James Stewart Movies

Want to know the best James Stewart movies?  How about the worst James Stewart movies?  Curious about James Stewart’s box office grosses or which James Stewart movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which James Stewart movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.  James “Jimmy” Stewart (1908-1997) is considered one of the greatest actors to ever exist. He was named the third Greatest Male Star of All-Time by the American Film Institute.  He made almost 80 movies in his acting career that lasted over seven decades.  Stewart received five Academy Award® nominations for Best Actor. He won an Oscar® for The Philadelphia Story.

Shortly after winning his Academy Award®, James Stewart enlisted in the Air Force. His accomplishments in World War II outshine his movie career in my opinion. Stewart started as a private, but moved up the ranks rapidly. Stewart was assigned to the 445th Bombardment Group and flew combat missions. He flew as command pilot in the lead B-24 on numerous missions deep into Germany. At the end of the war, Stewart had earned the rank of Colonel.

James Stewart’s first movie after the war was one of the great all time classics…. It’s A Wonderful Life. From 1946 until 1971 Stewart starred in 45 movies, including classic movies like Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope, Rear Window and Vertigo. His last starring role was Fools’ Parade with a very young Kurt Russell.

His IMDb page shows 98 acting credits from 1934-1991. This page will rank James Stewart movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television appearances, cameos and some of his very early 1930s movies were not included in the rankings.

James Stewart in 1958’s Vertigo

James Stewart Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.

James Stewart Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort James Stewart movies by co-stars of his movies
  • Sort James Stewart movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort James Stewart movies by yearly box office rank
  • Sort James Stewart movies how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each James Stewart movie received.
  • Sort James Stewart movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
James Stewart in 1950's Harvey....Harvey was Stewart's favorite role
James Stewart in 1950’s Harvey….Harvey was Stewart’s favorite role

Possibly Interesting Facts About James Stewart

1. James Stewart’s father ran a hardware store. Three generations of his family had run the store. Stewart was supposed to take over for his father….it did not work out that way. When Stewart won his Oscar® in 1941, he gave the Oscar® to his dad who place the Oscar® in the hardware store front window….I am sure many people went to that hardware store just see that Oscar® statue.

2. James Stewart got married for the first and only time in 1949. He was married to Gloria McClean from 1949 to 1994. Stewart adopted McClean’s two sons, Ronald and Michael, from her previous marriage and in 1951 they had twin girls, Judy and Kelly.

3. During Stewart’s long career he worked with many directors numerous times. His two most famous collaborations were with Alfred Hitchcock and Anthony Mann. Stewart appeared in 4 Hitchcock movies and 8 Anthony Mann movies.

4. Speaking of Alfred Hitchcock….James Stewart really wanted to play Roger Thornhill in 1959’s North by Northwest. Hitchcock felt that Cary Grant would be better for the role and delayed making North by Northwest until Stewart had started filming Bell, Book and Candle.

5. James Stewart was nominated 5 times for a Best Actor Oscar®. Those movies were Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, The Philadelphia Story, It’s A Wonderful Life, Harvey and Anatomy of a Murder. He won for The Philadlephia Story in 1941.

6. James Stewart was the first major star to negotiate a percentage of the his movies grosses. Stewart decided it was worth the gamble to lower his salary and get a percentage. The first two movies he tried this approach on were 1950’s Winchester 73 and Broken Arrow. Both movies became very big hits and Stewart changed the way stars negotiated their contracts.

7. James Stewart’s best friend was Henry Fonda. Henry Fonda arrived in Hollywood first and convinced Stewart to follow his footsteps. One time the two friends got into a fist fight over politics. They decided to never discuss politics ever again amongst themselves.

8. In 1985 James Stewart was presented an Honorary Oscar®. During his acceptance speech he said “This was the greatest award I received, to know that, after all these years, I haven’t been forgotten.”…..26 years later and he is still not forgotten.

9. Famous roles James Stewart turned down or was seriously considered for: The Wild Bunch, The Seven Year Itch, On Golden Pond, North by Northwest, My Darling Clementine, The Last Picture Show, and I Confess.

10. Check out James Stewart‘ career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

Still searching for box office grosses for 3 James Stewart movies.  1936’s Speed, 1936’s Born To Dance and 1938’s Of Human Hearts.

