1932–1937: Theater and early film roles '', in which he starred on Broadway in 1934 and which garnered him critical praise. Stewart performed in bit parts in the University Players' productions in Cape Cod during the summer of 1932. The company's directors included
Joshua Logan,
Bretaigne Windust, and Charles Leatherbee, and amongst its other actors were married couple
Henry Fonda and
Margaret Sullavan, who became Stewart's close friends. At the end of the season, Stewart moved to New York with his Players friends Logan,
Myron McCormick, and newly single Henry Fonda. Along with McCormick, Stewart debuted on
Broadway in the brief run of
Carry Nation and a few weeks later – again with McCormick – appeared as a chauffeur in the comedy
Goodbye Again, in which he had a walk-on line.
The New Yorker commented, "Mr. James Stewart's chauffeur... comes on for three minutes and walks off to a round of spontaneous applause." Following the seven-month run of
Goodbye Again, Stewart took a stage manager position in
Boston, but was fired after frequently missing his cues. Returning to New York, he then landed a small part in
Spring in Autumn and a role in
All Good Americans, where he was required to throw a banjo out of the window.
Brooks Atkinson of
The New York Times wrote, "Throwing a $250 banjo out of the window at the concierge is constructive abuse and should be virtuously applauded." Both plays folded after only short runs, and Stewart began to think about going back to his studies. Stewart was convinced to continue acting when he was cast in the lead role of
Yellow Jack, playing a soldier who becomes the subject of a
yellow fever experiment. It premiered at the
Martin Beck Theater in March 1934. Stewart received unanimous praise from the critics, but the play proved unpopular with audiences and folded by June. During the summer, Stewart made his film debut with an unbilled appearance in the
Shemp Howard comedy
short Art Trouble (1934), filmed in
Brooklyn, and acted in
summer stock productions of
We Die Exquisitely and
All Paris Knows at the Red Barn Theater on
Long Island. In the fall, he again received excellent reviews for his role in
Divided by Three at the
Ethel Barrymore Theatre, which he followed with the modestly successful
Page Miss Glory and the critical failure
A Journey by Night in spring 1935. Soon after
A Journey by Night ended, Stewart signed a seven-year contract with
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), orchestrated by talent scout Bill Grady, who had been tracking Stewart's career since seeing him perform in Princeton. His first Hollywood role was a minor appearance in the
Spencer Tracy vehicle
The Murder Man (1935). His performance was largely ignored by critics, although the
New York Herald Tribune, remembering him in
Yellow Jack, called him "wasted in a bit that he handles with characteristically engaging skill". MGM did not see leading-man material in Stewart, described by biographer Michael D. Rinella as a "lanky young bumpkin with a hesitant manner of speech". During this time, his agent
Leland Hayward decided that the best path for him would be through loan-outs to other studios. Stewart had only a small role in his second MGM film, the hit musical
Rose Marie (1936), but it led to his casting in seven other films within one year, including
Next Time We Love and
After the Thin Man. He also received crucial help from his University Players friend Margaret Sullavan, who campaigned for him to be her leading man in
Next Time We Love, a
Universal romantic comedy filmed right after
Rose Marie. Sullavan rehearsed extensively with him, boosting his confidence and helping him incorporate his mannerisms and boyishness into his screen persona.
Next Time We Love was a box-office success and received mostly positive reviews, leading Stewart to be noticed by critics and MGM executives.
