The marriage lasted until McLean's death in 1994; Stewart died of a pulmonary embolism three years later. ==Early life== James Maitland Stewart was born on May 20, 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, the eldest child and only son born to Elizabeth Ruth (née Jackson; 1875–1953) and Alexander Maitland Stewart (1872–1962).
James Maitland "Jimmy" Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor.
The marriage lasted until McLean's death in 1994; Stewart died of a pulmonary embolism three years later. ==Early life== James Maitland Stewart was born on May 20, 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, the eldest child and only son born to Elizabeth Ruth (née Jackson; 1875–1953) and Alexander Maitland Stewart (1872–1962).
According to his teachers, this was not from a lack of intelligence, but due to 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 if he attended public high school.
Due to scarlet fever that turned into a kidney infection, he had to take time out from school in 1927, which delayed his graduation until 1928.
Stewart also made his first onstage appearance at Mercersburg, as Buquet in the play The Wolves in 1928.
Due to scarlet fever that turned into a kidney infection, he had to take time out from school in 1927, which delayed his graduation until 1928.
He remained passionate about aviation, with his interest enhanced by Charles Lindbergh's first solo transatlantic flight, but abandoned visions of becoming a pilot when his father steered him towards Princeton. Stewart 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.
After graduating in 1932, he began a career as a stage actor, appearing on Broadway and in summer stock productions.
He remained passionate about aviation, with his interest enhanced by Charles Lindbergh's first solo transatlantic flight, but abandoned visions of becoming a pilot when his father steered him towards Princeton. Stewart 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.
Upon his graduation in 1932, he was awarded a scholarship for graduate studies in architecture for his thesis on an airport design, but chose instead to join University Players, an intercollegiate summer stock company performing in West Falmouth, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod. ==Career== ===Theater and early film roles, 1932—1937=== Stewart performed in bit parts in the University Players' productions in Cape Cod during the summer of 1932.
It premiered at the Martin Beck Theater in March 1934.
Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991.
In 1935, he landed his first of several supporting roles in movies and in 1938 he had his big breakthrough in Frank Capra's ensemble comedy You Can't Take It with You.
In the fall, he again received excellent reviews for his role in Divided by Three at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, which he followed with the modestly successful Page Miss Glory and the critical failure A Journey By Night in spring 1935. Soon after A Journey By Night ended, Stewart signed a seven-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), orchestrated by talent scout Bill Grady, who had been tracking Stewart's career since seeing him perform in Princeton.
Stewart [and the rest of the cast] perform as pleasantly as possible." Stewart's last three film releases of 1936 were all box-office successes.
His performance in the latter was not well-received: The New York Times stated that his "singing and dancing will (fortunately) never win him a song-and-dance-man classification," and Variety called "his singing and dancing [...] rather painful on their own," although it otherwise found Stewart aptly cast in an "assignment [that] calls for a shy youth." Stewart's last film to be released in 1936, After the Thin Man, featured him as a murderer.
The production was shut down for months in 1937 as Stewart recovered from an undisclosed illness, during which he was hospitalized.
In 1935, he landed his first of several supporting roles in movies and in 1938 he had his big breakthrough in Frank Capra's ensemble comedy You Can't Take It with You.
It was a critical and commercial success, and showed Stewart's talent for performing in romantic comedies; The New York Herald called him "one of the most knowing and engaging young actors appearing on the screen at present." Stewart's third film release of 1938, the First World War drama The Shopworn Angel, saw him collaborate again with Margaret Sullavan.
The film was also critically successful, but while Variety wrote that the performances of Stewart and Arthur garnered "much of the laughs," most of the critical acclaim went to Lionel Barrymore and Edward Arnold. In contrast to the success of You Can't Take It With You, Stewart's first three film releases of 1939 were all commercial disappointments.
