Of all the actors who ever appeared on the screen, Jimmy Stewart seemed least like an actor. It wasn't that he couldn't act, but that he rarely seemed to be acting at all. Especially in roles like Jefferson Smith, or Elwood P. Dowd, or George Bailey, he appeared to be exactly who he was in the movie. It wasn't until you saw him in films like The Greatest Show on Earth or Winchester '73 that you realized he really could be somebody other than the earnest, lovable, sincere characters with whom he appeared most comfortable. It was a quality that made him beloved by fans, and very successful for many years.
Born in Indiana, Pennsylvania on May 20, 1908 and once slated to be an architect, James Stewart began acting on the stage in 1932 after studying at Princeton, met Josh Logan, Henry Fonda and Margaret Sullavan while part of the University Players in Massachusetts, went to Hollywood in 1935, and by the end of the decade was a star, appearing in You Can't Take it With You (1938) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), to name the most notable. The latter won him the first of five Oscar nominations (he won once for The Philadelphia Story).
Those two films were the first of his several successful associations with Frank Capra, It's a Wonderful Life being the most memorable. He also worked with Hitchcock several times, in Rope (1948), Rear Window (1954), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), and Vertigo (1958), and with John Ford twice, in Two Rode Together (1961) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) -- just two of the many Westerns for which he became known during the 60s and 70s.
Stewart has the distinction of having held the highest military rank of any actor, rising to the rank of Colonel in the Air Force during WWII. He later retired from the Air Force reserve as a Brigadier General. He was also an Eagle Scout, further enhancing his image as somebody who actually was the straight-arrow charactor he often portrayed on the screen.
In his later years he became an elder statesman of the theatre, and was showered with honors, including an AFI Lifetime Achievement Award in 1980, Kennedy Center honors in 1983, and an honorary Oscar in 1985. He was named Best Classic Actor of the 20th Century in an Entertainment Weekly on-line poll in 1999, and appeared third on the AFI's list of 50 greatest actors (after Humphrey Bogart and Cary Grant).
