldom spoke about his wartime service, but he did appear in an episode of British television documentary series The World at War (1974), commenting on the destructive 1943 mission against Schweinfurt, Germany, which was described as "tragically violent."

Stewart considered returning to Pennsylvania to manage the family store following his experiences in the war. After selling his roster of actors, including Stewart, to Music Corporation of America (MCA), his former agent Leland Hayward left the entertainment business in 1944. Stewart decided not to renew his MGM deal and instead signed a MCA contract. Frank Capra, who invited him to star in It's a Wonderful Life (1946), the first postwar film for both of them, he later stated that he was given a new start. George Bailey played George Bailey, an up-and-coming small-town man who is increasingly distraught by his regular existence and financial challenges. Clarence Odbody, a "angel, second class" played by Henry Travers, leads him to reassess his life on Christmas Eve. Stewart had doubts about his abilities when filming began, and he considered quitting acting.

Although It's a Wonderful Life was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Stewart's third Best Actor nomination, the newspaper received mixed feedback and was only a modest success at the box office, with production costs failing to account for the product's costs. Many observers found the film too sentimental, though Bosley Crowther said Stewart did a "warmly appealing job" showing that he has improved morale as well as talent during the years he served in the war, and that "in this film we should expect him to be just like Jimmy Stewart." It's a Wonderful Life has come to define Stewart's film career and is widely considered a Christmas film by the American Film Institute, and is one of the top American movies ever made. Stewart's appearance was underappreciated by commentators of the time who did not get "the force and fury" of it, according to Andrew Sarris, "one of the most sublimely histrionic expressions of passion" in his case. Stewart named the film as his personal favorite out of his filmography later this year.

Capra's production company went bankrupt after it was An It's A Wonderful Life, but Stewart continued to be skeptical about his acting abilities. His generation of actors was fading, and a new generation of actors, including Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, and James Dean, will soon reimagine Hollywood. In 1946, Stewart returned to radio dramas; he continued his radio dramas into the 1950s. Frank Fay, the original actor, made a comeback on Broadway to appear in Mary Coyle Chase's Harvey in July, 1947, swapping the original actor for the duration of his holiday. The play had opened to almost universal praise in 1944, and told the tale of Elwood P. Dowd, a wealthy eccentric, whose best friend is an invisible man-sized rabbit and whose relatives are trying to get him committed to a mental hospital. Stewart earned a following in the bizarre play, and although Fay returned to the role in August, the pair decided that Stewart would return to his role again next year. Stewart's first film to be released in 1947 was the William A. Wellman comedy Magic Town, one of the first films to introduce the new science of public opinion polling. Both commercially and critically, it was poorly received.

In 1948, Stewart appeared in four new films. Call Northside 777 was a critically acclaimed film noir, but On Our Merry Way, in which Stewart and Henry Fonda starred jazz players in an ensemble cast, was a critical and commercial failure. Stewart and Joan Fontaine's comedy You Gotta Stay Happy was the most profitable of his postwar films to date. Rope, in which Stewart played the idolized tutor of two young men who commit suicide to display their apparent power, began his relationship with Alfred Hitchcock. Stewart felt pressure to be flawless in his work during long "real-time" shoots; the added pressure culminated in him sleeping less and increasing alcohol intake. Rope received mixed reviews, and Andrew Sarris and Scott Eyman later called him miscast in the role of a Nietzsche-loving philosophy professor. Arthur Laurents, the film's screenwriter, also stated that "the casting of [Stewart] was absolutely destructive." He is not sexual as an actor.

Stewart achieved fame with The Stratton Story (1949), when playing baseball champion Monty Stratton opposite June Allyson. The film was released as the sixth-highest-grossing film of 1949 and was well received by the critics. "The Stratton Story was the best thing that had yet happened to Mr. Stewart in his postwar film career" according to the New York Times. "He does not appear in any other role." In the World War II film Malaya (1949), Stewart reunited with Spencer Tracy on his second release in 1949. It was a commercial failure and received mixed feedback.

Stewart gained a life as the star of Westerns in the 1950s and appeared in numerous films with director Anthony Mann. The first of these was the Universal production Winchester '73 (1950), which Stewart promised to do in exchange for being cast in a Harvey film version. It was also a turning point in Hollywood, as Stewart's handler, Lew Wasserman, broke an innovative deal with Universal, in which Stewart will receive no commission in exchange for a share of the sales. Stewart was also granted the ability to assist with the studio in determining casting and staff selection decisions. Stewart's 1973 earnings were considerably higher than his normal salary, and other actors quickly cashed in on this new way of doing business, which also undermined the decaying studio system.

