Jimmy Stewart

Jimmy Stewart was one of Hollywood's nice guys, who enjoyed one of the longest screen careers in history, from "Murder Man" in 1935 to a "Lassie" film in 1981. His films were also remarkably wide-ranging, from heartwarming Frank Capra classics like "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Mr Smith Goes to Washington" through George Cukor's "The Philadelphia Story" to creepy Hitchcock masterworks like "Vertigo". His role in the comic film "Harvey", about a man pursued by a giant invisible rabbit, he reprised on the London stage towards the end of his life. Marc Eliot's new biography is a superbly readable and comprehensively detailed account of Stewart's life and career, including notably a lengthy and fascinating account of his war service flying bombers for the US Air Force. He has obtained rare interviews from one of Stewart's daughters, from his "Vertigo" co-star Kim Novak, and from Frank Capra's son. Eliot's previous biography for "Aurum", of Cary Grant, was serialised at length in the "Daily Mail" and reprinted in hardback. Of it the "Daily Telegraph" said that Eliot 'is as good on the movies as he is on the man'.