Regardless, the film received favorable reviews, with Newsweek writing that Stewart and Lombard were "perfectly cast in the leading roles." The other two films, The Ice Follies of 1939 and It's a Wonderful World, were critical failures. Stewart's fourth 1939 film saw him work again with Capra and Jean Arthur in the political comedy-drama Mr.
So well-known had his slow drawl become that comedians began impersonating him. Stewart and Sullavan reunited for two films in 1940.
Critics complimented Stewart's performance; Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called Stewart "the best thing in the show," yet the film was again not a box-office success. Stewart's final film to be released in 1940 was George Cukor's romantic comedy The Philadelphia Story, in which he played an intrusive, fast-talking reporter sent to cover the wedding of a socialite (Katharine Hepburn) with the help of her ex-husband (Cary Grant).
After first being rejected for low weight in November 1940, he successfully enlisted in February 1941.
He won his only Academy Award for Best Actor for his work in the comedy The Philadelphia Story (1940), which also starred Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. A licensed amateur pilot, Stewart enlisted as a private in the Army Air Corps soon after the United States entered the Second World War in 1941.
After first being rejected for low weight in November 1940, he successfully enlisted in February 1941.
As an experienced amateur pilot, he reported for induction as a private in the Air Corps on March 22, 1941.
Stewart received his commission as a second lieutenant on January 1, 1942. After enlisting, Stewart made no new commercial films, although he remained under contract to MGM.
Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1942, it appeared in movie theaters nationwide beginning in late May 1942 and resulted in 150,000 new recruits. Stewart was concerned that his celebrity status would relegate him to duties behind the lines.
After spending over a year training pilots at Kirtland Army Airfield in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he appealed to his commander and was sent to England as part of the 445th Bombardment Group, to pilot a B-24 Liberator, in November 1943. Stewart was promoted to major following a mission to Ludwigshafen, Germany, on January 7, 1944.
Stewart rarely spoke about his wartime service, but did appear in an episode of the British television documentary series The World at War (1974), commenting on the disastrous 1943 mission against Schweinfurt, Germany.
After spending over a year training pilots at Kirtland Army Airfield in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he appealed to his commander and was sent to England as part of the 445th Bombardment Group, to pilot a B-24 Liberator, in November 1943. Stewart was promoted to major following a mission to Ludwigshafen, Germany, on January 7, 1944.
His former agent Leland Hayward had also left the talent business in 1944 after selling his roster of stars, including Stewart, to Music Corporation of America (MCA).
The play had opened to nearly universal praise in 1944, and told the story of Elwood P.
Stewart was promoted to full colonel on March 29, 1945, becoming one of the few Americans to ever rise from private to colonel in only four years.
At the beginning of June 1945, Stewart was the presiding officer of the court martial of a pilot and navigator who accidentally bombed Zurich, Switzerland. Stewart returned to the United States in early fall 1945.
He continued to play a role in reserve of the Army Air Forces after the war, and was also one of the 12 founders of the Air Force Association in October 1945.
Stewart returned to making radio dramas in 1946; he continued this work between films until the mid-1950s.
Stewart would eventually transfer to the reserves of the United States Air Force after the Army Air Forces split from the Army in 1947.
He also made a comeback on Broadway to star in Mary Coyle Chase's Harvey in July 1947, replacing the original star Frank Fay for the duration of his vacation.
Stewart's only film to be released in 1947 was the William A.
It was poorly received both commercially and critically. Stewart appeared in four new film releases in 1948.
In 1949, he married former model Gloria Hatrick McLean.
It became the sixth-highest-grossing film of 1949 and was well received by the critics.
Stewart in his post-war film career...he gives such a winning performance that it is almost impossible to imagine any one else playing the role." Stewart's other 1949 release saw him reunited with Spencer Tracy in the World War II film Malaya (1949).
In the 1950s, Stewart played darker, more morally ambiguous characters in movies directed by Anthony Mann, including Winchester '73 (1950), The Glenn Miller Story (1954) and The Naked Spur (1953), and by Alfred Hitchcock in Rope (1948), Rear Window (1954), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), and Vertigo (1958).