Stewart selected Mann to direct, and the film gave him the opportunity to reimagine his screen persona through the Western genre. Stewart is a tough, vengeful sharpshooter, the winner of a prized rifle that is stolen and passes through several hands before the showdown between him and his brother is shown. On its debut in the summer, Winchester 73 became a box-office hit, earning Stewart rave reviews. He appeared in another hit Western this summer, Broken Arrow (1950), starring him as an ex-soldier and Native American agent negotiating with the Apache.

The comedy The Jackpot was Stewart's third film release in 1950; it received critical acclaim and was commercially lucrative, but it was still largely ignored by contemporary critics and followers, but it was still a minor film in his repertoire and has largely been ignored by contemporary critics and followers. The film version of Harvey, directed by Henry Koster and with Stewart reprising his stage role, was released in December, 1950. Stewart's performance as well as the film itself were mixed reviews, with critics comparing his appearance with Fay's. "so darling is the acting of James Stewart [...] and the rest is that a virtually brand-new experience is still in store for those who watched the play," Bosley Crowther of The New York Times said, although Variety called him "perfect" in the role. Although John McCarten of New York said that he "didn't bring his part to Frank Fay's shattered image," he does succeed in making plausible the suggestion that Harvey, the rabbit, would accept him as a friend." Stewart later said he was dissatisfied with his appearance, adding, "I played him a little too dreamily, a little too cute-cute." Despite poor box office, Stewart earned his fourth Academy Award nomination as well as his first Golden Globe nomination. Harvey, who appeared on It's a Wonderful Life, earned a following later in life after regular television appearances.

Stewart appeared in only one film released in 1951, playing a scientist in Koster's No Highway in the Sky, one of the first plane disaster films ever made. It was shot in England and became a box office hit in the United Kingdom, but it was unable to capture audiences in the United States. In Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), Stewart appeared as a struggling clown and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Critics were curious as to why Stewart had played such a small, out-of-character role; he said he was inspired by Lon Chaney's ability to disguise himself while allowing his character to emerge. Stewart starred in a critically and commercially flop biopic Carbine Williams (1952) and continued his involvement with Mann in Bend of the River (1952), which was also a commercial and critical success.

In the next two years, Stewart followed Bend of the River in four more collaborations with Mann. With audiences and transformed Stewart's screen persona's appearance into a more mature, ambiguous, and edgier presence, the Naked Spur (1953) and The Far Country (1954) were very popular. He was portrayed in the films as a struggling cowboys seeking revenge in the face of corrupt cattlemen, ranchers, and outlaws; a man who sees violence firsthand and struggles to prevent it. The Stewart-Mann collaborations paved the way for several of the Westerns of the 1950s and are still popular today for their gritty, more realistic portrayion of the classic film style. In addition, Stewart appeared in The Six Shooter, a Western radio show from 1953 to 1954. On Thunder Bay (1953) and The Glenn Miller Story (1954), the former a critically acclaimed biopic in which Mann appeared opposite June Allyson. Stewart received a BAFTA nomination, as well as continuing his portrayals of 'American heroes'.'

Stewart's second collaboration with Hitchcock, The Rear Window, became the eighth highest-grossing film of 1954. The film was produced by Hitchcock and Stewart, who also established Patron Inc. Stewart portrayed a photographer, who is loosely based on Robert Capa, who projects his hopes and fears onto the people he sees out his apartment window when on hiatus due to a fractured leg, and the fact that he has witnessed a murder. Stewart was forced to respond to what his character sees mainly as facial responses because he was limited by his wheelchair. Stewart's portrayal, as well as Mann, revealed new depths to his character, revealing a protagonist confronting his fears and his repressed aspirations. Although the bulk of the initial praise for Rear Window was directed at Hitchcock, actor Vincent Canby later described Stewart's role as "grand" and said that "long-serving Hollywood has never obscured praise for his talent." 1954 was a monumental year in Stewart's career, and he topped Look magazine's list of the most influential movie stars, displacing rival Western actor John Wayne.

Stewart continued his fruitful box-office career with two collaborations with Mann in 1955. The Strategic Air Command paired him with June Allyson in a Cold War propaganda film aimed at educating viewers that extensive military spending was required. Stewart played a central role in its creation, drawing on his experiences in the air force. Despite skepticism over the dry, mechanistic storyline, it became the fifth highest-grossing film of 1955. Both critics and audiences alike applauded Stewart's last Western collaboration, The Man from Laramie, one of the first Westerns to be shot in CinemaScope. Stewart starred in Hitchcock's reimagining of his earlier film The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), following his appearance with Mann. It was still another hit. And though critics adored the first version, Hitchcock himself thought his remake was superior.

