Clarence Odbody

Clarence Odbody is the deuteragonist of It's a Wonderful Life. He is the guardian angel of George Bailey, whose life he reviews with the head angel Joseph. For this reason, he is not shown for most of the film.
He was portrayed by the late Henry Travers.
==Biography==
Clarence Odbody was once a human male who lived during the 18th century and was a clock maker. Upon his death, he became an Angel second class, which is a human who becomes an angel, but hasn't yet earned their wings. After some two centuries of doing valiant work, Clarence had yet to obtain his wings. On Christmas Eve in 1946, the upper echelon angels Franklin and Joseph received prayers of several of the residents of Bedford Falls, New York. All of these people were friends and family of man named George Bailey and they were praying for him as he was on the verge of suicide. Franklin and Joseph decided to send Clarence and show him some important parts of George's life:
*In 1919, George saved his younger brother, Harry, from drowning in icy water; as a result, George caught a bad cold, which caused him to lose his hearing in his left ear.
*After recovering from his cold, George discovered that the town druggist, Emil Gower, was so distraught from his son's death, that he accidentally put cyanide in a child's prescription while drunk. When George didn't deliver the medicine and the still drunk Gower angrily slapped George in his sore Ear, George told him about what he did. When Gower discovered his error, he felt guilty about what he had done, and George kept it secret. Gower later Sobered up.
*In 1928, George is reintroduced to his friend Marty Hatch's sister Mary, who has always had a crush on him, and the attraction becomes mutual at her high school dance. When George's father suffers a stroke and dies, he postpones his plans to travel the world to sort out the Building and Loan, which the wealthy but heartless Henry F. Potter, who controls most of the town's businesses, seeks to dissolve. The other board members vote to keep the Building and Loan open if George will run it. George acquiesces and works alongside his Uncle Billy, and gives his tuition money to Harry, with the understanding that Harry will run the business when he graduates. Harry returns from college married and with an excellent job offer from his father-in-law. Although Harry didn't agree to the offer yet, George can't deny him such a great opportunity and insists he take it as he continues running the Building and Loan.
*Soon George and Mary wed and immediately following their wedding, they witness a run on the bank, and use their $2,000 honeymoon savings to keep the Building and Loan solvent.
*Under George's leadership, the company eventually establishes Bailey Park, a modern housing development to rival Potter's overpriced slums. Potter offers George $20,000 a year to be his assistant but realizing that Potter's true intention is to shut down the Building and Loan, George rebuffs and rebukes him.
*During World War II, George is ineligible for service because of his bad ear, but acts as an air raid warden and leads drives, while Harry becomes a Navy pilot and earns the Medal of Honor for shooting down fifteen planes, two of which were going to kamikaze into a troop transport.
*Earlier that morning, as the town prepared a hero's welcome for Harry, Billy went to the bank to deposit $8,000 of the Building and Loan's cash. Billy taunted Potter with a newspaper headline about Harry, but unintentionally wrapped the envelope of cash in Potter's newspaper and handed it to Potter. Potter found the envelope but said nothing, while Billy couldn't recall how he misplaced the cash. With a bank examiner reviewing the company's records, George realizes scandal and criminal charges will follow. Fruitlessly retracing Billy's steps, George berated him and took out his frustration on his family. George desperately appealed to Potter for a loan, offering his life insurance policy with $500 in equity as collateral. Based on the policy's $15,000 nominal value, Potter says George is worth more dead than alive, and phones the police to arrest him for misappropriation of funds. George flees, gets drunk, and prays in vain for help. Suicidal, he went to a nearby bridge and planned to drown himself.
After being shown George's life up to his decision to commit suicide, Clarence went to the bridge and jumped into the river during a blizzard, just as George was about to leap to his death. George jumped into the river to save Clarence. After the two were retrieved and cleaned up, Clarence explained his position to George, who naturally didn't believe him. Clarence told him that he had to save George's life in order to earn his wings, even though George was still convinced that it was actually he who had saved Clarence, and not the other way around.
At the height of George's frustration he declared, "I wish I'd never been born!", which inspired Clarence to engage in an unorthodox plan. Clarence granted George's wish, and Bailey was metaphysically reborn in a world where he had never previously existed. Everyone he had ever known was either gone, or couldn't recognize him. Due to George's absence from the timeline, his hometown of Bedford Falls was no longer the idyllic and quaint community that he had grown up in, but instead was taken over by Potter, who renamed it "Pottersville", which was now a sleazy and dangerous place filled with whiskey joints, crime, pawnshops, violence, seedy entertainment establishments, and unhappy and amoral people. The lives George touched are vastly different:
*Mr. Gower served 20 years in prison for manslaughter since George wasn't around to prevent him from poisoning the pills and is now a despised and homeless derelict.
*George's mother doesn't know him.
*Uncle Billy was institutionalized after the Building and Loan failed.
*Bailey Park is a cemetery, where George discovers young Harry's grave. Since George didn't save Harry, the soldiers on the transport ship died as Harry wasn't there to save them.
*The worst for George is when finds that Mary is a spinster librarian.
As George comes to realize the positive effects that he has had on others' lives, he regrets his wish. Clarence then restores George to his previous life, a life which he now greatly appreciates, especially as he realizes that all he has done for Bedford Falls has made him an important leader of his community, deeply respected and admired, which is evident when most of the town, including his friends, neighbors, customers of the Building and Loan and other people he helped, raise a collection to help make up the financial loss, culminating with a massive advance of $25,000 supplied by his wealthy industrialist friend Sam Wainwright. With George's soul now having been saved, Clarence earned his wings.
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