The son of Alexander Stewart and Elizabeth Jackson Stewart was born on May 20th,1908 in Indiana, Pennsylvania. He was given the name of his paternal grandfather, James Maitland Stewart. Some years after his birth, his parents moved to another, larger house, were his sisters Mary (*1912, photo) and Virginia (*1914) were born. Elizabeth, a gifted musician, taught her son to play the piano. Thus she made him interested in music and he began to learn the accordion, too, when he was a teenager. His father Alex owned a Hardware Store, founded by his father. Alex had the idea, that his son would someday take over the store and he, considering "actor" not as a real work, still thought so, when Jimmy was a quite successful actor on Broadway.

When it was Jimmy's turn to choose a college, he eventually deferred to the wish of his father and attended Princeton University, although his first choice was the Naval University in Annapolis. The decision to attend Princeton, which was strongly influenced by his father, was very important for his future career. Jimmy used to play in the football team, but he discovered that his height (6 foot, 3 inch / 1,91m) helped him on the field, but his lanky build wasn't an advantage. So he decided to audition for the Triangle Club, the Princeton theatre group, along with 200 other students. The director chose Jimmy out of this large number of students, more impressed by his accordion-playing than by his performance.

Jimmy graduated from Princeton with a degree in architecture, but his future was still uncertain, when Josh Logan, a fellow Princetonian, asked him to join the Falmouth University Players in Massachusetts, because they were in need of a leading man, since Henry Fonda had left the group. Jimmy agreed, not knowing that his excursion into showbusiness would not only take this summer, but his whole life. Although he still wanted to become an architect, his interest in acting became more and more intensive. And so he eventually landed up on Broadway. His roommate in New York was Henry Fonda (on the photo with Jimmy and Burgess Meredith), who was to become one of his best friends. In Divided by three Jimmy appeared with Hedda Hopper, who recommended him to Bill Grady, who worked for MGM. After a series of screen tests, Jimmy signed his first contract with MGM and made his debut with The Murder Man (1935).

Finally the acting architect had become a full-time actor. In the following years he starred in some comedies, such as Wife vs. Secretary, and musicals. In Born to Dance he even appeared next to Eleanor Powell. But still MGM figured out how to use him right. This eventually changed when it came to Jimmy's first cooperation with director Frank Capra. Although You can't take it with you (1938) was considered as "pure nonsense" by many critics, it won two Oscars and Jimmy was given the opportunity to prove his comic talent. One year later, Jimmy and Frank Capra worked together again: In Mr. Smith goes to Washington Jimmy embodied for the first time the role, he is remembered best for: The American everman. Actor Peter Falk once said: "Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith goes to Washington was like the Statue of Liberty." Jimmy was supposed to keep this "everyman" image for the rest of his life. In 1941 he won his first Oscar as "Best Actor" in The Philadelphia Story. Even this success couldn't hold him, who had just signed up for the US Air Force, back to retire from his work and fight for his home country.

In March 1941 Jimmy was sworn into the US Army. He, who was already an experienced pilot, had to proceed an advanced flight school in New Mexico. From August 1943 on, he was stationed in Tibenham air base in Norfolk, England. Here he became the Group Operations Officer for the 453rd Bombardment Group. Within the following two years Jimmy flew approximate 20 missions over Germany and organized even more. For his services during World War 2 he was awarded with the Air Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross and also received the Croix de Guerre for 'exceptional services' in connection with the liberation of France. In August 1945 he returned to America as Colonel James Stewart and was promoted to Brigadier General in 1959.

Again it was Frank Capra who gave Jimmy's career a leg-up. He contacted Jimmy, who wasn't sure wether he should continue acting, shortly after his return from war to offer him the role of George Bailey in It's a wonderful life. Jimmy agreed and although the movie wasn't very successful, when it was first released in 1946, Jimmy received his third Oscar nomination and the certainty that he had lost nothing of his acting ability. Jimmy became one of the most successful American actors. He worked together with almost all famous, contemporary actors and directors: Alfred Hitchcock, Grace Kelly, Anthony Mann (who had introduced Jimmy to the western genre), Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger, Richard Widmark, John Ford, Maureen O'Hara and many others. Jimmy received two more Oscar nominations for Harvey (1950) and Anatomy of a murder (1959).

Jimmy and Gloria Hatrick McLean met for the first time at a Gary Cooper's Party, where "Hollywood's most eligible bachelor" and the former model, who was just divorced, were seated next to each other. During the following months Gloria and Jimmy dated regularly and went out for dinner or played golf together. They married on August 9th 1948. Gloria brought two sons, Ronald and Michael to the marriage. In 1951 she gave birth to twin daughters Judy and Kelly. During Gloria's pregnancy, the Stewart family moved to a house on Roxbury Drive, in Beverly Hills. Jimmy and his wife lived there together until Gloria's death in 1994.

After he had made his last appearances on film in The Big Sleep (1978), Afurika Monogatari (a.k.a The Green Horizon, 1981) and the TV movie Right of Way (1983), in which he starred for the first time with Bette Davis, and receiving the Life Achievement Academy Award in 1985, Jimmy spent the last years of his life with speaking up against the colorization of classic films and for the prevention of cruelty to animals. His wife Gloria supported him in all of his intentions. Her death in 1994 was a great loss for Jimmy and he stopped making public appearances. Jimmy died three years later on July 2nd 1997 in his house in Beverly Hills. Jimmy was one of the last actors of Hollywood's "golden era" alive.

pictures and information taken from MPTV - The Motion Picture & Television Photo Archive, Jonathan Coe's Jimmy Stewart - A wonderful life and Jimmy Stewart - A life in pictures by Ellen von Karajan