# Happy 100th Birthday Jimmy Stewart
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-birthday-jimmy-stewart/450007
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 20, 2008, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-birthday-jimmy-stewart/450007 "2008-05-20T19:16:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2008, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-birthday-jimmy-stewart/450007/1 "2008-05-20T19:16:41Z")
(5/20/1908 - 7/2/1997)
My pick (and I’m sure a lot of others’) for most likeable screen actor of all time. Also war hero, snappy dresser, and to a generation gone by at least, prime male role model.
What are your favorite Jimmy Stewart performances?
[his IMDb page](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000071/)
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### Author:  [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2008, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-birthday-jimmy-stewart/450007/2 "2008-05-20T19:28:54Z")
Seeing \*Destry Rides Again \* in a classic movie palace was the first time I really “got” why people loved Jimmy Stewart. Growing up, I’d seen him on TV, reading his kind-of-lame poetry to Johnny Carson, and I thought he was just some old guy. When I was in college our local 1920s theatre ran a series of old movies and I went to see _Destry_. It was a terrible print and it broke several times, but that just did it for me. I was a goner.
My husband took me to see \*It’s a Wonderful Life \* at the same theatre on our first date. One week from today is our 13th anniversary.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2008, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-birthday-jimmy-stewart/450007/3 "2008-05-20T19:40:03Z")
**Elwood P. Dowd:** _I’d just put Ed Hickey into a taxi. Ed had been mixing his rye with his gin, and I just felt that he needed conveying. Well, anyway, I was walking down along the street and I heard this voice saying, “Good evening, Mr. Dowd.” Well, I turned around and here was this big six-foot rabbit leaning up against a lamp-post. Well, I thought nothing of that because when you’ve lived in a town as long as I’ve lived in this one, you get used to the fact that everybody knows your name._
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2008, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-birthday-jimmy-stewart/450007/4 "2008-05-20T20:08:57Z")
I think the first time I became aware of Stewart as an actor was in **Spirit of St. Louis** (1957), although I’d probably seen him in a western or two prior to that. He was such an engaging character on screen, and I seem to recall him coming to Anchorage and giving a talk at a school assembly, dressed in his uniform.
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### Author:  [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2008, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-birthday-jimmy-stewart/450007/5 "2008-05-20T22:28:20Z")
I liked his interview with Dieter on Sprockets.
Seriously, It’s A Wonderful Life, but then again that’s one of my three favorite movies. (The other two are Bride of Frankenstein and A Clockwork Orange- how’s THAT for eclectic?)
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### Author:  [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2008, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-birthday-jimmy-stewart/450007/6 "2008-05-20T22:59:11Z")
Also from _ **Harvey** _, just a few minutes before **silenus** ’ quote:
> [@Elwood P. Dowd](#):
>
> Harvey and I sit in the bars… have a drink or two… play the juke box. And soon the faces of all the other people they turn toward mine and they smile. And they’re saying, “We don’t know your name, mister, but you’re a very nice fella.” Harvey and I warm ourselves in all these golden moments. We’ve entered as strangers - soon we have friends. And they come over… and they sit with us… and they drink with us… and they talk to us. They tell about the big terrible things they’ve done and the big wonderful things they’ll do. Their hopes, and their regrets, and their loves, and their hates. All very large, because nobody ever brings anything small into a bar. And then I introduce them to Harvey… and he’s bigger and grander than anything they offer me. And when they leave, they leave impressed. The same people seldom come back; but that’s envy, my dear. There’s a little bit of envy in the best of us.
And then this scene from _ **The Philadelphia Story** _:
> [@](#):
>
> Macaulay Connor: Tracy.
> Tracy Lord: What do you want?
> Macaulay Connor: You’re wonderful. There’s a magnificence in you, Tracy.
> Tracy Lord: Now I’m getting self-conscious. It’s funny. I - Mike? Let’s…
> Macaulay Connor: Yeah?
> Tracy Lord: I don’t know - go up, I guess, it’s late.
> Macaulay Connor: A magnificence that comes out of your eyes, in your voice, in the way you stand there, in the way you walk. You’re lit from within, Tracy. You’ve got fires banked down in you, hearth-fires and holocausts.
> Tracy Lord: I don’t seem to you made of bronze?
> Macaulay Connor: No, you’re made out of flesh and blood. That’s the blank, unholy surprise of it. You’re the golden girl, Tracy. Full of life and warmth and delight. What goes on? You’ve got tears in your eyes.
> Tracy Lord: Shut up, shut up. Oh, Mike. Keep talking, keep talking. Talk, will you?
