Home> Facts and Trivia > Stars > James Stewart
James Stewart Facts
| Sign | Taurus |
| Born |
May 20, 1908 Indiana, PA |
| Died |
Jul 2, 1997 Los Angeles, CA |
| Age | Died at 89 |
| Total Facts | 112 |
Gary Cooper considered Stewart to be his closest friend.
Daniel Day-Lewis and Gary Oldman, two English actors each with very different styles and personas from Stewart, have both cited him as a major influence.
A true "regular guy," he genuinely disliked the glamor often basked in by the Hollywood stars, avoiding expensive clothes and fancy cars.
Accepted his friend Gary Cooper's honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in 1961, because Cooper was dying of cancer.
According to the curator of the James Stewart Museum, he was exactly 6' 3" tall. His military physical would have indicated that he was 6' 3", since he was 138 lb., five pounds under the 143 required for his enlistment eligibility. The weight / height requirement for the U.S. Army Air Forces before October 1999 was a 143 pound minimum for a man of 6' 3" in height. By the late 1950s, he reported that his weight was up to 160 pounds.
According to the Monday, March 31, 1941 issue of 'Time' Magazine, Stewart was drafted into the Army. Prior to induction, he flew in a private plane to California and the next day braved a large crowd of female admirers to board a Los Angeles trolley car that took him and other draftees off to be inducted for a year hitch in the Army. 'Time' said that Stewart's salary would drop to $21 a month from $6,000.
African-American actor 'Woody Strode (I)' (Stewart's co-star in Two Rode Together (1961) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)) praised Stewart as "one of the nicest men you'll ever meet anywhere in the world".
After Boris Yeltsin seized power in Russia in December 1991, Stewart was involved in arranging for It's a Wonderful Life (1946) to be screened on Russian television.
After making The Magic of Lassie (1978), Stewart went into semi-retirement from acting. During the next few years he suffered from many health problems including heart disease, skin cancer, deafness, and senility.
Allegedly hated the nickname "Jimmy".
Along with Robert De Niro and Harrison Ford, Stewart has 8 films in the Imdb's Top 250 movie list.
An early interest in flying led Stewart to gain his Private Pilot certificate in 1935 and Commercial Pilot certificate in 1938. He often flew cross-country to visit his parents in Pennsylvania, navigating by the railroad tracks. Nearly two years before the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Stewart had accumulated over 400 hours of flying time.
As of the 5th edition of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (edited by Steven Jay Schneider), Stewart is runner-up as the most represented leading actor, by 13 films, behind Robert De Niro. Included are the Stewart films Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Destry Rides Again (1939), The Mortal Storm (1940), The Philadelphia Story (1940), It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Rope (1948), Winchester '73 (1950), The Naked Spur (1953), Rear Window (1954), The Man from Laramie (1955), Vertigo (1958), Anatomy of a Murder (1959) and <a href="films.php?film_id=1282&film_title=The+
Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian award, by his friend President Ronald Reagan at the White House in 1985.
Both of Jimmy Stewart's grandfathers fought in the Civil War, and his father served during both the Spanish-American War and World War I.
Burt Reynolds was neighbors of him, and a life-long devoted fan. In an interview for the TC Palm in 2010, Reynolds said how much he admired Stewart and that he was always gracious and kind towards him and others. "So modest, so wonderful", Reynolds said. "He was more than an actor. He was every man you wish you could be", Reynolds said.
Campaigned for Richard Nixon in the 1968 and 1972 Presidential elections.
Deliberately exaggerated his accent in films after he returned from World War II, because several directors told him he needed to create a persona in order to sell his films to the public, particularly with the rising popularity of television.
Despite having been a decorated war hero in World War II, he declined to talk about this, in part because of the traumatic experiences he had in killing others and watching friends die. The roles he chose after returning from the war were generally darker, some say because he was hardened by combat.
During the 1980s he was one of the most prominent critics of the colorization of old movies, even testifying before a Congressional committee about what he called the "denaturing" of It's a Wonderful Life (1946). "If these color-happy folks are so concerned about the audience," he said, "let them put their millions of dollars into new films, or let them remake old stories if they see fit, but let our great film artists and films live in peace. I urge everyone in the creative community to join in our efforts to discourage this terrible process.".
Fell out with Anthony Mann during the shooting of Night Passage (1957), resulting in Mann being replaced (by James Neilson). A year later Mann shot Man of the West (1958), regarded by many as his greatest western of all and totally suited to Stewart, but with Gary Cooper in the lead role.
Following the release of Winchester '73 (1950), he appeared on the list of Top 10 Stars at the US box office for the first time, a position he retained until the end of the decade.
