[Dean's World] Dean: An Odd Bit Of Hollywood History: Brigadier General James Stewart

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Posted by Dean:
An Odd Bit Of Hollywood History: Brigadier General James Stewart
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1167791253.shtml


   Everybody who loves old movies loves Jimmy Stewart. He made so many
   great movies. He was George Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life, which
   most Americans remember as an all-time Christmas classic. But he made
   countless other great movies, including Harvey, Mr. Smith Goes To
   Washington, Anatomy of a Murder, The Glenn Miller Story, The Shootist,
   Shenandoah, How The West Was Won, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,
   Vertigo, The Spirit of St. Louis, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Naked
   Spur, The Philadelphia Story, and a host of other classic films.
   Westerns and screwball comedies, mostly, but also murder mysteries and
   many other great films.

   He also had a successful career as a Broadway actor.

   He was nominated for an Academy Award five times, and won two.

   An interesting thing about Stewart that most people don't know,
   however, is that he was a member of the United States Army Air Corps
   (and later the Air Force) for much of his life. He flew numerous
   combat missions over Germany during World War II. He received the
   Distinguished Flying Cross twice, the Air Medal with three oak leaf
   clusters, and even the Croix de Guerre from the French government for
   his role in the liberation of France from Nazi forces. He retired from
   the Air Force a Brigadier General in the 1960s. [1]No kidding.

   He never, in his entire career as an actor, wanted any of this
   promoted or publicized by his agents or the studios he worked for. He
   found the whole idea unseemly.

   Now there's a great American, eh?

References

   1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stewart_%28actor%29