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I’m Shirley Griffith.
VOICE 2:
And I’m Rich Kleinfeldt with theVOA Special English program, People in America. Today, we tell thestory of actor James Stewart. His movies were loved by people aroundthe world.
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James Maitland Stewart was born in the small eastern town ofIndiana, Pennsylvania, in nineteen-oh-eight. His father had ahardware store that had been owned by the Stewart family since theeighteen-fifties.
During high school, Jimmy played football, and acted in plays. Healso learned to play the accordion. He took the accordion with himto college at Princeton University, where he joined a musical groupcalled the Triangle Club. Through the club, he met studentsinterested in performing.
Jimmy studied architecture at Princeton. He graduated innineteen-thirty-two. Just before graduation, a friend asked him tojoin an acting group for the summer. Jimmy agreed because he thoughtit would be a good way to meet girls.
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Jimmy Stewart said later that if his friend had not asked him tojoin the summer theater group, he would never have been an actor. Hewould have returned home to help his father in the store. Instead,he met a number of good young actors while performing that summer inCape Cod, Massachusetts. One was Henry Fonda, who would be a friendthroughout his life.
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Jimmy Stewart performed in Broadway plays in New York City untilthe Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie company gave him an acting job. Hemoved to California in nineteen-thirty-five. He acted in more thantwenty-four movies over the next six years. He appeared in all kindsof movies: funny ones, sad ones and musical ones. He even sang asong in the movie “Born to Dance.” It is called “Easy to Love”:
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The movie that made Jimmy Stewart a real Hollywood star was “Mr.Smith Goes to Washington.” It was released in nineteen-thirty-nine.The next year, he won an Academy Award for best actor in “ThePhiladelphia Story.”
The night he won the Academy Award, his father called him on thetelephone from Pennsylvania. “I hear you won some kind of an award,”Alex Stewart said. “You had better bring it back here and we’ll putit in the window of the store.” Jimmy Stewart’s Oscar statue stayedin the window of Stewart’s hardware store in Indiana, Pennsylvania,for twenty-five years.
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Jimmy Stewart was already an established and successful actorwhen World War Two started in Europe. Early in nineteen-forty-one,he tried to join the Army. But he was rejected because he did notweigh enough. So he started eating high fat foods and tried again.This time, he was accepted for military service.
The Army put him in the Air Corps because he already knew how topilot a plane. In nineteen-forty-three, he went to Europe ascommander of an Air Force bomber group. He flew more than twentycombat missions, leading as many as one-thousand planes at a timeover Germany. He returned to the United States innineteen-forty-five as a colonel.
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Jimmy Stewart won several military awards for excellentperformance under very dangerous conditions. He remained in the airforce reserve after the war. In nineteen-fifty-nine he was made ageneral. Each year, he took part in two weeks of active militaryduty. In nineteen-sixty-six, he requested combat duty and took partin a bombing strike over Vietnam.
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After World War Two, Jimmy Stewart returned to Hollywood. Hefound that his new movies were not as popular as his earlier oneshad been. One example was “It’s a Wonderful Life.” It was releasedin nineteen-forty-six. The movie was not a success at first. Butover time it has become one of the best loved American movies.
Jimmy Stewart said in later years that “It’s a Wonderful Life”was the movie he liked best. It tells the story of a small town manwho feels the world would have been better if he had never lived. Anangel comes to him and shows him that this is not true. The moviecelebrated values like loyalty and love of family.
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Jimmy Stewart decided to play other kinds of parts after whatseemed to be the failure of “It’s a Wonderful Life.” He was areporter in “Call Northside Seven-Seven-Seven” the next year. He wasa suspicious head of a school in the murder movie “Rope” innineteen-forty-eight. In the nineteen-fifties, he appeared in manywestern movies such as “Winchester Seventy-Three” and “BrokenArrow.”
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Jimmy Stewart enjoyed his greatest popularity in thenineteen-fifties. In nineteen-fifty-nine, he won awards from theVenice Film Festival, the New York Film Critics and the Film DailyWriters. The awards honored him for his performance in the movie”Anatomy of a Murder.” He was the defense attorney for an armyofficer accused of murder. He was nominated for an Academy Award forthat movie. He was also nominated for an Academy Award for playing aman who has an imaginary rabbit friend, in the movie “Harvey.”
Jimmy Stewart is well-known for his work with the famous directorof mystery movies, Alfred Hitchcock. These movies included “The ManWho Knew Too Much,” “Rear Window” and “Vertigo.” Mr. Stewart alsoplayed real heroes in several movies. He was band leader GlennMiller in “The Glenn Miller Story.” And he was pilot CharlesLindbergh in “The Spirit of Saint Louis.”
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Jimmy Stewart appeared in fewer films in the nineteen-sixties. Hewas a senator in the Old West in “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.”In “The Shootist” he was a doctor in a small town. He also appearedon television. But his two television shows were not successful.
Mr. Stewart began experiencing health problems as he aged. He hadheart disease, skin cancer and hearing loss. But he found time totravel. And he published a book of poetry in nineteen-eighty-nine.It sold more than three-hundred-thousand copies.
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In nineteen-eighty, Jimmy Stewart was honored by the AmericanFilm Institute with an award for his lifetime work. Three yearslater, he received a Kennedy Center honor for his work. And innineteen-eighty-five, President Ronald Reagan gave him the nation’shighest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
People who knew Jimmy Stewart did not praise him just because hewas a good actor and a war hero. They said Jimmy Stewart was one ofthe nicest people they had ever met. He was a man who lived by thevalues he was taught as a child in that small town in Pennsylvania.
He went back to Indiana, Pennsylvania, in nineteen-eighty-three,for his seventieth birthday. The town held a huge celebration in hishonor. President Reagan sent planes to fly over the court house.Parades were held. And a statue of him was placed in the towncenter.
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Jimmy Stewart married Gloria Hatrick McLean innineteen-forty-nine. She had two sons from an earlier marriage.Jimmy raised them as his own. One of the boys was killed during theVietnam War while serving in the Marine Corps. Jimmy and Gloria alsohad twin daughters.
Gloria Stewart died in nineteen-ninety-four. Friends said JimmyStewart was never the same after that. They said he withdrew intohis house because he did not know what to do without her. His healthgot worse. He died on July the second, nineteen-ninety-seven.
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Jimmy Stewart’s daughter Kelly Harcourt spoke at his funeral inBeverly Hills. She reminded mourners of the message of her father’sfavorite movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life” — no man is poor who hasfriends. “Here’s to our father,” she said, “the richest man intown.”
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This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach andproduced by Lawan Davis. I’m Rich Kleinfeldt.
VOICE 1:
And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week at this timefor another People in America program on VOA.