Films: Jimmy Stewart
Annotation:Perhaps the greatest courtroom drama of all time, with Stewart giving perhaps his single best performance.
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Annotation:Stewart is an amiable, gun-eschewing Sheriff in a rowdy cowboy town. Marlene Dietrich co-stars in her signature role as a bawdy saloon singer.
Annotation:Stewart is the pilot who must keep his passengers alive after their plane crashes in a remote desert.
Annotation:Another trademark role for Stewart, as Elwood P. Dowd (a part he played as well on Broadway) as a friendly drunk whose best friend is an invisible six-foot tall rabbit.
Annotation:Stewart assumes his signature role as George Bailey, a small town man contemplating suicide on Christmas Eve. Directed by Frank Capra.
Annotation:One of great Westerns, with naïve lawyer Stewart caught between town he-man John Wayne and vicious outlaw Lee Marvin. Directed by John Ford.
Annotation:Stewart is the titular father who finds his family’s beach vacation less than relaxing.
Annotation:Stewart’s first great role was as Jefferson Smith, a naïve freshman Senator who finds himself fighting political corruption.
Annotation:One of the greatest of screwball comedies, with Stewart acting opposite Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant.
Annotation:Stewart made several great films with Alfred Hitchcock. In this classic, he’s a photographer laid up with a broken leg who suspects a neighbor has murdered his wife.
Annotation:Stewart acts for Hitchcock again, as a private eye who grows obsessed with a woman who resembles a dead woman from his past.
Annotation:Director Anthony Mann began redefining the Western with this tale of a man (Stewart) obsessively seeking the titular stolen rifle, which passes from person to person throughout the movie.
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Description
Jimmy Stewart is generally remembered for playing oft-gawky, ah shucks everyman figures. Yet when he returned from extremely active service as a bomber pilot following World War II, the actor’s work turned noticeably darker. This is true even of his earliest return to the screen in It’s A Wonderful Life, which has a reputation as being corny and lightweight while it’s actually at times quite dark. In any case, Stewart’s acting chops and hunger for more complicated roles made him a favorite star for directors like Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford and Anthony Mann. Indeed, Mann and Stewart together more or less created the ‘adult western.’
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