Time stated that "the chief significance of [the film] in the progress of the cinema industry is likely to reside in the presence in its cast of James Stewart", and
The New York Times called him "a welcome addition to the roster of Hollywood's leading men". Stewart followed
Next Time We Love with supporting roles in two commercially successful romantic comedies,
Wife vs. Secretary (1936) with
Clark Gable and
Myrna Loy and
Small Town Girl (1936). In both, he played the betrayed boyfriend of the leading lady, portrayed by
Jean Harlow and
Janet Gaynor, respectively. Both films garnered him some good reviews. After an appearance in the short subject
Important News (1936), Stewart had his first top-billed role in the low-budget
"B" movie Speed (1936), in which he played a mechanic and speed driver competing in the
Indianapolis 500. The film was a critical and commercial failure, although
Frank Nugent of
The New York Times stated that "Mr. Stewart [and the rest of the cast] perform as pleasantly as possible." ,
Tom Brown, and Stewart in
Navy Blue and Gold (1937) Stewart's last three film releases of 1936 were all box-office successes. He had only a bit part in
The Gorgeous Hussy, but a starring role in the musical
Born to Dance with
Eleanor Powell. His performance in the latter was not well-received:
The New York Times stated that his "singing and dancing will (fortunately) never win him a song-and-dance-man classification", and
Variety called "his singing and dancing [...] rather painful on their own", although it otherwise found Stewart aptly cast in an "assignment [that] calls for a shy youth". Stewart's last film to be released in 1936,
After the Thin Man, features a shattering emotional climax rendered by Stewart. Kate Cameron of the
New York Daily News wrote that he "has one grand scene in which he demonstrates most effectively that he is something more than a musical comedy juvenile". For his next film, the romantic drama
Seventh Heaven (1937), Stewart was loaned to
20th Century-Fox to play a Parisian sewer worker in a
remake of
Frank Borzage's
silent classic released a decade earlier. He and co-star
Simone Simon were miscast, and the film was a critical and commercial failure. William Boehnel of the
New York World-Telegram called Stewart's performance emotionless, and Eileen Creelman of
The New York Sun wrote that he made little attempt to look or sound French. Stewart's next film,
The Last Gangster (1937) starring
Edward G. Robinson, was also a failure, but it was followed by a critically acclaimed performance in
Navy Blue and Gold (1937) as a football player at the
United States Naval Academy. The film was a box-office success and earned Stewart the best reviews of his career up to that point.
The New York Times wrote "the ending leaves us with the conviction that James Stewart is a sincere and likable triple-threat man in the [MGM] backfield" and
Variety called his performance "fine".
1938–1941: Leading man Despite good reviews, Stewart was still a minor star, and MGM remained hesitant to cast him in leading roles, preferring to loan him out to other studios. After a well-received supporting part in
Of Human Hearts (1938), he was loaned to
RKO to act opposite
Ginger Rogers in the romantic comedy
Vivacious Lady (1938). The production was shut down for months in 1937 as Stewart recovered from an undisclosed illness, during which he was hospitalized. RKO initially wanted to replace Stewart, but eventually the project was canceled. However, Rogers' success in a stage musical caused the film to be picked up again. Stewart was recast in
Vivacious Lady at Rogers' insistence and due to his performance in
Of Human Hearts. It was a critical and commercial success, and showed Stewart's talent for performing in romantic comedies;
The New York Herald called him "one of the most knowing and engaging young actors appearing on the screen at present". Stewart's third film release of 1938, the
First World War drama
The Shopworn Angel, saw him collaborate again with Margaret Sullavan. In his performance, Stewart drew upon his own feelings of unrequited love towards Sullavan, who was married to his agent,
Leland Hayward. Although the film was otherwise well-received, critics were mixed about Stewart. Bland Johaneson of the
New York Daily Mirror compared him to
Stan Laurel in this melodramatic film, and
Variety called his performance unfocused. in Frank Capra's ''You Can't Take It with You'' (1938) Stewart became a major star when he was loaned out to
Columbia Pictures to play the lead role in Frank Capra's ''You Can't Take It with You'' (1938) opposite
Jean Arthur. Stewart played the son of a banker who falls in love with a woman from a poor and eccentric family. Capra had recently completed several well-received films and was looking for a new type of leading man. He had been impressed by Stewart's role in
Navy Blue and Gold (1937). According to Capra, Stewart was one of the best actors ever to hit the screen, understood character archetypes intuitively, and required little directing. ''You Can't Take It With You
became the fifth highest-grossing film of the year and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The film was also critically successful, but while Variety'' wrote that the performances of Stewart and Arthur garnered "much of the laughs", most of the critical acclaim went to
Lionel Barrymore and
Edward Arnold. In contrast to the success of ''You Can't Take It With You'', Stewart's first three film releases of 1939 were all commercial disappointments. In the melodrama
Made for Each Other (1939), he shared the screen with
Carole Lombard. Stewart blamed its directing and screenwriting for its poor box-office performance. Regardless, the film received favorable reviews, with
Newsweek writing that Stewart and Lombard were "perfectly cast in the leading roles". The other two films,
The Ice Follies of 1939 and ''
It's a Wonderful World'', were critical failures. 's
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) In Stewart's fourth 1939 film, he worked with Capra and Arthur again in the political comedy-drama
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Stewart played an idealist thrown into the political arena. It garnered critical praise and became the third-highest-grossing film of the year.
