James Stewart

In 2006 his performance as James "Scottie" Ferguson in Vertigo (1958) is ranked #30 on "Premiere" magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time.

In September 1999 he was named Best Classic Actor of the 20th Century in an "Entertainment Weekly" on-line poll.

In October 1997 he was ranked #10 in "Empire" (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list.

Upon accepting his Honorary Oscar in 1985, he stated, "This was the greatest award I received, to know that, after all these years, I haven't been forgotten." The audience gave him a ten-minute standing ovation, making the show run long. Steven Spielberg, who was in attendance, said that he was humbled to even be in the same room as Stewart, because he respected him so much.

Many of his works were donated to Brigham Young University in 1983, including his personal copy of It's A Wonderful Life (1946).

Was a regular on the "Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts". He was even "roasted" himself once: Dean Martin Celebrity Roast: Jimmy Stewart (1978).

In 1972 was Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.

Held the highest active military rank of any actor in history. During World War II he served in the US Army Air Forces, and rose to the rank of colonel. After the war he continued serving in the US 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 US Naval Reserve. President Ronald Reagan became the US Commander-in-Chief, but he had made his last theatrical TV appearance in 1965.

During the course of his long professional life, he had roles in some of Hollywood's best-remembered films, starring in a string of Westerns, bringing his "every man" qualities to movies like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)), biopics (The Stratton Story (1949), The Glenn Miller Story (1954), and The Spirit of St.

Accepted his friend Gary Cooper's honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in 1961, because Cooper was dying of cancer.

He remained involved with the United States Air Force Reserve after the war and retired in 1959 as a brigadier general. Stewart's acting career took off properly after the war.

Louis (1957), for instance, thrillers (most notably his frequent collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock) and even some screwball comedies.

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 two natural children, twin daughters Judy Stewart and Kelly Stewart, were born on 5/7/5. His wife, Gloria Stewart (the former Gloria Hatrick McLean), a former model from Larchmont, NY, also brought two sons to the marriage: Ronald and Michael (aged 5 and 2 at the time of the wedding in 1949), whom he adopted. Ronald later died on active service, as a Marine Corps officer on 6/8/69 in Vietnam.

Replaced Cary Grant as Rupert Cadell in Rope (1948). Ironically, Grant replaced him as Roger Thornhill in North by Northwest (1959).

Hosted the Academy Awards in 1946 (alongside Bob Hope), 1958 (alongside David Niven, Jack Lemmon, Rosalind Russell, Bob Hope and "Donald Duck").

The word "Philadelphia" on the Oscar that he received in 1941 for The Philadelphia Story (1940) is misspelled. The Oscar was kept in the window of Jimmy's father's hardware store located on Philadelphia Street in Indiana, PA.

When he won the Best Actor Oscar in 1940, he sent it to his father in Indiana, PA, who set it in his hardware shop. The trophy remained there for 25 years.

Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and, after World War II, It's A Wonderful Life (1946) helped to launch his career as a star and to establish his screen persona as the likable "every man".

His famous collaborations with Frank Capra, in You Can't Take It with You (1938), Mr.

Introduced the Cole Porter standard "Easy to Love" in Born to Dance (1936). His undubbed, reedy tenor voice was actually not so bad. He would later say of the experience, "The song had become such a big hit that they felt even my singing couldn't ruin it." He would later sing a few bars of "Over the Rainbow" as part of his Oscar-winning performance in The Philadelphia Story (1940).

Having learned to fly in 1935, he was drafted into the United States Army in 1940 as a private (after twice failing the medical for being underweight). During the course of World War II he rose to the rank of colonel, first as an instructor at home in the United States, and later on combat missions in Europe.

But work dried up as the Great Depression deepened, and it was not until 1934, when he followed his friend Henry Fonda to Hollywood, that things began to pick up.

After his first screen appearance in Art Trouble (1934), he worked for a time for MGM as a contract player and slowly began making a name for himself in increasingly high-profile roles throughout the rest of the 1930s.

After graduation, engagements with the University Players took him around the northeastern United States, including a run on Broadway in 1932.

In 1929, he won a place at Princeton University, where he studied architecture with some success and became further involved with the performing arts as a musician and actor with the University Players.

James Maitland Stewart was born on May 20, 1908 in Indiana, Pennsylvania, to Elizabeth Ruth (Johnson) and Alexander Maitland Stewart, who owned a hardware store. He was of Scottish, Ulster-Scots, and some English, descent. Stewart was educated at a local prep school, Mercersburg Academy, where he was a keen athlete (football and track), musician (singing and accordion playing), and sometime actor.