Profiled in "Back in the Saddle: Essays on Western Film and Television Actors", Gary Yoggy, ed. (McFarland, 1998).
Ranked #10 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]
Recipient of Kennedy Center Honors in 1983.
Replaced Cary Grant as Rupert Cadell in Rope (1948). Ironically, Grant replaced him as Roger Thornhill in North by Northwest (1959).
Some sources state that Stewart was considered to play James Bond in Dr. No (1962). However, it was in fact Stewart Granger, whose real name was James Stewart, who was considered - but ultimately rejected as being too old.
Stewart agreed to play a cameo role in The Shootist (1976) only after John Wayne specifically requested him. His short time on the film proved to be trying. The bad acoustics of the huge, hollow sound stages worsened his hearing difficulties, and he stayed by himself most of the time. He and Wayne muffed their lines so often in the main scene between them that director Don Siegel accused them of not trying hard enough. Wayne's reply was a variation on an old line by John Ford, advising the director that "if you'd like the scene done better, you'd better get a couple of better actors." Later on, the star told friends that Stewart had known his lines, but hadn't been able to hear his cues, and that in turn had caused his own fumbling.
Stewart and Richard Widmark both wore toupees and had hearing problems. On the set of Two Rode Together (1961) director John Ford became frustrated with the two stars being unable to hear his instructions and exclaimed, "Fifty years in this goddamn business, and what do I end up doing? Directing two deaf hairpieces!"
Stewart attended Princeton University from 1925 to 1929, graduating with a bachelor's degree in architecture.
Stewart had two grandsons, John and David Merritt.
Stewart nearly declined to support his friend Ronald Reagan's campaign for the governorship of California in 1966, since Reagan had been a Democrat until 1962. In 1976 Stewart campaigned extensively in California for Reagan in the presidential primaries, especially visiting shopping malls and airports.
Stewart never recovered from his wife's death on Wednesday, February 16th, 1994, and he vowed to make no further public appearances after her funeral service. Thereafter, he spent most of his time in his bedroom, coming out only at the insistence of his housekeeper for his meals. Newspaper reports suggested that Stewart had Alzheimer's disease. Over the Christmas holiday season in 1995m he failed to negotiate a rise leading to a dining area and he fell, cracking his head on the bill of a wooden duck that his daughter Judy had given him some years previously. In December 1996, when he was due to have his battery changed in his pacemaker, he told his children that he would rather not have that done. He wanted to let things take their natural course. However, on Friday, January 31, 1997, Stewart tripped over a potted plant in his bedroom, and he cut open his forehead. He was taken to St John's Hospital, in Santa Monica, Calif., where he was given twelve stitches. A few weeks later, he was hospitalized for a blood clot and an irregular heartbeat. He had a blood clot in his right knee, and the swelling soon spread through his entire leg. At 11:05 a.m. on Wednesday, July 2, 1997, James Stewart died of cardiac arrest at the age of eighty-nine.
Stewart played the accordion.
Stewart starred in the NBC Radio series "The Six Shooter" in 1953 - 54.
Stewart underwent surgery for skin cancer in 1983.
Stewart very much wanted the role of Roger Thornhill in North by Northwest (1959) and he was the original choice for it, but after the financial failure of Vertigo (1958), director Alfred Hitchcock, unfairly blamed the film's box office woes on Stewart, claiming Stewart now looked too old to still attract audiences and cast Cary Grant instead, even though Grant was actually four years older than Stewart. Previously one of the director's favorite collaborators, Stewart and Alfred Hitchcock never worked together again.
Stewart wanted to make Night Passage (1957) because he believed it would give him a chance to show off his accordion playing. However, all of his playing in the film was re-recorded by a professional accordion player.
Stewart was of Scottish and Irish heritage.
Stewart was sometimes amused when critics would always compare him with Henry Fonda, in particular his one marriage versus Fonda's five marriages. Stewart was dismayed that people forgot that he had been romantically linked with numerous actresses before finally marrying at the age of 41.
The James Stewart Museum was dedicated in Indiana, Pennsylvania on Saturday, May 20th, 1995.
The word "Philadelphia" on the Oscar that Jimmy 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, Pennsylvania.