Billy Wilder's The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), Stewart's next film, cast him as his childhood hero, Charles Lindbergh. It was a big-budget production with elaborate special effects for the flying sequences, but it received mixed feedback and did not earn back its production costs. Stewart appeared in the Western Night Passage (1957), his ninth film co-operation with Mann, until late in the year. Mann and writer Borden Chase's rift began during the pre-production because Mann was still stuck on the script, which Mann dismissed as weak. Mann left the film and never worked with Stewart again. Mann was replaced by James Mann, and the film opened in 1957 to become a box-office flop. Stewart, who had been tempted by this failure, did not make another Western for four years.

Stewart's association with Hitchcock came to an end the following year, when he appeared as an acrophobic former policeman obsessed with a woman (Kim Novak). Despite that Vertigo has since been dubbed one of Hitchcock's best films and was ranked as the best film ever made by the Sight & Sound critics' poll in 2012, it was met with unsatisfied reviews and poor box-office receipts as a result. Nonetheless, several commentators lauded Stewart for his appearance, with Bosley Crowther noting, "Mr. Stewart, as usual, continues to be tense in a casual manner."

Stewart's failure was attributed to Hitchcock's inability to convince Novak's love interest: he was fifty years old at the time and had begun sporting a silver hairpiece in his films. As a result, Hitchcock starred Cary Grant in his forthcoming film, North by Northwest (1959), which Stewart wished for; Grant was four years older than Stewart but not photographed much younger. Bell, Book and Candle (1958), Stewart's second film release in 1958, paired him with Kim Novak, with Stewart later repeating Hitchcock's argument that he was miscast as the 25-year-old Novak's romantic interest. The film and Stewart's performance received poor feedback, resulting in a box office failure. However, "Stewart's image was so credible and well-established" in the early 1950s, that his choice of role no longer mattered.

Stewart starred in Anatomy of a Murder (1959) and the crime film The FBI Story (1959), which brought an end to the decade for the fifth decade. Despite being a box office failure despite being specifically concerned with topics such as rape, the former received positive feedback. Stewart was recognized for his performance as a small-town prosecutor in a difficult murder trial; Bosley Crowther called it "one of his finest performances of his career." Stewart received his first BAFTA, a New York Film Critics Circle Award, and a Producers Guild of America Award, as well as his fifth and final Academy Award nomination for his performance. Critics were less enthusiastic about Stewart's portrayal of a Depression-era FBI agent, and it was commercially unprofitable. Despite the commercial failure of The FBI Story, Stewart's film came to an end. Stewart was one of the top money-making celebrities for ten years, appearing in the top ten in 1950, 1952-1959, and 1965, according to Quigley's annual poll. In 1955, he ranked at the top of the charts.

Stewart debuted in the 1960 war film The Mountain Road (1960). Despite his claims that it was one of the best scripts he'd ever read, it was a box office loss. In his debut in his films in the Western Two Rode Together (1961), which had thematic echoes of Ford's The Searchers, he began a new director-collaboration with John Ford. He narrated the film X-15 for the USAF in the same year. Stewart had been considered for Atticus Finch in Harper Lee's 1962 film adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird, but he turned it down due to the fact that the story was too tense.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Stewart and Ford's new partnership. The picture was shot in a black-and-white film noir style at Ford's insistence, with Stewart as an East Coast prosecutor who goes against his non-violent values when he is required to face a psychopathic outlaw in a small frontier town. (Lee Marvin) Initial reports were mixed, but the film became a critical favorite over the following decades. In posters and trailers, Stewart was billed above John Wayne, but Wayne received top billing in the film itself. Stewart, Wayne and Ford also worked on a television film for ABC's anthology series Alcoa Premiere, despite starring Wayne portrayed with a television pseudonym ("Michael Morris") for his lengthy appearance in Wayne's brief appearance in "The Colter Craven Story") that year (1962). In How the West Was Won, a Western epic released in the United States in early 1963, Stewart appeared as part of an all-star cast, including Henry Fonda and John Wayne. The film went on to win three Academy Awards and received record box-office revenues.

Stewart signed a multi-movie contract with twentieth Century Fox in 1962. In the family-friendly comedies Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962) with Maureen O'Hara and Take Her Mine (1963), both box-office hits, the first two of these films reunited him with producer Henry Koster. Stewart was nominated for Best Actor at the Berlin International Film Festival, and critics sluggishly dismissed him; the former was panned by the critics. Stewart appeared in John Ford's last Western, Cheyenne Autumn (1964), starring a white-suited Wyatt Earp in a long semi-comedic scene in the middle of the film. The film was unpopular domestically and was quickly forgotten.