The Nation stated "[Stewart] takes first place among Hollywood actors...Now he is mature and gives a difficult part, with many nuances, moments of tragic-comic impact." Later, critic Andrew Sarris qualified Stewart's performance as "lean, gangling, idealistic to the point of being neurotic, thoughtful to the point of being tongue-tied", describing him as "particularly gifted in expressing the emotional ambivalence of the action hero". Stewart won the
New York Film Critics Circle award and received his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Stewart's last screen appearance of 1939 came in the
Western Destry Rides Again, in which he portrayed a pacifist lawman alongside
Marlene Dietrich, a saloon girl who falls in love with him. It was critically and commercially successful.
TIME magazine wrote, "James Stewart, who had just turned in the top performance of his cinematurity as Jefferson Smith in
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, turns in as good a performance or better as Thomas Jefferson Destry." Between films, Stewart had begun a radio career and had become a distinctive voice on the
Lux Radio Theater,
The Screen Guild Theater, and other shows. So well-known had his slow drawl become that comedians began impersonating him. and Stewart in their third collaboration,
The Shop Around the Corner (1940) Stewart and Sullavan reunited for two films in 1940. The
Ernst Lubitsch romantic comedy
The Shop Around the Corner starred them as co-workers who cannot stand each other but unknowingly become romantic pen-pals. It received good reviews and was a box-office success in Europe, but failed to find an audience in the US, where less-gentle
screwball comedies were more popular. Director Lubitsch assessed it to be the best film of his career, and it has been regarded highly by later critics, such as
Pauline Kael and
Richard Schickel. The drama
The Mortal Storm, directed by
Frank Borzage, featured Sullavan and Stewart as lovers caught in turmoil upon
Hitler's rise to power. It was one of the first blatantly anti-
Nazi films to be produced in Hollywood, but according to film scholar
Ben Urwand, "ultimately made very little impact" as it did not show the persecution experienced by Jews or name that ethnic group. Despite being well received by critics, it failed at the box office. Ten days after filming
The Mortal Storm, Stewart began filming
No Time for Comedy (1940) with
Rosalind Russell. Critics complimented Stewart's performance;
Bosley Crowther of
The New York Times called Stewart "the best thing in the show", yet the film was again not a box-office success. and Stewart in
The Philadelphia Story (1940), for which he won his only Academy Award for Best Actor Stewart's final film to be released in 1940 was
George Cukor's romantic comedy
The Philadelphia Story, in which he played an intrusive, fast-talking reporter sent to cover the wedding of a socialite (
Katharine Hepburn) with the help of her ex-husband (
Cary Grant). The film became one of the largest box-office successes of the year and received widespread critical acclaim.
The New York Herald Tribune stated that "Stewart...contributes most of the comedy to the show...In addition, he contributes some of the most irresistible romantic moments." His performance earned him his only Academy Award in a competitive category for Best Actor, beating out Henry Fonda, for whom he had voted and with whom he had once roomed, both almost broke, in the early 1930s in New York. Stewart himself assessed his performance in
Mr. Smith to be superior and believed the academy was recompensing for not giving him the award the year prior. Moreover, Stewart's character was a supporting role, not the male lead. He gave the Oscar to his father, who displayed it at his hardware store alongside other family awards and military medals. Stewart next appeared in two comedies:
Come Live with Me (1941), which paired him with
Hedy Lamarr, and ''
Pot o' Gold (1941), featuring Paulette Goddard. Stewart considered the latter to be the worst film of his career. His last film before military service was the musical Ziegfeld Girl'' (1941), which co-starred
Judy Garland,
Hedy Lamarr, and
Lana Turner. It was a critical failure, but also one of the best box-office performers of the year.
