James Stewart Dies: Hollywood Loses Its Everyman
He flew 20 combat missions over Germany and came back unable to sleep, unable to talk about it. James Stewart had been a movie star before the war, but the decorated bomber pilot who returned was different — quieter, more haunted. That quality he'd been trying to fake in movies, he now had for real. Vertigo, Rear Window, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. He died in July 1997 at 89. At the end, he asked his pastor to read the 23rd Psalm. Then he said: 'I'm going to be with Gloria.' His wife had died 10 months earlier.
July 2, 1997
29 years ago
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