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James Maitland "Jimmy" Stewart (May 20, 1908July 2, 1997) was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive drawl and down-to-earth persona. He starred in many films that are considered to be classics, and is known for portraying an American middle-class man struggling with a crisis. Stewart was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime Achievement award. Stewart was named the third greatest male screen legend of the Golden Age Hollywood by the American Film Institute.〔("AFI's 100 YEARS ... 100 STARS." ) ''American Film Institute (Afi.com)'', June 16, 1999. Retrieved June 22, 2013.〕 He was a major Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract star. He also had a noted military career and was a World War II and Vietnam War veteran, who rose to the rank of Brigadier General in the United States Air Force Reserve. The actor Cary Grant said of Stewart's acting technique: He had the ability to talk naturally. He knew that in conversations people ''do'' often interrupt one another and it's not always so easy to get a thought out. It took a little time for the sound men to get used to him, but he had an ''enormous'' impact. And then, some years later, Marlon came out and did the same thing all over again—but what people forget is that Jimmy did it first.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Jimmy Stewart: The Biggest Little Man )〕 ==Early life and career== Stewart was born on May 20, 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, the son of Elizabeth Ruth Jackson (1875–1953) and Alexander Maitland Stewart (1871–1961), who owned a hardware store.〔("James Stewart profile." ) ''FilmReference.com.'' Retrieved January 11, 2011.〕〔("Ancestry of Jimmy Stewart." ) ''genealogy.about.com.'' Retrieved October 28, 2012.〕 Stewart had Scottish and Irish ancestry, and was raised as a Presbyterian.〔("Movies: Best Pictures." ) ''The New York Times''. Retrieved March 7, 2012.〕〔("Jimmy Stewart profile." ) ''adherents.com.'' Retrieved March 7, 2012.〕〔Eliot 2006, pp. 11–12.〕 He was descended from veterans of the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the American Civil War.〔 The eldest of three children (he had two younger sisters, Virginia and Mary), he was expected to continue his father's business, which had been in the family for three generations. His mother was an excellent pianist but his father discouraged Stewart's request for lessons. When his father accepted a gift of an accordion from a guest, young Stewart quickly learned to play the instrument, which became a fixture offstage during his acting career. As the family grew, music continued to be an important part of family life.〔Eliot 2006, p. 15.〕 Stewart attended Mercersburg Academy prep school, graduating in 1928. He was active in a variety of activities. He played on the football and track teams, was art editor of the ''KARUX'' yearbook, and a member of the choir club, glee club, and John Marshall Literary Society. During his first summer break, Stewart returned to his hometown to work as a brick loader for a local construction company and on highway and road construction jobs where he painted lines on the roads. Over the following two summers, he took a job as an assistant with a professional magician.〔("Biography." ) ''The Jimmy Stewart Museum''. Retrieved January 11, 2011.〕 He made his first appearance onstage at Mercersburg, as Buquet in the play ''The Wolves''.〔Eliot 2006, p. 31.〕 A shy child, Stewart spent much of his after-school time in the basement working on model airplanes, mechanical drawing and chemistry—all with a dream of going into aviation. It was a dream greatly enhanced by the legendary 1927 flight of Charles Lindbergh, whose progress 19-year-old Stewart, then stricken with scarlet fever, was himself avidly following from home; thus foreshadowing his starring movie role as Lindbergh 30 years later. However, he abandoned visions of being a pilot when his father insisted that instead of the United States Naval Academy he attend Princeton University. Stewart enrolled at Princeton in 1928 as a member of the class of 1932. He excelled at studying architecture, so impressing his professors with his thesis on an airport design that he was awarded a scholarship for graduate studies;〔 but he gradually became attracted to the school's drama and music clubs, including the Princeton Triangle Club.〔("Princeton Triangle Club." ) ''princeton.edu''. Retrieved January 11, 2011.