James Stewart: A Biography [Hardcover]

Donald Dewey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 21, 1997

A revealing portrait of screen legend James Stewart provides a close-up look at the actor's long-time career in film, his military service during World War II, and his personal life, based on nearly two hundred interviews with friends, colleagues, fellow airmen, and others.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

After a brief stint on Broadway, Jimmy Stewart went to Hollywood and soon made such classics as "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," and "The Philadelphia Story." He symbolized the patriotism of the time, and even joined the army in World War II, winning a Distinguished Flying Cross. Up to that point, his characters had espoused the same values that Stewart himself, a devout Presbyterian, lived by. But after the war, his youthful exuberance faded, and he settled into darker roles, including his classic performances in Hitchcock's "Rear Window" and "Vertigo." Biographer Donald Dewey suggests that while the boyish charm of his early characters reflected pre-war hopefulness, his disturbed, nearly psychotic later characters mirrored the introspection and suspicion of the 1950s.

From Library Journal

Some fans may be reluctant to read this book for fear of revelations besmirching Stewart's all-American persona. There are a few surprises about him, but basically, you will find that he is the pleasant, reclusive, conservative guy we have heard about and that is at the heart of his small-town-boy-becomes-movie-star legend. A history of Indiana, Pennsylvania, where Stewart grew up, sets the foundation for his family life. Following chapters on his childhood and military school, the Princeton years portray him as the embodiment of the all-American boy we know from movies. The Hollywood years are, of course, the core of the book. Dewey (Marcello Mastroianni, Carol Pub. Group, 1993) quite successfully mingles yearly synopses of Stewart's movies with information about what was going on in his personal life while making each. The author also includes some great inside information on actors, directors, and others involved with Stewart's movies. The comments about Stewart's performances come from interviews with those who worked with him and from Stewart himself. Highly recommended for biography and film collections.?Judy Hauser, Oakland Schs. Lib. Svcs., Waterford, Mich.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Turner Publishing; 1st edition (July 21, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570362270
• ISBN-13: 978-1570362279
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,797,468 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This book is thoroughly written and researched., December 9, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: James Stewart: A Biography (Hardcover)

I have read many books about the life of Jimmy Stewart and found that this one is the most thorough and balanced. Mr. Dewey details Jimmy Stewart's life from all angles but never resorts to smarmy or tabloid-like tactics. While he does not sugar coat Stewart, he doesn't blast him either; he leaves the reader to draw his/her own conclusions. This is the book I would recommend to anyone who wished to find out as much as possible about one of the greatest actors and intriguing personalities of the 20th century.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Rather Pedestrian., September 6, 2006

By 

JOHN GODFREY (Milwaukee ,WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: James Stewart (Audio Cassette)

I wanted a full life biography of James Stewart, the great, quintessentially American actor. I found it in Donald Dewey tome, 512 pages worth. It was available in the unabridged audio version. Mr. Dewey spends quite a bit of time on Stewart hometown of Indiana, Pennsylvania. It is rather unremarkable except as the birthplace of Stewart & Mr. Dewey spends too much time on it & the townsfolk. Stewart himself rarely returned after he left. Stewart was the product of a middle class family in small town America. Unlike most celebrities,his upbringing was entirely normal & perhaps even boring. He idolized his father & the love was returned. They were always close & His father remained the most important influence on Stewart's life. That life was tightly controlled by his father with apparently little opposition until he set out on his own after Princeton. The book chronicles every movie Stewart made. His career is clearly divided into two distinct chapters: before & after World WarII. Before the war he was already a major star. After many supporting roles, he broke through with one of the defining roles of his career, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. It raised a political firestorm & was condemned by many in government who wanted it banned. It spoke of corruption in government & the corrosive influence of power on elected officials & their unelected cronies put into positions of power. Other lighter fare Such as Destry, Shop Around the Corner & The Philadelphia Story were made in 1939-40. He was the all American boy, single, good looking & as was said in Hollywood, "a good catch". There was very little scandal attached to Stewart but he certainly was not a monk. The war changed everything. He grew up. He had enlisted early & was a decorated bomber pilot seeing considerable action. He did very little movie making aside from PSA's for the military, of which he was very fond. He hated the word hero, feeling it was overused then as it certainly is now. It has lost most of its value. He rarely talked about the war & did very few movies about it. The tone of his movies now became a bit darker as did movies in general post war. One his favorite movies was Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life & Mr. Dewey spends some time taking about this, possibly Capra's as well as Stewart,s most well known movie. I think Stewart's personal favorite was Harvey from 1950. The story about an invisible rabbit that only Stewart's character could see. He did the movie, & performed it several different times on stage & also a tv version. Mr. Dewey ponders long & hard on why this was. There are so many great movies. He was such a good hardworking professional actor. He didn't particularly care about the movie-star part but was always repectful to fans, never forgeting who got him there. He liked doing biographies. He insisted on doing The Spirit of St. Louis. He was playing Charles Lindberg at 25 when he was actually twice that age. Not bad, but it is maybe one movie that could use a remake. His conservative politics started to show in movies such as the propaganda pieces, The FBI Story & Strategic Air Command. Both are good entertaining movies for their time. By 1965 his best acting days were gone & his politics hardening more along the way. The author teases us with the possibility that he not Ronald Reagon could have run for govenor of California. They were great friends & Stewart had helped Reagan out with guest appearences on several of Reagan's tv shows in the early 60's. Most interesting was the lifelong friendship Stewart had with Henry Fonda. Two more politically opposite men you could not find. A right wing reactionary vs a left wing-nut. Apparently they didn't discuss politics but were friend from their days as struggling actors in the 1930's. Stewart was with Fonda in the middle of filming
The Cheyenne Social Club in 1970 when the greatest tragedy of his life occurred: The death of his son in Vietnam. It tore him apart given his strong support of that war. He seldom spoke of him again. A great source of strength was his wife Gloria. He married rather later in life & when she died before him, I think he felt his life was over. The charges he was a racist are a little hard. Prejudiced, perhaps, inability or unwiilingness to change, definitely. We need to have big biographies on important figures of the 20th century & in the field of cinema, James Stewart is a giant. This biography is okay, but could have used a little more pi-zazz.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A life-story competently told, but uninspired, October 17, 1997

By 

Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: James Stewart: A Biography (Hardcover)

The memory of Jimmy Stewart suffers not at all in this well-researched biography. A nice touch is the brief summary and review of each movie in which Stewart appeared over the course of his lifetime, and the impact, for better or worse, that each had on his career. However, the author's prose style is dry as toast and lacking in any humor whatsoever. What could have been an outstanding work is, in the end, only a competent treatment of his subject.