Stewart received the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1965, his first honorary award for his work. He appeared in three films this year. The Fox family's Dear Brigitte (1965), which featured French actress Brigitte Bardot as the object of Stewart's nephew's infatuation, was a box-office setback. Shenandoah (1965), a Civil War film, was a commercial success with strong anti-war and humanitarian themes. Stewart's Flight of the Phoenix (1965) continued Stewart's series of aviation-themed films; it was well-received critically, but it was not a box-office flop.

Stewart continued to perform in a series of Westerns over the next decade: The Rare Breed (1966), with Maurice O'Hara (1968) and Henry Fonda, Bandolero. (1968) with Dean Martin, and The Cheyenne Social Club (1970) with Henry Fonda (1970). He was given the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1968. Stewart appeared on Broadway in Harvey as Elwood P. Dowd in 1970; the revival ran until May. He received the Drama Desk Award for his Outstanding Achievement in it.

Stewart appeared in The Jimmy Stewart Show in 1971, the first television sitcom. He worked as a small-town college professor whose adult son goes back to school with his family. Stewart was dissatisfied with the amount of work it took to film the show each week, and was distraught when it was cancelled after only one season due to poor feedback and a lack of viewers. The comedy-drama Fools' Parade, his only film release for 1971, was more widely accepted. "The film belongs to Stewart," Robert Greenspun of The New York Times wrote. "He has never been more stunning." Stewart was inducted into the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City in 1972 for his contributions to Western films.

In 1972, Stewart appeared on television in Harvey as part of NBC's Hall of Fame program and later appeared in the CBS mystery series Hawkins. Stewart, who played a small-town attorney probing unethical cases, was named in Anatomy of a Murder. Despite this, Hawkins struggled to attract a large audience, perhaps because it switched with Shaft, which had a dramatically different audience, and was cancelled after one season. Stewart has also appeared on Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show, sharing poems he had written at various times in his life. Jimmy Stewart and His Poems (1989) was later collected into a short collection.

Stewart returned to film in John Wayne's last film, The Shooter (1976), as a doctor giving Wayne's gunfighter a terminal cancer diagnosis. Stewart had a hearing impairment by this time, which affected his ability to hear his cues and culminated in him repeatedly flubbing his lines; his vanity would not encourage him to mention it or wear a hearing aid. In 1979, Stewart was offered Howard Beale in Network (1976), but he turned down the opportunity due to its explicit language. Rather, he appeared in supporting roles in Airport '77 (1977), Jack Lemmon's remake of The Big Sleep (1978) with Robert Mitchum as Philip Marlowe, and The Magic of Lassie (1978). Despite mixed reviews, Airport'77 was a box-office hit, but the two other films were commercial and critical failures. In his review of The Big Sleep, Harry Haun of New York wrote that it was "very sad" to see James Stewart so earnestly with stuff that "merely isn't there." On the last episode of The Carol Burnett Show in March 1978, Stewart made a memorable cameo appearance, surprising Burnett, a lifelong Stewart fan.

Stewart's last live-action feature film was The Green Horizon (1980), directed by Susumu Hani. Stewart appeared in the film because it promoted wildlife conservation and allowed his family to travel with him to Kenya. Stewart semi-retired from acting in the 1980s. Norman Thayer was offered the role in On Golden Pond (1981), but he turned down because he hated the film's father-daughter relationship; his friend, Henry Fonda, took the lead. Mr. Krueger's Christmas (1980), produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, enabled him to fulfill a lifelong desire to lead the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Right of Way (1983), an HBO drama starring Bette Davis. In 1986, he appeared in the historic miniseries North and South, and in 1980s and 1990s, he did voiceover duties for Campbell's Soups. In the animated film An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991), Stewart's last film appearance was voicing Sheriff Wylie Burp.

Throughout the Reagan period, Stewart remained in the public eye due to his frequent visits to the White House. With Rear Window and Vertigo in particular lauded by film critics, the re-release of Hitchcock films earned him renewed attention. Several honorary film industry awards have been given to Stewart during his career: an American Film Institute award in 1980, a Silver Bear in 1982, Kennedy Center Honors in 1983, an Academy Honorary Award in 1985, and the National Board of Review and Film Society of Lincoln Center's Chaplin Award in 1990. Former actor Cary Grant "for his 50 years of memorable appearances for his high hopes both on and off the screen, as well as the respect and admiration of his coworkers." In addition, Stewart received the highest civilian award in the United States, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, "for his contributions to the fields of the performing arts, entertainment, and public service" in 1985.

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