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### Author:  [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2008, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-birthday-jimmy-stewart/450007/7 "2008-05-20T23:01:55Z")
I never, ever liked **It’s a Wonderful Life** , and I disliked Jimmy Stewart because of that. Then I saw him in **Vertigo** and **Rear Window** and was creeped the fuck out. I disliked him even more.
Then I saw him in **The Philadelphia Story** , and I absolutely fell in love and repented for my earlier sins. There’s not a single moment of his performance that I don’t adore.
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### Author:  [@Made\_in\_Macau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Made_in_Macau)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2008, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-birthday-jimmy-stewart/450007/8 "2008-05-20T23:12:33Z")
The ‘Groundfloor’ scene in It’s a Wonderful Life - looking at Mary and talking on the phone - then saying ‘I dont want any’groundfloor’ and I dont want any ‘plastics’…oh Mary’ They kiss the kissingest kisss in kissdom.
MiM
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### Author:  [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2008, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-birthday-jimmy-stewart/450007/9 "2008-05-21T00:04:39Z")
In honor of this birthday, the theme of the crossword puzzle in Saturday’s Chicago Tribune was James Stewart and his movies.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2008, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-birthday-jimmy-stewart/450007/10 "2008-05-21T00:25:50Z")
I’d probably go with _Harvey_, too. _It’s a Wonderful Life_ is overrated, but that’s not Stewart’s fault, and he was quite good in _Rear Window_ and _The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance_.
I also loved seeing him in _After the Thin Man_, for reasons I cannot explain (I know why, but you’ll have to discover it for yourself).
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### Author:  [@Rattlehead02](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rattlehead02)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2008, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-birthday-jimmy-stewart/450007/11 "2008-05-21T02:55:45Z")
**Mr. Smith goes to Washington**
Holy shit he was young. I caught it for the first time a few months ago. While some of it is extremely cheesy these days I think it held up very well. And damn, Stewart was great in it.
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### Author:  [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2008, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-birthday-jimmy-stewart/450007/12 "2008-05-21T06:53:38Z")
Definitely _Harvey_. It’s the only movie of his I have on tape. Yep, tape.
more quotes:
Elwood P. Dowd: _Well, I’ve wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor, and I’m happy to state I finally won out over it._
Elwood P. Dowd: \*Years ago my mother used to say to me, she’d say, “In this world, Elwood, you must be” - she always called me Elwood - “In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.” Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me. \*
I did. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Don\_t\_Call\_Me\_Shirley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Call_Me_Shirley)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2008, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-birthday-jimmy-stewart/450007/13 "2008-05-21T14:00:40Z")
My favorite memory of Stewart is him reading the poem he wrote about his dog on the Carson show.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2008, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-birthday-jimmy-stewart/450007/14 "2008-05-21T14:32:23Z")
He was an outspoken and staunch Republican, but was so well-liked in Hollywood because of his stellar personality and character that very few people held this against him. The closest anyone came was probably Henry Fonda - the two came to blows over some sort of political discussion, and then maintained their lifetime friendship by never discussing politics again.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2008, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-birthday-jimmy-stewart/450007/15 "2008-05-21T14:39:19Z")
Stewart seems to have been typecast in good-guy roles. Did he ever play a villain or a total bastard?
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### Author:  [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2008, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-birthday-jimmy-stewart/450007/16 "2008-05-21T15:26:58Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
Stewart seems to have been typecast in good-guy roles. Did he ever play a villain or a total bastard?
[/QUOTE]
His roles in the Hitchcock movies were complex ones in which he wasn’t ever a classic good guy.
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### Author:  [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2008, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-birthday-jimmy-stewart/450007/17 "2008-05-21T15:30:42Z")
**Bell, Book, and Candle**
Once again, Kim Novak is completely edible.
I really liked when he surprised Carol Burnett on her show. She was a HUGE fan, and completely out of the blue during her opening monologue the curtain opened to Jimmy Stewart playing “Ragtime Cowboy Joe” at the piano. She was speechless.
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### Author:  [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2008, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-birthday-jimmy-stewart/450007/18 "2008-05-21T16:12:35Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
Stewart seems to have been typecast in good-guy roles. Did he ever play a villain or a total bastard?
[/QUOTE]
I think he was a right bastard in **Vertigo**. Oh sure, there are moments when you can feel sorry for him because he seems like a pawn, but at the same time…that character was one fucked up dude.
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### Author:  [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2008, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-birthday-jimmy-stewart/450007/19 "2008-05-21T16:28:41Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
Stewart seems to have been typecast in good-guy roles. Did he ever play a villain or a total bastard?
[/QUOTE]
I believe the only villain he ever played was in _After The Thin Man_, 1936, before he became typecast as a good guy.
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### Author:  [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2008, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-birthday-jimmy-stewart/450007/20 "2008-05-21T17:42:08Z")
This thread makes me tear up. God, I miss him.
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