page_title: James Stewart
section_title: Leading man (1938–1941)
hierarchical_section_title: James Stewart / Career / Leading man (1938–1941)
caption_attribution_description: English: Promotional still from the 1939 film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, published in National Board of Review Magazine
context_page_description: James Maitland Stewart was an American actor and military officer. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart had a film career that spanned over 55 years from 1935 and 1991 and 80 films. With the strong morality he portrayed both on and off the screen, Stewart epitomized the "American ideal" in twentieth-century United States. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him third on its list of the greatest American male actors.
  Born and raised in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Stewart started acting while studying at Princeton University. After graduating in 1932, he began a career as a stage actor, appearing on Broadway and in summer stock productions. In 1935, he signed a film contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The studio did not see leading man material in Stewart, but after three years of supporting roles and being loaned out to other studios, he had his big breakthrough in Frank Capra's ensemble comedy You Can't Take It with You. The following year, Stewart garnered his first of five Academy Award nominations for his portrayal of an idealized and virtuous man who becomes a senator in Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
context_section_description: Despite good reviews, Stewart was still a minor star and MGM remained hesitant to cast him in leading roles, preferring to loan him out to other studios. After a well-received supporting part in Of Human Hearts (1938), he was loaned to RKO to act opposite Ginger Rogers in the romantic comedy Vivacious Lady (1938). The production was shut down for months in 1937 as Stewart recovered from an undisclosed illness, during which he was hospitalized. RKO initially wanted to replace Stewart, but eventually, the project was canceled. However, Rogers's success in a stage musical caused the film to be picked up again. Stewart was recast in Vivacious Lady at Rogers's insistence and due to his performance in Of Human Hearts. It was a critical and commercial success, and showed Stewart's talent for performing in romantic comedies; The New York Herald called him "one of the most knowing and engaging young actors appearing on the screen at present."
  Stewart's third film release of 1938, the First World War drama The Shopworn Angel, saw him collaborate again with Margaret Sullavan. In his performance, Stewart drew upon his own feelings of unrequited love towards Sullavan, who was married to his agent, Leland Hayward. Although the film was otherwise well-received, critics were mixed about Stewart. Bland Johaneson of the New York Daily Mirror compared him to Stan Laurel in this melodramatic film and Variety called his performance unfocused. Irene Thier of The New York Post wrote that his role was "just another proof that this young man is one of the finest actors of the screen's young roster."
  Stewart became a major star when he was loaned out to Columbia Pictures to play the lead role in Frank Capra's You Can't Take It With You (1938) opposite Jean Arthur. Stewart played the son of a banker who falls in love with a woman from a poor and eccentric family. Capra had recently completed several well-received films, and was looking for a new type of leading man. He had been impressed by Stewart's role in Navy Blue and Gold (1937). According to Capra, Stewart was one of the best actors ever to hit the screen, understood character archetypes intuitively and required little directing. You Can't Take It With You became the fifth highest-grossing film of the year and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The film was also critically successful, but while Variety wrote that the performances of Stewart and Arthur garnered "much of the laughs," most of the critical acclaim went to Lionel Barrymore and Edward Arnold.
  In contrast to the success of You Can't Take It With You, Stewart's first three film releases of 1939 were all commercial disappointments. In the melodrama Made for Each Other (1939), he shared the screen with Carole Lombard. Stewart blamed its directing and screenwriting for its poor box-office performance. Regardless, the film received favorable reviews, with Newsweek writing that Stewart and Lombard were "perfectly cast in the leading roles." The other two films, The Ice Follies of 1939 and It's a Wonderful World, were critical failures.
  Stewart's fourth 1939 film saw him work again with Capra and Jean Arthur in the political comedy-drama Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, in which Stewart played an idealist thrown into the political arena. It garnered critical praise and became the third-highest-grossing film of the year. The Nation stated "[Stewart] takes first place among Hollywood actors...Now he is mature and gives a difficult part, with many nuances, moments of tragic-comic impact." Later, critic Andrew Sarris qualified Stewart's performance as "lean, gangling, idealistic to the point of being neurotic, thoughtful to the point of being tongue-tied," describing him as "particularly gifted in expressing the emotional ambivalence of the action hero." Stewart won the New York Film Critics Circle award and received his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
  Stewart's last screen appearance of 1939 came in the Western parody Destry Rides Again, in which he portrayed a pacifist lawman and Marlene Dietrich a saloon girl who f
caption: Stewart in Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). It was one of the most critically acclaimed performances of Stewart's career.
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