Jimmy Stewart: A Wonderful Life [Hardcover]

Jonathan Coe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 4, 1994

Traces the life of one of Hollywood's favorite leading men, from his childhood in Pennsylvania, through his appearances in such films as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, to his transformation into an American icon.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With his leisurely, naturalistic delivery, his oddly graceful awkwardness and his ability to convey incorruptible virtue, Jimmy Stewart (b. 1908) has done more than any American, argues the author, "to embody the often contradictory spirit of his country and give it convincing expression on the screen." Coe, a British journalist, traces the actor's journey from a small Pennsylvania town to his earliest theatrical experience in Princeton's Triangle Club, his rise through the ranks of Hollywood's studio system and his breakthrough to stardom in Frank Capra movies. After a wartime stint as a bomber pilot and squadron leader, Stewart suffered a run of bad luck in his choice of roles; but then Winchester '73 (the "Casablanca of Westerns") marked the emergence of a rougher screen persona for him and turned him into one of the top box-office draws of the 1950s. His role in that movie also foreshadowed the tormented characterizations he displayed in movies he made under the direction of Anthony Mann and Alfred Hitchcock. In Vertigo , according to Coe, Stewart "brought to the screen--without recourse to histrionics--emotional states more extreme than any that had previously been portrayed in mainstream cinema." Coe is a perceptive critic; his comments on Stewart and his 77-film career are worth reading. Photos.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Coe's photo-biography is filled with color and black-and-white scenes from Stewart's life and films. Coe takes umbrage at Stewart's popular image as the "cinematic equivalent of Mom's apple pie" and points out how often his film roles contradict this image. Interlaced with the descriptive, critical, and amusing perspectives on each film and major role are the major events of Stewart's life off-camera. A tribute that reaches to Stewart's last role as the voice of Wylie Burp in An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1990). Denise Perry Donavin

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing (April 4, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559702575
• ISBN-13: 978-1559702577
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 10.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,228,026 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Why did the author write this biography?, January 16, 2006

By 

Suzanne H. Schrems (Horse Creek Publications, Norman Oklahoma) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jimmy Stewart: A Wonderful Life (Hardcover)

If you are looking for an objective analysis of Jimmy Stewart's life and career, this is not the book to buy and read. Jonathan Coe, a journalist who writes for the Guardian and London Review of Books, seems not to know what it means to be a conservative. Throughout this book, Coe refers to the inconsistencies in Stewart's life because of the actor's politics, conservative, were in conflict with the different rolls he played on the screen. For example, in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Coe thought it odd that Stewart played a part that championed the little guy (fighting for a boy scout camp against the developer) and not take the side of the developer, which Coe believed Stewart's conservative politics would mandate. Coe also claimed that Stewart must have had a difficult time playing the part of a pacifist in Shenandoah, which again did not mesh very well Stewart's politics. In all, Coe paints a less than attractive portrait of Jimmy Stewart and one has to ask, " Why did the author spend time researching and writing this biography?" It is also clear that Coe has little understanding of what it means to be a political conservative in the United States.