1941–1947: Military service Stewart became the first major American movie star to enlist in the
United States Army to fight in World War II. His family had deep military roots: both of his grandfathers had fought in the
Civil War, and his father had served during both the
Spanish–American War and World War I. After first being rejected for low weight in November 1940, he enlisted in February 1941. As an experienced pilot, he reported for induction as a private in the
Air Corps on March 22, 1941. Soon to be 33 years old, he was over the age limit for
Aviation Cadet training—the normal path of commissioning for pilots, navigators and bombardiers—and therefore applied for an Air Corps commission as both a college graduate and a licensed commercial pilot. Stewart received his commission as a second lieutenant on January 1, 1942. '' (1942) After enlisting, Stewart made no new commercial films, although he remained under contract to MGM. His public appearances were limited to engagements for the Army Air Forces. The Air Corps scheduled him on network radio with
Edgar Bergen and
Charlie McCarthy, and on the radio program
We Hold These Truths, a celebration of the
United States Bill of Rights, which was broadcast a week after the
attack on Pearl Harbor. Stewart also appeared in a
First Motion Picture Unit short film,
Winning Your Wings, to help recruit airmen. Nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1942, it appeared in movie theaters nationwide beginning in late May 1942 and resulted in 150,000 new recruits. Stewart was concerned that his celebrity status would relegate him to duties behind the lines. After spending over a year training pilots at
Kirtland Army Airfield in
Albuquerque, New Mexico, he appealed to his commander and in November 1943 was sent to England as part of the
703d Bomb Squadron to fly
B-24 Liberators. He was based initially at
RAF Tibenham, before moving to
RAF Old Buckenham. with Palm in 1944|alt=A military officer pinning an award to Stewart's decorated military jacket, among other uniformed soldiers Stewart was promoted to major following a mission to
Ludwigshafen, Germany, on January 7, 1944. He was awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross for actions as deputy commander of the
2nd Bombardment Wing, the French
Croix de Guerre with palm, and the
Air Medal with three
oak leaf clusters. Stewart was promoted to full colonel on March 29, 1945, becoming one of the few Americans to ever rise from private to colonel in only four years. At the beginning of June 1945, Stewart was the presiding officer of the
court martial of a pilot and navigator who accidentally bombed
Zurich, Switzerland. Stewart returned to the United States in early fall 1945. He continued to play a role in reserve of the Army after the war and was also one of the 12 founders of the
Air Force Association in October 1945. Stewart eventually transferred to the
reserves of the
United States Air Force after the Army Air Forces split from the Army in 1947. During active-duty periods, he served with the
Strategic Air Command and completed transition training as a pilot on the
B-47 and
B-52. Stewart was first nominated for promotion to brigadier general in February 1957; however, his promotion was initially opposed by Senator
Margaret Chase Smith. On July 23, 1959, Stewart was promoted to brigadier general, becoming the highest-ranking actor in American military history. During the
Vietnam War, he flew as a non-duty observer in a
B-52 on an
Arc Light bombing mission in February 1966. He served for 27 years, officially retiring from the Air Force on May 31, 1968, when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 60. Upon his retirement, he was awarded the
Air Force Distinguished Service Medal. Stewart rarely spoke about his wartime service but did appear in an episode of the British television documentary series
The World at War (1974), commenting on the
disastrous 1943 mission against
Schweinfurt, Germany.
1946–1949: Early post-war films and Travers as
Clarence Odbody in ''
It's a Wonderful Life'' (1946). Although only a moderate success at the time of its release, the film has later come to define Stewart's legacy.|alt=Travers stands behind a seated Stewart putting his hand on Stewart's shoulderAfter his experiences in the war, Stewart considered returning to Pennsylvania to run the family store. His former agent, Leland Hayward, had also left the talent business in 1944 after selling his roster of stars, including Stewart, to
Music Corporation of America (MCA). Stewart decided not to renew his MGM contract and instead signed a deal with MCA. He later stated that he was given a new beginning by Frank Capra, who asked him to star in ''It's a Wonderful Life'' (1946), the first postwar film for both of them. Stewart played
George Bailey, an upstanding small-town man who becomes increasingly frustrated by his ordinary existence and financial troubles. Driven to suicide on Christmas Eve, he is led to reassess his life by
Clarence Odbody, an "angel, second class", played by
Henry Travers. During filming, Stewart experienced doubts about his abilities and continued to consider retiring from acting. Although ''It's a Wonderful Life'' was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Stewart's third Best Actor nomination, it received mixed reviews and was only a moderate success at the box office, failing to cover its production costs. Several critics found the movie too sentimental, although
Bosley Crowther wrote that Stewart did a "warmly appealing job, indicating that he has grown in spiritual stature as well as in talent during the years he was in the war", and President
Harry S. Truman concluded that "If [my wife] and I had a son we'd want him to be just like Jimmy Stewart [in this film]." In the decades since its release, ''It's a Wonderful Life'' has grown to define Stewart's film persona and is widely considered a Christmas classic, and according to the American Film Institute, is one of the
100 best American movies ever made. Andrew Sarris stated that Stewart's performance was underappreciated by critics of the time, who could not see "the force and fury" of it, and considered his proposal scene with
Donna Reed, "one of the most sublimely histrionic expressions of passion". Stewart later named the film his personal favorite out of his filmography. In the aftermath of ''It's A Wonderful Life'', Capra's production company went into bankruptcy, while Stewart continued to have doubts about his acting abilities. His generation of actors was fading, and a new wave of actors, including
Marlon Brando,
Montgomery Clift, and
James Dean, would soon remake Hollywood. Stewart returned to making radio dramas in 1946; he continued this work between films until the mid-1950s. He also made a comeback on Broadway to star in
Mary Coyle Chase's
Harvey in July 1947, replacing the original star
Frank Fay for the duration of his vacation. The play had opened to nearly universal praise in 1944 and told the story of Elwood P. Dowd, a wealthy eccentric, whose best friend is an invisible man-sized rabbit and whose relatives are trying to get him committed to a mental asylum. Stewart gained a following in the unconventional play, and although Fay returned to the role in August, they decided that Stewart would take his place again the next summer. Stewart's only film to be released in 1947 was the
William A. Wellman comedy
Magic Town, one of the first films about the new science of
public opinion polling. It was poorly received both commercially and critically. and
John Dall in
Rope (1948), his first collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock. He was criticized for being miscast in the role of a cynical professor. Stewart appeared in four new film releases in 1948.
