Non-Disney Entertainment
Topic: Best Movie Star Ever?

#	Author	Message
1	Lisann22 Thu 5/15/2008 3:57a	This article prompted me. I love Jimmy Stewart and agree 100% with this article. For me my best movie star is a toss up between Stewart, Henry Fonda and Robert DeNiro. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/...3&sc=510 So you're sitting in a restaurant and James Stewart walks in and sits down at the next table. Do you feel (a) Excited that a major movie star is here? (b) Fluttery at the thought that one of the world's greatest actors is just 5 feet away? Or (c) Glad to see Jimmy? If you answered C, you just explained both why he was a major movie star and why he was a great actor. A hundred years after his birth in Pennsylvania, and 11 years since his death in 1997, Stewart maintains a tight grip on the American imagination that feels more like a gentle handshake. Yup, yup, yup, ol' Jimmy. We remember him as even-tempered, and yet in his movies he was often flying off the handle. We remember him as playing naive bumpkins, but the naivete was usually a shrewd man's pose. We remember him as laconic, but he usually talked a blue streak, and we remember him as unfazed, but he probably did more crying onscreen than any other major actor in history. Ol' Jimmy was not what he seemed. Why do we persist in believing he was a simple man, when he rarely, if ever, played simple men? Invariably, he was smarter, or deeper, or stronger, or angrier, or creepier, or weirder, or braver or simply better than anybody else might have guessed. He played men who hid their feelings from the other characters, but he showed his true feelings to us. We saw them, even as he tried to swallow his anger at the mob, or conceal his smile of contempt for the bad guy or do his best not to become unhinged at the sight of Kim Novak with the wrong hairdo. This is how important Stewart is: He had the best acting career in the history of cinema. Period. To say this requires neither undue confidence nor some mystical formulation. A glance at the filmography removes all doubt. Stewart was a major star for longer than almost anybody else, and he worked with the finest directors. He was a favorite of Hitchcock, Capra, Ford and Anthony Mann, and he made classics or near-classics for Ernst Lubitsch ("The Shop Around the Corner"), George Cukor ("The Philadelphia Story"), Otto Preminger ("Anatomy of a Murder") and Don Siegel ("The Shootist").
2	Kar2oonMan Thu 5/15/2008 8:31a	I wholeheartedly agree with that article. For me, his most amazing moment on film was the scene in "It's a Wonderful Life" when he is at the bar and prays for some sign of hope. It's one of those moments when you forget you are watching a movie -- he is so distraught, broken, frightened, desperate at that moment. I've yet to be able to watch that scene without tearing up.
3	threeundertwo Thu 5/15/2008 11:18a	<---Cries while watching "It's A Wonderful Life" Every. Single. Time. Thanks for the great article.
4	SoThisIsLove Thu 5/15/2008 11:25a	<<Stewart maintains a tight grip on the American imagination that feels more like a gentle handshake. Yup, yup, yup, ol' Jimmy.>> Oh yeah, baby, I picked (C). Ditto on the Wonderful Life thoughts... Man Who Knew Too Much is a classic in our family... And how about "Harvey?" "You Can't Take It With You". There are SO many movies...not enough discussion space. What a man.
5	Lisann22 Thu 5/15/2008 1:24p	I cry each time too. I so love that movie so many poignant moments. My favorite Stewart movie is Mr. Smith Goes To Washigton.
6	ecdc Fri 5/16/2008 12:05a	I love Stewart, but for me it's Humphrey Bogart or Orson Welles. Great article! Thanks for posting it.

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