James Stewart - American Icon

James Stewart - American Icon 100th Birthday Celebration

We pay tribute to one of Hollywood's most beloved and recognizable actors on the occasion of his centennial. American moviegoers' familiarity and affection for James Stewart is reflected in the fact that all of us prefer to call him "Jimmy." His natural presence and lack of affectation onscreen often made us think we were actually watching him, not a character, but his apparent ease really disguised a tremendous and versatile talent.

Born on May 20, 1908 in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Jimmy Stewart played his first credited Hollywood role in 1935, and by the time he won his Oscar in 1941, he had been the first movie star to enter military service for World War II. While he worked with several top filmmakers, his career was enhanced in particular by four great directors: Frank Capra, who nurtured his All-American persona; Anthony Mann, who guided him into darker terrain in violent and psychological Westerns; Alfred Hitchcock, who placed Stewart's "regular guy" in positions of anguish and obsession; and John Ford, who used a mature (and somewhat mischievous) Stewart in a West fast fading into the past.