It's trite but true; Jimmy Stewart played the Everyman better than everyone.He had the gawky innocence to be an idealistic senator, in "Mr.
Smith Goes to Washington"; an eccentric with a six-foot-tall rabbit pal in "Harvey"; and a depth, in "Rear Window" and "Vertigo," that even Alfred Hitchcock found mysterious.But it was director Frank Capra who gave us the Jimmy Stewart that everyone still depends on every Christmas."It's a Wonderful Life" is remarkable for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that Stewart's memorable performance was his first after an almost-five-year absence from Hollywood.
Audiences hadn't seen him on screen since 1941, the same year he took home the Academy Award for "The Philadelphia Story." He was a Hollywood A-lister.But not long after, he found himself on another list: the list for the draft.
Stewart could have served safely stateside doing recruiting films and such.But he wanted, or at least felt, he needed to do more.
Already an accomplished pilot, Stewart enlisted in the Army Air Corps."He knew that America needed good pilots; he was one," said Janie McKirgan, curator at the Jimmy Stewart Museum in his hometown of Indiana, Pennsylvania.
McKirgan said few wanted to let Hollywood's golden boy actually fly: "It took a long time for him to find somebody in the Army Air Corps that was willing to take that risk," she said."Because if Jimmy Stewart, Academy Award-winning Jimmy Stewart, got shot down, it would be a huge blow to troop morale, to America, to everything."His fight to be able to fight despite his celebrity is the subject of a new film out this week, called "Jimmy." It stars Max Casella as director Frank Capra, and K.J.
Apa as Jimmy Stewart."We really set out to make the movie that Frank and Jimmy never got to make," Apa said.
Casella said he was only vaguely aware of Stewart's wartime service; Apa did not know about it: "I can't believe it was true," he said."It was the courage that made me dumbfounded ...