〕 His acting and accordion talents at Princeton led him to be invited to the University Players, an intercollegiate summer stock company in West Falmouth, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod. The company had been organized in 1928 and would run until 1932, with Joshua Logan, Bretaigne Windust and Charles Leatherbee as directors. Stewart performed in bit parts in the Players' productions in Cape Cod during the summer of 1932, after he graduated. The troupe had previously included Henry Fonda, who married Margaret Sullavan on Christmas Day 1931, while the players were in Baltimore, Maryland, for an 18-week winter season.〔Eliot 2006, p. 43.〕 Sullavan, who had rejoined the Players in Baltimore in November 1931 at the close of the post-Broadway tour of ''A Modern Virgin'', left the Players for good at the end of ''The Trial of Mary Dugan'' in Baltimore in March 1932. By the time Stewart joined the University Players on Cape Cod after his graduation from Princeton in 1932, Fonda and Sullavan's brief marriage had ended.〔Houghton 1951, pp. 300–310.〕 Stewart and Fonda became great friends over the summer of 1932 when they shared an apartment with Joshua Logan and Myron McCormick.〔Fonda and Teichmann 1981, p. 74.〕 When Stewart came to New York at the end of the summer stock season, which had included the Broadway tryout of ''Goodbye Again'', he shared an apartment with Fonda, who had by then finalized his divorce from Sullavan. Along with fellow University Players Alfred Dalrymple and Myron McCormick, Stewart debuted on Broadway in the brief run of ''Carry Nation'' and a few weeks later – again with McCormick and Dalrymple – as a chauffeur in the comedy ''Goodbye Again'', in which he had two lines. ''The New Yorker'' noted, "Mr. James Stewart's chauffeur... comes on for three minutes and walks off to a round of spontaneous applause."〔Eliot 2006, p. 57.〕 The play was a moderate success, but times were hard. Many Broadway theaters had been converted to movie houses and the Depression was reaching bottom. "From 1932 through 1934", Stewart later recalled, "I'd only worked three months. Every play I got into folded."〔Eliot 2006, p. 58.〕 By 1934, he was given more substantial stage roles, including the modest hit ''Page Miss Glory'' and his first dramatic stage role in Sidney Howard's ''Yellow Jack'', which convinced him to continue his acting career. However, Stewart and Fonda, still roommates, were both struggling. In the fall of 1934, Fonda's success in ''The Farmer Takes a Wife'' took him to Hollywood. Finally, Stewart attracted the interest of MGM scout Bill Grady who saw Stewart on the opening night of ''Divided by Three'', a glittering première with many luminaries in attendance, including Irving Berlin, Moss Hart and Fonda, who had returned to New York for the show. With Fonda's encouragement, Stewart agreed to take a screen test, after which he signed a contract with MGM in April 1935, as a contract player for up to seven years at $350 a week.〔Eliot 2006, p. 65.〕 Upon Stewart's arrival by train in Los Angeles, Fonda greeted him at the station and took him to Fonda's studio-supplied lodging, next door to Greta Garbo. Stewart's first job at the studio was as a participant in screen tests with newly arrived starlets. At first, he had trouble being cast in Hollywood films owing to his gangling looks and shy, humble screen presence. Aside from an unbilled appearance in a Shemp Howard comedy short called ''Art Trouble'' in 1934, his first film was the poorly received Spencer Tracy vehicle, ''The Murder Man'' (1935). ''Rose Marie'' (1936), an adaptation of a popular operetta, was more successful. After having mixed success in films, he received his first intensely dramatic role in 1936's ''After the Thin Man'', and played Jean Harlow's character's frustrated boyfriend in the Clark Gable vehicle ''Wife vs. Secretary'' earlier that same year. On the romantic front, he dated newly divorced Ginger Rogers.〔Eliot 2006, p. 74.〕 The romance soon cooled, however, and by chance Stewart encountered Margaret Sullavan again. Stewart found his footing in Hollywood thanks largely to Sullavan, who campaigned for Stewart to be her leading man in the 1936 romantic comedy ''Next Time We Love''. She rehearsed extensively with him, having a noticeable effect on his confidence. She encouraged Stewart to feel comfortable with his unique mannerisms and boyish charm and use them naturally as his own style. Stewart was enjoying Hollywood life and had no regrets about giving up the stage, as he worked six days a week in the MGM factory.〔Eliot 2006, pp. 84, 87.〕 In 1936, he acquired big-time agent Leland Hayward, who would eventually marry Sullavan. Hayward started to chart Stewart's career, deciding that the best path for him was through loan-outs to other studios. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「James Stewart」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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