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James Maitland Stewart was born on May 20, 1908 in Indiana, Pennsylvania, to Elizabeth Ruth (Johnson) and Alexander Maitland Stewart, who owned a hardware store. He was of Scottish, Ulster-Scots, and some English, descent. Stewart 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.
Stewart graduated from Princeton University in 1932 with a degree in architecture. He then became part of the University Players, a summer stock company in Falmouth, Massachusetts. There he met Henry Fonda, and the two became lifelong friends. During the years 1932–33, Stewart appeared in several unsuccessful Broadway plays—starting with Carrie Nation—though he was usually singled out for praise by New York critics. These positive reviews led to a motion-picture contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1934; after a couple of uncredited bit parts, he made his film debut in The Murder Man (1935) with Spencer Tracy.
James Stewart was an American actor and military pilot. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morality he portrayed both on and off the screen, he epitomized the "American ideal" in the twentieth century. In 1999, the American Film Institute (AFI) ranked him third on its list of the greatest American male actors.
Stewart was loaned to Columbia for two Frank Capra films that proved pivotal in his career: You Can’t Take It with You (1938) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), the latter of which brought him his first Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of a shy idealistic young senator fighting corruption in Congress. He won an Oscar the following year for another film classic, The Philadelphia Story (1940).
James Stewart with family
His first film after the war was Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), and his performance as George Bailey, an honest banker beset by personal and financial woes, earned Stewart his third Oscar nomination. Though the film generated mediocre box office at the time of its release, it has since become one of the most beloved films of all time, largely because of its numerous television showings since the 1970s.
As he approached age 40, it was clear that Stewart could no longer maintain the “naive young innocent” persona he had established in his prewar films. His collaborations with directors Alfred Hitchcock and Anthony Mann helped toughen his image and broaden his appeal. Of Stewart’s Hitchcock films, the experimental Rope (1948) and The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) are well regarded, and Rear Window (1954) and Vertigo (1958) rank as masterpieces. For Hitchcock, Stewart embodied an American Everyman, albeit one whose private quirks and obsessions threatened a tragic outcome. The films Stewart made for Mann proved the actor capable of rugged western roles, especially in the classics Winchester ’73 (1950) and The Man from Laramie (1955). Stewart and Mann collaborated on eight films, including six westerns and the sentimental biopic The Glenn Miller Story (1954), which was one of Stewart’s most popular movies.
During the late 1940s Stewart was among several actors who enjoyed success on Broadway as the ingratiating inebriate Elwood P. Dowd—whose best friend is an invisible six-foot rabbit—in Mary Chase’s Harvey. It became one of the actor’s signature roles when the play was adapted for the screen in 1950, garnering another Oscar nomination for Stewart. He repeated the role in the show’s 1970 Broadway revival and in a 1972 television movie. Stewart’s other well-regarded films included The Stratton Story (1949), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), Anatomy of a Murder (1959; Academy Award nomination), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), and The Flight of the Phoenix (1965).
James and Gloria
James with family
Personal life
Stewart's first interaction with his future wife, Gloria Hatrick McLean, was at Keenan Wynn's Christmas party in 1947. He had crashed the party and became inebriated, leaving a poor impression of himself with Hatrick. A year later, Gary Cooper and his wife Veronica invited Hatrick and Stewart to a dinner party, and the two began dating. A former model, Hatrick was divorced with two children.Stewart and Hatrick were married at Brentwood Presbyterian Church on August 9, 1949, and remained married until her death from lung cancer in 1994.
The couple purchased a home in Beverly Hills in 1951, where they resided for the rest of their lives. They also owned the Winecup Gamble Ranch in Nevada from 1953 to 1957. Stewart adopted Gloria's two sons, Ronald (1944–1969) and Michael (born 1946), and with Gloria he had twin daughters, Judy and Kelly, on May 7, 1951. Ronald was killed in action in Vietnam on June 8, 1969, at the age of 24, while serving as a lieutenant in the Marine Corps.
On June 25, 1997, a thrombosis formed in his right leg, leading to a pulmonary embolism, and a week later on July 2, 1997, surrounded by his children, James Stewart died at age 89 at his home in Beverly Hills, California. His last words to his family were, "I'm going to be with Gloria now".
ACADEMY AWARDS FOR MOTIONS PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES
1940- Best Actor Academy Award Nomination for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
1941- WON Best Actor Academy Award for The Philadelphia Story
1946- Best Actor Academy Award Nomination for It’s A Wonderful Life
1950- Best Actor Academy Award Nomination for Harvey
1960- Best Actor Academy Award Nomination for Anatomy of a Murder
1985- WON the Lifetime Achievement Honorary Academy Award
1951- Best Actor Golden Globe in a Drama Nomination for Harvey
1963- Best Actor Golden Globe in a Musical or Comedy Nomination for Mr. Hobbs Takes A Vacation
1965- WON the Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement
1974- WON Best TV Actor Golden Globe in a Drama for Hawkins
BAFTA AWARDS:
1955- Best Foreign Actor Nomination for The Glenn Miller Story
1960- Best Foreign Actor Nomination for Anatomy of a Murder