Call Northside 777 was a critically acclaimed
film noir, while the musical comedy
On Our Merry Way, in which Stewart and Henry Fonda played jazz musicians in an ensemble cast, was a critical and commercial failure. The comedy
You Gotta Stay Happy, which paired Stewart with
Joan Fontaine, was the most successful of his post-war films up to that point.
Rope, in which Stewart played the idolized teacher of two young men who commit murder to show their supposed superiority, began his collaboration with
Alfred Hitchcock. Shot in long "real-time" takes, Stewart felt pressure to be flawless in his performance; the added stress led to him sleeping very little and drinking more heavily.
Rope received mixed reviews, and
Andrew Sarris and
Scott Eyman have later called him miscast in the role of a
Nietzsche-loving philosophy professor. The film's screenwriter
Arthur Laurents also stated that "the casting of [Stewart] was absolutely destructive. He's not sexual as an actor." Stewart found success again with
The Stratton Story (1949), playing baseball champion
Monty Stratton opposite
June Allyson. It became the sixth highest-grossing film of 1949 and was well received by the critics.
The New York Times noted, "
The Stratton Story was the best thing that has yet happened to Mr. Stewart in his post-war film career...he gives such a winning performance that it is almost impossible to imagine any one else playing the role." Stewart's other 1949 release saw him reunited with Spencer Tracy in the World War II film
Malaya (1949). It was a commercial failure and received mixed reviews.
1950–1959: Collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock and Anthony Mann in ''Winchester '73'', his first project with Anthony Mann. In the 1950s, Stewart redefined his career as a star of Western films. In the 1950s, Stewart experienced a career renewal as the star of Westerns and collaborated on several films with director
Anthony Mann. The first of these was the Universal production ''Winchester '73
(1950), which Stewart agreed to do in exchange for being cast in a screen adaptation of Harvey''. It also marked a turning point in Hollywood, as Stewart's agent,
Lew Wasserman, brokered an innovative deal with Universal, in which Stewart would receive no fee in exchange for a percentage of the profits. Stewart was also granted authority to collaborate with the studio on casting and hiring decisions. Stewart ended up earning about $600,000 for ''Winchester '73'', significantly more than his usual fee, and other stars quickly capitalized on this new way of doing business, which further undermined the decaying
studio system. Stewart chose Mann to direct, and the film gave him the idea of redefining his screen persona through the Western genre. In the film, Stewart is a tough, vengeful sharpshooter, the winner of a prized rifle that is stolen and passes through many hands, until the showdown between him and his brother. ''Winchester '73
became a box-office success upon its summer release and earned Stewart rave reviews. He also starred in another successful Western that summer, Broken Arrow'' (1950), which featured him as an ex-soldier and Native American agent making peace with the
Apache. Stewart's third film release of 1950 was the comedy
The Jackpot; it received critical acclaim and was commercially successful, but was a minor film in his repertoire and has largely been forgotten by contemporary critics and fans. In December 1950, the screen adaptation of
Harvey was released, directed by
Henry Koster and with Stewart reprising his stage role. With critics comparing his performance with Fay's, Stewart's performance as well as the film itself received mixed reviews. Bosley Crowther of
The New York Times wrote that "so darling is the acting of James Stewart [...] and all the rest that a virtually brand-new experience is still in store for even those who saw the play", while
Variety called him "perfect" in the role. John McCarten of the
New Yorker stated that although he "doesn't bring his part to the battered authority of Frank Fay...he nevertheless succeeds in making plausible the notion that Harvey, the rabbit, would accept him as a pal." Stewart later stated that he was dissatisfied with his performance, stating, "I played him a little too dreamily, a little too cute-cute." Despite the film's poor box office performance, Stewart received his fourth Academy Award nomination as well as his first
Golden Globe nomination. Similar to ''It's a Wonderful Life
, Harvey'' achieved popularity later, after frequent television showings. Stewart appeared in only one film released in 1951, playing a scientist in Koster's British production
No Highway in the Sky, which was one of the first airplane
disaster films ever made. Filmed in England, it became a box office success in the United Kingdom, but failed to attract audiences in the United States. Stewart took a small supporting role as a troubled clown in
Cecil B. DeMille's
The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Critics were curious why Stewart had taken such a small, out-of-character role; he responded that he was inspired by
Lon Chaney's ability to disguise himself while letting his character emerge. In the same year, Stewart starred in a critically and commercially failed biopic,
Carbine Williams (1952), and continued his collaboration with Mann in
Bend of the River (1952), which was a commercial and critical success. and Stewart in
The Far Country (1955)Stewart followed
Bend of the River with four more collaborations with Mann in the next two years.