AFI’s Top 25 Screen Legend Actors….with links to my movie pages on the Screen Legend

2.   Cary Grant
21. Buster Keaton
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.  Golden Globes® are the registered trademark and service mark of the Hollywood Foreign Press. 
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94 thoughts on “James Stewart Movies”

  1. HI BRUCE I still haven gotten over the fact that little Asta was in The Awful Truth [remade in 1953 as Let’s Do it Again with Ray Milland and Jane Wyman.. I knew of course that there was a dog in that movie but I didn’t know it was The Thin Dog!

    Anyway your revelation encouraged me to do a bit more reading about animals in movies and I was reminded of the fact that my Jimmy had a pet horse called Pie which he rode over a period of 22 years in the movies.

    Jimmy was an amateur painter and had done a couple of portraits of Pie and wrote a poem about him. I saw a TV interview in which Stewart read out the poem and showed off a Pie portrait.

    What I didn’t know before was that Jimmy was never able to buy Pie. He was owned by a girl whose father had been a wrangler for Tom Mix and William S Hart and she wouldn’t sell him to Stewart.

    Jimmy has told of how Audie Murphy was allowed to ride Pie in a couple of movies and Flora will be horrified to learn, as I was, that according to Stewart Pie nearly killed our Glenn Ford by charging into a tree when Ford was riding him.

    Well there it is – THREE of my own movie idols actually rode Pie and all that remains now to round off my Pie dossier is a Cogerson page showing that with a 22 year career Pie was the highest grossing animal in movie history. I mean if the Emperor Caligula could make his horse a Roman Senator and Steve’s crowd can’t throw a knighthood at Pie the horse at least deserves a Cogerson page!

    One more thing – apparently Pie returned my Jimmy’s affection and little Asta was particularly fond of Irene Dunne among his co-stars. I can’t help feeling sorry for William Powell and Cary Grant though!

    Reply

    1. Hey Bob……sorry Myrna’s co-star caused you take such a spin…lol Interesting about Pie….I knew he was Stewart’s favorite horse….but did not know about the Ford story. I think John Wayne’s horse Banner might be able to give Pie a run for the money for top grossing animal. Wayne rode Banner in every western from 1940 to 1954. Good research on Asta and Pie.

      Reply

      1. HI BRUCE

        Didn’t know that about The Duke and Banner. Thanks for sharing it. I’ve told you how we used to wind my dad up by telling him we understood the ageing Duke has to be helped onto his horse! Whoever would win the box office war between Pye and Banner it would be win/win for me given that Jimmy and Duke are the riders concerned!

        Horses in the later classic era didn’t get the star billing that they once did. There were for example in the earlier days Tom Mix and Tony, Gene Autry and Champion and of course Roy Rogers and Trigger. Apparently Trigger now stands stuffed in some museum in America.

        There was a scene in either The Missouri Breaks or The Appaloosa [I can’t remember which] where Brando gives his horse a carrot and as the horse starts munching one end of it and Marlon the proceeds to munch other until its all gone and their lips meet in a kiss. David Shipman raved about that scene.

        Note how I’ve managed to get 5 of my idols in on the horses story – Murphy, Ford, Jimmy, Mumbles and The Duke. That’s one of the beauties of your site – we can indulge ourselves with our own heroes and heroines.

        PS In the The 1959 Wonderful Country western Mitchum was great pals with his horse called “ears”

        Reply

    2. I did not know that about Pie and Glenn. Glad that Glenn survived!

      Pie was also ridden by Yul Brynner in The Magnificent Seven. Apparently, James Stewart was upset by this. I learned that in a documentary about James Stewart. I don’t know the reason.

      Reply

  2. Hey Steve, lot’s of great 50+ videos of movie legends lately: James Cagney, Edward G Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, James Stewart (and I hear Randolph Scott is now getting the same treatment). All good stuff. I especially enjoyed the Edward G Robinson video as I like the way the film posters caricature his characteristic craggy face.

    However, I’m commenting on the Jimmy Stewart page because I think your Stewart video confirms my view that he has had the greatest film career of them all. Bogart, Grant and Gable may have more iconic images, and Wayne may be the most persistently popular classic star ever, but in terms of the sheer number of outstanding and successful classic films, the diversity of output, and the range of characters portrayed, I think Stewart comes out on top.