He actively sought the role of Charles Lindbergh in The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), even though the producers thought that he was far too old for the part. He did this simply because he admired Lindbergh so much.
He actively supported the presidential campaign of Senator Barry Goldwater in 1964, after Goldwater had voted against the Civil Rights Act.
He became good friends with the actress Maureen O'Hara during the filming of _Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962)_.
He considered himself to be miscast in Vertigo (1958) and Bell Book and Candle (1958).
He had a dislike of Hollywood war movies, explaining that they were hardly ever accurate. During his career he only starred in two war films - Strategic Air Command (1955) and The Mountain Road (1960).
He had four children - his twin daughters 'Judy Stewart-Merrill' and 'Kelly Stewart-Harcourt', plus two stepchildren. Kelly is also known as Kelly Stewart. The girls appeared with their parents in "Password All-Stars" (1961). He adopted his wife's two sons from her previous marriage - Ronald (age five) and Michael (age two)- as soon as they were married. Ronald was killed in action while serving in the Vietnam War, on Sunday, June 8, 1969.
He held the highest active military rank of any actor in history. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army Air Forces, and he rose to the rank of colonel. After the war, he continued serving in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, ultimately becoming a brigadier general. Ed McMahon was also commissioned as a brigadier general in the California Air National Guard in 1966, and he continued to serve after he began his acting career. Two former actors outranked him: John Ford was an actor before becoming a director, and he became rear admiral in the U.S. Naval Reserve. President Ronald Reagan became the U.S. Commander-in-Chief, but he had made his last theatrical TV appearance in 1965.
He never had any cosmetic surgery, unlike his friends Gary Cooper, Henry Fonda, and John Wayne.
He once said the public was his biggest critic, and that if they didn't like his performance, then neither did he.
He remained faithful to his wife Gloria Stewart throughout their marriage. While this may seem ordinary, it was rare in Hollywood for male stars to stay devoted to their wives, with many of his colleagues, such as Gary Cooper, John Wayne, and his friend Henry Fonda, having had a series of infidelities.
He stopped playing the romantic lead when he was 50 because he felt embarrassed playing Kim Novak's lover in Vertigo (1958) and Bell Book and Candle (1958), since she was half his age.
He was a frequent guest at the White House throughout the 1980s, addressing the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan on Tuesday, January 20th, 1981.
He was partly of Northern Irish heritage from the County Antrim.
He was the first movie star to enter the service for World War II, joining a year before Pearl Harbor was bombed. He was initially refused entry into the Air Force because he weighed 5 pounds less than the required 148 pounds, but he talked the recruitment officer into ignoring the test. He eventually became a colonel(active duty) and then a brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. He had earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, the French Croix de Guerre, and other decorations. He served in the Air Force Reserve before retiring as a brigadier general. (Walter Matthau was a sergeant in his unit active-duty unit duuring World War II).
He was voted the 9th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Premiere Magazine.
He wore the same hat in all of his westerns. John Ford complained on the set of Two Rode Together (1961): "Great, now I have actors with hat approval!".
His best friend was probably Henry Fonda, whom he met while at acting camp. Early on they got into a fistfight over politics (Stewart was a very conservative Republican, Fonda a very liberal Democrat) that was won by Fonda, but they apparently never discussed politics again. When Fonda moved to Hollywood he lived with Stewart and the two gained a reputation as among Hollywood's biggest playboys. However, after each married and settled down, their children noted that their favorite activity when not working seemed to be silently painting model airplanes together.
His daughter Judy married the banker Steven Merritt in 1979, but they later divorced.
His daughter Kelly and her husband teach at the University of California at Davis.
His daughter Kelly graduated from Stanford University, and she earned her Ph.D. from Cambridge University.
His daughter Kelly married the Cambridge University professor Alexander "Sandy" Harcourt in London in 1977.
His death was on Wednesday, July 2, 1997, and this was just one day after the death of Robert Mitchum, on Tuesday, July 1, 1997.
His father, Alexander, died of stomach cancer on Thursday, December 28th, 1961, at the age of eighty-nine.
His favorite movies were westerns, he said, "because they're told against the background of a very dramatic period in our history" and "give people a feeling of hope, an affirmative statement of living.".
His hair began receding during World War II. By the early 1950s, he was wearing a toupee for all his movie roles, though he often went without it in public. His baldness was made less obvious by his wearing a gray toupee for many of his movie roles.
His jazz and blues piano-playing skills were showcased in Anatomy of a Murder (1959).
His mother, Bessie, died on Sunday, August 2nd, 1953, a week after suffering a severe heart attack at the age of seventy-eight.
His mother's maiden name was Jackson. Her father, Colonel Samuel Jackson, served in the War Between the States.