Provided by Wikipedia James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military pilot. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morality he portrayed both on and off the screen, he epitomized the "American ideal" in the twentieth century. In 1999, the American Film Institute (AFI) ranked him third on its list of the greatest American male actors.
Stewart's first postwar role was as George Bailey in Capra's ''It's a Wonderful Life'' (1946). Although the film was not a major success upon release, he earned an Oscar nomination and the film has become a Christmas classic, as well as one of his most well known roles. In the 1950s, Stewart played darker, more morally ambiguous characters in movies directed by Anthony Mann, including ''Winchester '73'' (1950), ''The Glenn Miller Story'' (1954) and ''The Naked Spur'' (1953), and by Alfred Hitchcock in ''Rope'' (1948), ''Rear Window'' (1954), ''The Man Who Knew Too Much'' (1956), and ''Vertigo'' (1958). His other films in the '50s included the Broadway adaptation ''Harvey'' (1950) and the courtroom drama ''Anatomy of a Murder'' (1959), both of which landed him Oscar nominations. He was one of the most popular film stars of the '50s, with most of his films becoming box office successes. Stewart's later Westerns included ''The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'' (1962) with John Wayne and ''Cheyenne Autumn'' (1964), both directed by John Ford. He appeared in many popular family comedies during the 1960s. After brief ventures into television acting, Stewart semi-retired by the 1980s. He received many honorary awards, including an Academy Honorary Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, both in 1985.
Stewart remained unmarried until his 40s and was dubbed "The Great American Bachelor" by the press. In 1949, he married former model Gloria Hatrick McLean. They had twin daughters, and he adopted her two sons from her previous marriage. The marriage lasted until McLean's death in 1994; Stewart died of a pulmonary embolism three years later.
