JIMMY STEWART - His WONDERFUL LIFE

AFTER YEARS SPENT CHASING STARDOM, THE BELOVED ACTOR FOUND HIS CALLING AS A HUSBAND AND FATHER

- LOUISE A. BARILE

In 1949, Jimmy Stewart and his new bride, Gloria, purchased a house on Roxbury Drive in Beverly Hills. Over the next 40-plus years, it’s where they’d raise their family, entertain friends, and experience the happiest and saddest days of their marriage.

The couple kept a little book of poems Jimmy published in 1989, his Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a chair where he liked to work in their home library. “Dad sat in a big, comfy armchair that had a matching footrest,” says his daughter Kelly Stewart-Harcourt. “When he was working on a movie, he would sit with the script in his hands and his lips moving, saying his lines to himself.”

By the time he became a family man, at age 41, the It’s a Wonderful Life star had already lived many lives. He’d spent his youth as a starving actor in New York, moved west to become a Hollywood contract player, and finally emerged in the late 1930s as a leading man. But with the outbreak of World War II, Jimmy put his film work on hold and joined the Air Force to fly combat missions over Europe. “He had this very strong sense of duty,” explains Kelly.

SETTLING DOWN

When Jimmy returned to civilian life, he realized he needed to get serious. In his younger years, he’d romanced Ginger Rogers, Olivia de Havilland, Loretta Young and more, but he had always avoided commitment. “His friends were getting married, and he thought it was time,” explains Kelly. “I think he was also waiting for the right woman.”