The Naked Spur (1953) and
The Far Country (1954) were successful with audiences and developed Stewart's screen persona into a more mature, ambiguous, and edgier presence. The films featured him as troubled cowboys seeking redemption while facing corrupt cattlemen, ranchers, and outlaws; a man who knows violence first-hand and struggles to control it. The Stewart–Mann collaborations laid the foundation for many of the Westerns of the 1950s and remain popular today for their grittier, more realistic depiction of the classic movie genre. In addition, Stewart starred in the Western radio show
The Six Shooter for its one-season run from 1953 to 1954. He and Mann also collaborated on films outside the Western genre such as
Thunder Bay (1953) and
The Glenn Miller Story (1954), the latter a critically acclaimed biopic in which he starred opposite June Allyson. It earned Stewart a
BAFTA nomination and continued his portrayals of 'American heroes'. in
Rear Window (1954), which allowed him to explore new depths of his screen persona Stewart's second collaboration with Hitchcock, the thriller
Rear Window, became the
eighth highest-grossing film of 1954. Hitchcock and Stewart also formed a corporation, Patron Inc., to produce the film. Stewart portrayed a photographer, loosely based on
Robert Capa, who projects his fantasies and fears onto the people he observes out his apartment window while on hiatus due to a broken leg and comes to believe that he has witnessed a murder. Limited by his wheelchair, Stewart had to react to what his character sees with mostly facial responses. Like Mann, Hitchcock uncovered new depths to Stewart's acting, showing a protagonist confronting his fears and repressed desires. Although most of the initial acclaim for
Rear Window was directed towards Hitchcock, critic
Vincent Canby later described Stewart's performance in it as "grand" and stated that "[his] longtime star status in Hollywood has always obscured recognition of his talent." 1954 was a landmark year in Stewart's career in terms of audience success, and he topped
Look magazine's list of the most-popular movie stars, displacing rival Western star
John Wayne. Stewart continued his successful box-office run with two collaborations with Mann in 1955.
Strategic Air Command paired him again with June Allyson in a film focusing on the
Cold War. Stewart took a central role in its development, using his experiences from the air force. Despite criticism for the dry, mechanistic storyline, it became the sixth highest-grossing film of 1955. Stewart's final collaboration with Mann in the Western genre,
The Man from Laramie, one of the first Westerns to be shot in
CinemaScope, was well received by the critics and audiences alike. Following his work with Mann, Stewart starred opposite
Doris Day in Hitchcock's remake of his
earlier film
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956). The film was another success. Even though critics preferred the first version, Hitchcock himself considered his remake superior. Stewart's next film,
Billy Wilder's
The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), saw him star as his young adulthood hero,
Charles Lindbergh. It was a big-budget production with elaborate special effects for the flying sequences, but received only mixed reviews and did not earn back its production costs. Stewart ended the year with a starring role in the Western
Night Passage (1957), which had originally been slated as his ninth collaboration with Mann. During the pre-production, a rift developed between Mann and writer
Borden Chase over the script, which Mann considered weak. Mann decided to leave the film and never collaborated with Stewart again.
