# What accent had James Stewart?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-had-james-stewart/220712
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 23, 2003, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-had-james-stewart/220712 "2003-12-23T20:34:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mogiaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mogiaw)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2003, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-had-james-stewart/220712/1 "2003-12-23T20:34:19Z")
the subject says it all really.
Was Stewart’s accent a real accent from some area of the US or was it a stage accent?
thanks,
Mogiaw
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2003, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-had-james-stewart/220712/2 "2003-12-23T20:39:35Z")
Wuh, wull, he was born and raised in rural Pennsylvania . . . but I think what you mean is his . . . ummm, not “speech impediment,” exactly, but his aw-shucks stammering. That’s not regional, it’s just a personal vocal quirk of his.
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2003, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-had-james-stewart/220712/3 "2003-12-23T20:40:13Z")
James Stewart talked the same in person as he did as an actor.
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### Author:  [@mogiaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mogiaw)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2003, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-had-james-stewart/220712/4 "2003-12-23T20:43:03Z")
So his accent was from rural Pennsylvania?
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### Author:  [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2003, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-had-james-stewart/220712/5 "2003-12-23T23:11:36Z")
James Steware Bio:
[http://www.reelclassics.com/Actors/Jimmy/jimmy-bio.htm](http://www.reelclassics.com/Actors/Jimmy/jimmy-bio.htm)
> [@](#):
>
> JAMES MAITLAND STEWART was born to a hardware store owner and his wife on May 20, 1908 in Indiana, Pennsylvania.
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### Author:  [@Titan2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Titan2)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2003, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-had-james-stewart/220712/6 "2003-12-23T23:16:11Z")
Not exactly rural-more like small town.
His hometown had about 15k people in a county of abt.80k.Nearest big city,Pittsburgh abt.100mi.,or so away.He graduated from Princeton,so he had an exposure to things outside that smalltown circle.
His father had a hardware store in the town’s main shopping area,and the family had been there for years before his birth.
He wasn’t exactly a rube,but played one pretty well.
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2003, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-had-james-stewart/220712/7 "2003-12-24T02:11:48Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Titan2 \*
> \*\*Not exactly rural-more like small town.
>
> His hometown had about 15k people in a county of abt.80k.Nearest big city,Pittsburgh abt.100mi.,or so away.He graduated from Princeton,so he had an exposure to things outside that smalltown circle.
>
> His father had a hardware store in the town’s main shopping area,and the family had been there for years before his birth.
>
> He wasn’t exactly a rube,but played one pretty well. \*\*
Stewart says his father kept working at the hardware store until his death in 1961. He (only half-jokingly) said his father was never quite convinced that Jimmy’s acting hobby would pay off, and felt he had to have a “real” business to leave to Jimmy.
And, as others have mentioned, the town of Indiana (in the state of Pennsylvania) isn’t a major metropolis, but it’s not a tiny hick town, either.
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2003, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-had-james-stewart/220712/8 "2003-12-24T02:37:17Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Eve \*
> \*\*Wuh, wull, he was born and raised in rural Pennsylvania . . . but I think what you mean is his . . . ummm, not “speech impediment,” exactly, but his aw-shucks stammering. That’s not regional, it’s just a personal vocal quirk of his. \*\*
But didn’t Stewart tone down the syncopated stammer after WWII? In a 1966 interview with Peter Bogdanovich he said “I realised I’d better do something, I couldn’t just go on hemming and hawing…I looked at an old picture of mine - _Born To Dance_ - I wanted to vomit. I had to toughen it up.”
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### Author:  [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2003, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-had-james-stewart/220712/9 "2003-12-24T13:51:53Z")
The hemming and hawing was a mannerism - he played heavier roles in several Westerns where it wasn’t present.
He also sang - he played piano and sang “Ragtime Cowboy Joe” on The Carol Burnett Show as a surprise for her.