James Stewart

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Birth Name: James Maitland Stewart

Born: 20 May 1908 Died: 2 July 1997

Country of origin: United States

Height: 6' 3"

Relationship Status: Married

Partner: Gloria Stewart

Lists

440 votes

The evolution of... (745 items)
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Published 15 years, 7 months ago

66 comments

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Listal's 100 best Actors *UPDATED* (100 items)
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Published 14 years, 10 months ago

228 comments

178 votes

I'm Loving That Face of Yours (54 items)
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Published 15 years, 10 months ago

19 comments

160 votes

Actors/Actresses: Roles they refused or didn't get (40 items)
list by Coby

Published 15 years, 2 months ago

21 comments

132 votes

Famous Actors Final Roles are... Animated? (31 items)
list by Stehako

Published 9 years, 6 months ago

16 comments

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James Stewart Videos

Funniest Joke I Ever Heard 1984 Jimmy Stewart

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Added 13 years ago

James Stewart receiving an Honorary Oscar®

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Added 17 years ago

James Stewart - The legend of Shenandoah

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Added 13 years ago

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Photos

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Description: James Maitland "Jimmy" Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and persona. James Maitland Stewart was born on 20 May 1908 in Indiana, Pennsylvania where his father owned a hardware store. He was educated at a local prep school, Mercersburg Academy, where he was a keen athlete (football and track), musician (singing and accordion playing) and sometime actor. He won a place at Princeton in 1929 where he studied architecture with some success and became further involved with the performing arts as a musician and actor with the University Players. After graduation, engagements w James Maitland "Jimmy" Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and persona.

James Maitland Stewart was born on 20 May 1908 in Indiana, Pennsylvania where his father owned a hardware store. He was educated at a local prep school, Mercersburg Academy, where he was a keen athlete (football and track), musician (singing and accordion playing) and sometime actor. He won a place at Princeton in 1929 where he studied architecture with some success and became further involved with the performing arts as a musician and actor with the University Players.

After graduation, engagements with the University Players took him around the US North East, including a run on Broadway in 1932 but work dried up as the Great Depression deepened and it wasn't until 1934, when he followed his friend Henry Fonda to Hollywood, that things began to pick up.

After his first screen appearance in Art Trouble (1934), he worked for a time for MGM as a contract player and slowly began making a name for himself in increasingly high-profile roles throughout the rest of the 1930s. His famous collaborations with Frank Capra, in You Can't Take It with You (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and, after World War II, It's a Wonderful Life (1946) helped to launch his career as a star and to establish his screen persona as the likable everyman.

Having learned to fly in 1935, he was drafted into the US Army as a private in 1940 (after twice failing the medical for being underweight) and during the course of World War II rose to the rank of Colonel, first as an instructor at home in the US, and later on combat missions in Europe. He remained involved with the US Air Force Reserve after the war and retired in 1959 as a Brigadier General.

His acting career took off properly after the war and during the course of his long professional life he had roles in some of Hollywood's best remembered films, starring in a string of Westerns (bringing his "everyman" qualities to movies like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)), biopics (The Stratton Story (1949), The Glenn Miller Story (1954) and The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), for instance) thrillers (most notably his frequent collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock) and even some screwball comedies .

He continued to work into the 1990s and died at the age of 89 in 1997. ... (more)