His other films in the 1950s included the Broadway adaptation Harvey (1950) and the courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder (1959), both of which landed him Academy Award nominations.
It was a commercial failure and received mixed reviews. ===Career renewal: Westerns and suspense films (1950–1959)=== In the 1950s, Stewart experienced a career renewal as the star of Westerns and collaborated on several films with director Anthony Mann.
He also starred in another successful Western that summer, Broken Arrow (1950), which featured him as an ex-soldier and Native American agent making peace with the Apache. Stewart's third film release of 1950 was the comedy The Jackpot; it received critical acclaim and was commercially successful, but was a minor film in his repertoire and has largely been forgotten by contemporary critics and fans.
In December 1950, the screen adaptation of Harvey was released, directed by Henry Koster and with Stewart reprising his role.
The Stewart–Mann collaborations laid the foundation for many of the Westerns of the 1950s and remain popular today for their grittier, more realistic depiction of the classic movie genre.
Similar to It's a Wonderful Life, Harvey achieved popularity later, after frequent television showings. Stewart appeared in only one film released in 1951, playing a scientist in Koster's British production No Highway in the Sky, which was one of the first airplane disaster films ever made.
In addition, Stewart starred in the Western radio show The Six Shooter for its one-season run from 1953 to 1954.
In addition, Stewart starred in the Western radio show The Six Shooter for its one-season run from 1953 to 1954.
It garnered Stewart a BAFTA nomination, and continued his portrayals of 'American heroes'. Stewart's second collaboration with Hitchcock, the thriller Rear Window, became the third highest-grossing film of 1954.
Although most of the initial acclaim for Rear Window was directed towards Hitchcock, critic Vincent Canby later described Stewart's performance in it as "grand" and stated that "longtime star status in Hollywood has always obscured recognition of his talent." 1954 was a landmark year in Stewart's career in terms of audience success, and he topped
During active duty periods he served with the Strategic Air Command and completed transition training as a pilot on the B-47 and B-52. Stewart was first nominated for promotion to brigadier general in February 1957, however his promotion was initially opposed by Senator Margaret Chase Smith.
Air Force Reserve and was promoted to brigadier general in 1959.
He's had 18 hours as first pilot of a B-52." On July 23, 1959, Stewart was promoted to brigadier general, becoming the highest-ranking actor in American military history.
He appeared in many popular family comedies during the 1960s.
During the Vietnam War, he flew as a non-duty observer in a B-52 on an Arc Light bombing mission in February 1966.
He retired in 1968 and was awarded the United States Air Force Distinguished Service Medal.
He served for 27 years, officially retiring from the Air Force on May 31, 1968, when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 60.
After a brief venture into television acting, Stewart semi-retired by the 1980s.
President Ronald Reagan would later promote Stewart to the rank of major general in the Air Force retired list, in 1985. Stewart's first postwar role was as George Bailey in Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946).
He received many honorary awards, including an Academy Honorary Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, both in 1985. Stewart remained unmarried until his 40s and was dubbed "The Great American Bachelor" by the press.
In 1985, Stewart was promoted to rank of major general on the Air Force retired list. ===Postwar films (1946–1949)=== After his experiences in the war, Stewart considered returning to Pennsylvania to run the family store.
Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991.
The marriage lasted until McLean's death in 1994; Stewart died of a pulmonary embolism three years later. ==Early life== James Maitland Stewart was born on May 20, 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, the eldest child and only son born to Elizabeth Ruth (née Jackson; 1875–1953) and Alexander Maitland Stewart (1872–1962).
James Maitland "Jimmy" Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor.
In 1999, the American Film Institute (AFI) ranked him third on its list of the greatest American male actors. Born and raised in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Stewart started acting while studying at Princeton University.
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