James Stewart

James Maitland Stewart was born on May 20, 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, the eldest child of Elizabeth Ruth Jackson and Alexander Maitland Stewart. He had two younger sisters, Mary and Virginia. The Stewart family, of Scottish and Ulster-Scots ancestry, had lived in Pennsylvania for many generations. His father operated the J. M. Stewart and Company Hardware Store and hoped his son would eventually take it over, as was family tradition. Stewart was raised a Presbyterian and remained a devout churchgoer for much of his life. His mother was a pianist, and music figured prominently in the household. When a customer could not pay a store bill, Stewart's father accepted an accordion as payment, and Stewart learned to play it with help from a local barber; the instrument remained a fixture offstage throughout his acting career. As a child, Stewart spent considerable time building model airplanes and pursuing an early passion for aviation, though his father eventually steered him toward Princeton University.

Stewart attended the Wilson Model School for primary and junior high school before enrolling at Mercersburg Academy in the fall of 1923, where his father sent him to improve his chances of Princeton admission. At Mercersburg he competed as a high jumper on the track team, served as art editor of the school yearbook, participated in the glee club, and joined the John Marshall Literary Society. A bout of scarlet fever that developed into a kidney infection in 1927 delayed his graduation until 1928. He also made his first stage appearance at Mercersburg that year, playing Buquet in The Wolves. During summer breaks he worked as a brick loader and as a magician's assistant.

Stewart enrolled at Princeton in 1928 as a member of the class of 1932, majoring in architecture and joining the Princeton Charter Club. He was drawn to the school's drama and music organizations, including the Princeton Triangle Club. Upon graduating in 1932, he was offered a scholarship for graduate studies in architecture based on a thesis he wrote on an airport terminal design, but declined it in favor of joining the University Players, an intercollegiate summer stock company based in West Falmouth, Massachusetts. The company's directors included Joshua Logan, Bretaigne Windust, and Charles Leatherbee, and its members included Henry Fonda and Margaret Sullavan, both of whom became close friends of Stewart's.

At the close of the 1932 summer season, Stewart moved to New York with Logan, Myron McCormick, and Fonda. He made his Broadway debut that same year in the brief run of Carry Nation, and shortly afterward appeared alongside McCormick as a chauffeur in the comedy Goodbye Again, earning a notice from The New Yorker for his three-minute appearance. Following Goodbye Again's seven-month run, Stewart took a stage manager position in Boston but was let go after repeatedly missing cues. Back in New York, he took small parts in Spring in Autumn and All Good Americans, both of which closed after short runs. He was then cast in the lead role of Yellow Jack, playing a soldier subjected to a yellow fever experiment, which premiered at the Martin Beck Theater in March 1934 and earned him unanimous critical praise before closing in June due to poor audience attendance. That fall he received strong reviews for Divided by Three at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. In the spring of 1935 he appeared in Page Miss Glory and A Journey by Night, both of which are among his verified Broadway credits. Shortly after A Journey by Night closed, Stewart signed a seven-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

His film career spanned from 1935 to 1991, encompassing approximately 80 pictures. His first Hollywood role was a supporting part in the Spencer Tracy vehicle The Murder Man in 1935. His breakthrough came with Frank Capra's ensemble comedy You Can't Take It with You in 1938, followed by Capra's political comedy Mr. Smith Goes to Washington in 1939 and Ernst Lubitsch's romantic comedy The Shop Around the Corner in 1940. That same year, Stewart received the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in George Cukor's The Philadelphia Story. After returning from World War II, he starred in Capra's It's a Wonderful Life in 1946, a film that was a commercial and critical disappointment upon release but became widely celebrated after its copyright expired in the early 1970s. He subsequently appeared in four films directed by Alfred Hitchcock: Rope in 1948, Rear Window in 1954, The Man Who Knew Too Much in 1956, and Vertigo in 1958. Additional notable film credits include Anatomy of a Murder in 1959 and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance in 1962. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Stewart third on its list of the greatest American male actors of all time.

Stewart's military service ran parallel to his entertainment career. A licensed private pilot before the war, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces and sought active combat duty. He rose to serve as deputy commanding officer of the 2nd Bombardment Wing and commanded the 703d Bombardment Squadron from 1941 to 1947. He subsequently transferred to the Air Force Reserve, holding various command positions until his retirement in 1968 at the rank of brigadier general.

Stewart's Broadway career extended from 1932 to 1975. In addition to his early stage work, he starred in Harvey and appeared in A Gala Tribute to Joshua Logan. He received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance in 1970. Among the honors he accumulated over his career were the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1980, the Kennedy Center Honor in 1983, and both the Academy Honorary Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985. James Maitland Stewart died on July 2, 1997.