    Some of my favorite moments of your video include: Hitchcock conversing with the cast in Rope all seated on a long couch, Stewart and Dietrich in Destry Rides Again, all the Harvey posters and stills, Stewart being kissed by 2 Kim Novaks the French poster of Vertigo, and Stewart looking through his binocular in Rear Window. So many great films, it’s hard to pick my favorites, but I would say Vertigo, Anatomy of a Murder, Rope, Harvey, Rear Window, The Philadelphia Story and Flight of the Phoenix are all up there.

    Reply

    1. Hey PhilHoF17
      1. Sorry this comment went to the approval section….I agree 100% it is very frustrating.
      2. Enjoyed reading your thoughts on Mr. Stewart.
      3. If his career is not the best…..it is certainly in the argument.
      4. Good reviews of the videos in Steve’s epic Stewart video.
      Good feedback as always.

      Reply

      1. Hey Bruce, I had not noticed there had been a delay in posting my comment so no worries. Hmm….if Stewart’s career was not the best, who’s is in your opinion? Just for fun, I looked at the number of films with a UMR score of 90 or over of the 4 classic male stars I consider the most successfull and the results are: Stewart 28, Grant 27, Wayne 23, and Bogart 22. I have a lot of faith in UMR….don’t you? 🙂

        Reply

    2. Hey Phil, I only just saw your post, reading Bruce’s comment there is a good excuse for my tardiness. It wasn’t my fault! [bursts into tears]

      Thanks for looking at my expanded videos, glad you liked the visuals I had fun putting them together, choosing which posters and stills should go to which actor when the same film pops up in their filmography.

      I agree James Stewart has a great line up of classics. But looking at my files my next subject has a jaw dropping 14 films scoring 10 out of 10, whoa! Who could it be? Clue – like his pal Jimmy, another Hitchcock favorite.

      Reply

      1. Thanks for the reponse Steve and the hint about your next subject…….let’s see…..Tippi Hedren?? Seriously though, Cary Grant is among my favourites and I think his career is neck and neck with Stewart, so it will be interesting to see. By the way, I had just left my comment last night EST time so your response was not tardy.

        Reply

  3. HI MO
    Thanks for the Jimmy Stewart feedback which I have at last been able to set eyes on! Since I first saw Bend of River way back in 1952 I have been an avid fan of Jimmy but in those days it extended far beyond me [and probably still does!] because Jimmy’s was a great household name that was on everybody’s lips. Belfast wouldn’t have been Belfast without a Stewart picture doing the rounds somewhere. Although he had been around for 15 years when the 1950s dawned and he had been in classics such as Wonderful Life and Philly it was not until the fifties that he came into his own as a box office star on a par with Grant, Gable The Duke etc. Hence his 2nd billing to Tracy in the 1949 Malaya for example. In fact whereas Stewart was one of those stars who almost owned the Quigley Top 10 polls throughout the 1950s I don’t think he was ever in their Top 10 before 1950 though of course be may have been bubbling under the Magic 10. PS I think I can persevere with a few Myrna stills provided nobody starts quoting her stats to me, though I can’t guarantee a 0.0005% won’t be knocked off my overall rating ! Your Fan RAM the 2nd

    Reply

    1. Bob, posting is still hit and miss here. But I can see your new post though it’s not included on the forum page.

      Thanks for the info and comment. I’m surprised at the amount of westerns in Stewarts filmography, many of them highly rated, which must make him one of the great Hollywood cowboys, alongside the Duke, Coop, Randy Scott and um Tom Mix?

      Reply

      1. Since Friday….I took off all comment blockers….unless you were commenting from “showbusineesreports” or “bestproducts” every comment went through. With the comment “leftover” happening we went back and installed some new widgets in an effort to stop having people’s e-mail addresses popping up. So attempt number 94 to fix the comment issues is called…Spam Blockers…hopefully that will fix some issues.

        Reply

  4. Bob, a friendly warning – the next video subject won’t include Myrna Loy but friday’s topic might contain a still or two of miss Loy, so have a crucifix standing by.

    Reply

    1. If you are doing classic videos….it is hard to avoid the greatest female box office star of all-time…bring it on….lol.

      Reply

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