James Neilson replaced Mann, and the film opened in 1957 to become a box-office flop. Soured by this failure, Stewart avoided the genre and would not make another Western for four years. . Stewart's collaboration with Hitchcock ended the following year with
Vertigo (1958), in which he starred as an
acrophobic former policeman who becomes obsessed with a woman (Kim Novak) he is shadowing. Although
Vertigo has later become considered one of Hitchcock's key works and was ranked the greatest film ever made by the
Sight & Sound critics' poll in 2012, it was met with unenthusiastic reviews and poor box-office receipts upon its release. Regardless, several critics complimented Stewart for his performance, with Bosley Crowther noting, "Mr. Stewart, as usual, manages to act awfully tense in a casual way." Hitchcock blamed the film's failure on Stewart being too old to convincingly be Novak's love interest: he was fifty years old at the time and had begun wearing a silver hairpiece in his movies. Consequently, Hitchcock cast Cary Grant in his next film,
North by Northwest (1959), a role Stewart wanted; Grant was four years older than Stewart but photographed much younger. Stewart's second 1958 film release, the romantic comedy
Bell, Book and Candle (1958), also paired him with Kim Novak, with Stewart later echoing Hitchcock in saying that he was miscast as 25-year-old Novak's romantic partner. The film and Stewart's performance received poor reviews and resulted in a box office failure. However, according to film scholar David Bingham, by the early 1950s, "Stewart's personality was so credible and well-established", that his choice of role no longer affected his popularity. Stewart ended the decade with
Otto Preminger's realistic courtroom drama
Anatomy of a Murder (1959) and the crime film
The FBI Story (1959). The former was a box office success despite its explicit dealing with subjects such as rape, and garnered good reviews. Stewart received critical acclaim for his role as a small-town lawyer involved in a difficult murder case; Bosley Crowther called it "one of the finest performances of his career". Stewart won his first BAFTA, a
Volpi Cup, a
New York Film Critics Circle Award, and a
Producers Guild of America Award, as well as earned his fifth and final Academy Award nomination for his performance.
The FBI Story, in which Stewart portrayed a Depression-era FBI agent, was less well received by critics and was commercially unsuccessful. Despite its commercial failure, the film marked the close of the most commercially successful decade of Stewart's career. According to Quigley's annual poll, Stewart was one of the top money-making stars for ten years, appearing in the top ten in 1950, 1952–1959, and 1965. He topped the list in 1955.
1960–1970: Westerns and later career Stewart opened the new decade by starring in the war film
The Mountain Road (1960). To his surprise, it was a box office failure, despite his claims that it was one of the best scripts he'd ever read. He began a new director collaboration with
John Ford, making his debut in his films in the Western
Two Rode Together (1961), which had thematic echoes of Ford's
The Searchers. The same year, he also narrated the film
X-15 for the USAF. Stewart was considered for the role of
Atticus Finch in the 1962
film adaptation of
Harper Lee's novel
To Kill a Mockingbird, but he turned it down, concerned that the story was too controversial. Stewart and Ford's next collaboration was
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). A classic psychological Western, the picture was shot in black-and-white
film noir style at Ford's insistence, with Stewart as an
East Coast attorney who goes against his non-violent principles when he is forced to confront a psychopathic outlaw (
Lee Marvin) in a small frontier town. The complex film initially garnered mixed reviews but became a critical favorite over the ensuing decades. Stewart was
billed above John Wayne in posters and the trailers, but Wayne received top billing in the film itself. Stewart, Wayne, and Ford also collaborated for a television play that same year,
Flashing Spikes (1962), for
ABC's anthology series
Alcoa Premiere, albeit featuring Wayne billed with a television pseudonym, "Michael Morris", (also used for Wayne's brief appearance in the John Ford-directed episode of the television series
Wagon Train titled "
The Colter Craven Story") for his lengthy cameo. Next, Stewart appeared as part of an all-star cast—including Henry Fonda and John Wayne—in
How the West Was Won, a Western epic released in the United States in early 1963. The film went on to win three Academy Awards and reap massive box-office figures. in
Dear Brigitte (1965) In 1962, Stewart signed a multi-movie deal with
20th Century Fox. The first two of these films reunited him with director Henry Koster in the family-friendly comedies
Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962) with
Maureen O'Hara and ''
Take Her, She's Mine'' (1963), which were both box-office successes. The former received moderately positive reviews and won Stewart the
Silver Bear for Best Actor at the
Berlin International Film Festival; the latter was panned by the critics. Stewart then appeared in John Ford's final Western,
Cheyenne Autumn (1964), playing a white-suited
Wyatt Earp in a long semi-comedic sequence in the middle of the movie. The film failed domestically and was quickly forgotten. In 1965, Stewart was given his first honorary award for his career, the
Cecil B. DeMille Award. He appeared in three films that year. The Fox family-comedy
Dear Brigitte (1965), which featured French actress
Brigitte Bardot as the object of Stewart's son's infatuation, was a box-office failure. The Civil War film
Shenandoah (1965) was a commercial success with strong anti-war and humanitarian themes.
The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) continued Stewart's series of aviation-themed films; it was well-received critically, but a box-office failure. For the next few years, Stewart acted in a series of Westerns:
The Rare Breed (1966) with
Maureen O'Hara,
Firecreek (1968) with Henry Fonda,
Bandolero! (1968) with
Dean Martin, and
The Cheyenne Social Club (1970) with Henry Fonda again. In 1968, he received the
Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. Stewart returned on Broadway to reprise his role as Elwood P. Dowd in
Harvey at the
ANTA Theatre in February 1970; the revival ran until May. He won the
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance for it.
1971–1997: Television and semi-retirement In 1971, Stewart starred in the
NBC sitcom
The Jimmy Stewart Show. He played a small-town college professor whose adult son moves back home with his family. Stewart disliked the amount of work needed to film the show each week and was relieved when it was canceled after only one season due to bad reviews and poor ratings. His only film release for 1971, the comedy-drama ''
Fools' Parade, was more positively received. Robert Greenspun of The New York Times'' stated that "the movie belongs to Stewart, who has never been more wonderful". For his contributions to Western films, Stewart was inducted into the
Hall of Great Western Performers at the
National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in
Oklahoma City in 1972. '' (1973), which ran for one season.|alt=A sepia-toned headshot of a silver-haired Stewart in a suit Stewart returned to television in
Harvey for NBC's
Hallmark Hall of Fame series in 1972 and then starred in the
CBS mystery series
Hawkins in 1973. Playing a small-town lawyer investigating mysterious cases—similar to his character in
Anatomy of a Murder—Stewart won a
Golden Globe for his performance. Nevertheless,
Hawkins failed to gain a wide audience, possibly because it rotated with
Shaft, which had a starkly conflicting demographic, and was canceled after one season. Stewart also periodically appeared on
Johnny Carson's
The Tonight Show, sharing poems he had written at different times in his life. His poems were later compiled into a short collection,
Jimmy Stewart and His Poems (1989). After performing again in
Harvey at the
Prince of Wales Theatre in London in 1975, Stewart returned to films with a major supporting role in John Wayne's final film,
The Shootist (1976), playing a doctor giving Wayne's gunfighter a terminal cancer diagnosis. By this time, Stewart had a hearing impairment, which affected his ability to hear his cues and led to him repeatedly flubbing his lines; his vanity would not allow him to admit this or to wear a hearing aid. Stewart was offered the role of Howard Beale in
Network (1976) but refused it due to its explicit language. Instead, he appeared in supporting roles in the disaster film ''
Airport '77 (1977) with Jack Lemmon, the remake of The Big Sleep (1978) with Robert Mitchum as Philip Marlowe, and the family film The Magic of Lassie (1978). Despite mixed reviews, Airport '77
was a box-office success, but the two other films were commercial and critical failures. Harry Haun of New York Daily News
wrote in his review of The Big Sleep'' that it was "really sad to see James Stewart struggle so earnestly with material that just isn't there". Stewart made a memorable cameo appearance on the final episode of
The Carol Burnett Show in March 1978, surprising Burnett, a lifelong Stewart fan. Stewart's final live-action feature film was the critically panned Japanese film
The Green Horizon (1980), directed by
Susumu Hani. Stewart took the role because the film promoted wildlife conservation and allowed his family to travel with him to
Kenya. In the 1980s, Stewart semi-retired from acting. He was offered the role of Norman Thayer in
On Golden Pond (1981) but turned it down because he disliked the film's father-daughter relationship; the role went instead to his friend, Henry Fonda. Stewart filmed two television movies in the 1980s: ''
Mr. Krueger's Christmas (1980), produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which allowed him to fulfill a lifelong dream to conduct the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and Right of Way (1983), an HBO drama that co-starred Bette Davis. He also made an appearance in the historical miniseries North and South'' in 1986 and did voiceover work for commercials for
Campbell's Soups in the 1980s and 1990s. Stewart's last film performance was voicing the character of Sheriff Wylie Burp in the animated movie
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991). Stewart remained in the public eye due to his frequent visits to the
White House during the
Reagan administration. The re-release of Hitchcock films gained him renewed recognition, with
Rear Window and
Vertigo praised by film critics. Stewart also received several honorary film industry awards at the end of his career: an
American Film Institute Award in 1980, a
Silver Bear in 1982,
Kennedy Center Honors in 1983, an Academy Honorary Award in 1985, and
National Board of Review and
Film Society of Lincoln Center's Chaplin Award in 1990. The honorary Oscar was presented by former co-star Cary Grant "for his 50 years of memorable performances, for his high ideals both on and off the screen, with respect and affection of his colleagues". ==Personal life==