While many know Jimmy Stewart for his 60-year acting career, a lesser known part of the “It’s a Wonderful Life” star’s life is the 27 years, 2 months, and 9 days he dedicated to serve in the U.S. military.
Film producer and director Aaron Burns inquired about Stewart’s military service from one of the actor’s now 74-year-old twin daughters, Kelly Stewart-Harcourt, during the “Wouldn’t it be cool if …” stage of the filmmaking process about the opportunity to share her father’s story. She informed him that her father’s service to his fellow countrymen was what he was most proud of, but that like many of the Greatest Generation’s veterans, he rarely spoke about it.
“That’s where our adventure began,” Burns told Reserve + National Guard Magazine. “It wasn’t something he boasted in. And of all the stories he could tell, he chose to be quiet about this one. … To celebrate this generation, I think it’s time that these stories are told, and we can inspire the next generation of boys and girls to grow up to be true servants like Jimmy was.”
Stewart-Harcourt joined the filmmaking team as an executive director.
“It’s been such a privilege and joy the last couple of years to make the film and now have it almost ready to share with the world,” Burns said.
Starring KJ Apa as Jimmy Stewart, “JIMMY” is the untold true story of Stewart’s service to our nation during WWII. The film will open in theaters on Nov. 6 nationwide.
While there were “other Hollywood people,” Burns said, who enlisted during the same era — directors Frank Capra, John Ford and William Wyler — they were doing something related to film. Burns said that wasn’t the case for Stewart’s military service.
“Jimmy said, ‘I’m done with movies. I want to go serve, and I want to go fight. I want to take the battle to the enemy, to defeat these Nazis,’” Burns said.
Number 310 — and a life of service
When James “Jimmy” Maitland Stewart’s draft number 310 was called in February 1941, he appeared before Draft Board No. 245 in West Los Angeles ready and willing to serve. He was rejected, however, for being five pounds under the minimum weight requirement, according to the Eisenhower Foundation.
He was determined, so he gorged on high-calorie foods, and within about a month, he had gained just enough weight to pass the physical. Stewart enlisted on March 22, 1941, as a B-24 pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps — reorganized as the U.S. Army Air Forces that year, according to the Air Force Historical Research Agency.
As a 32-year-old private, Stewart was the fourth generation of men in his family to serve in the military, according to The Jimmy Stewart Museum. His stepson, Ronald Walsh McClean, served as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was killed in action on June 8, 1969, in the Quang Tri province of South Vietnam at age 24.
Having earned his civilian pilot’s license and his commercial pilot’s license by 1938, Stewart served as a flight instructor at Mather Field in Sacramento County, California, where he trained pilots on four-engine aircraft — the B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator. He deployed in November 1943 as a captain and served as the operations officer for the 703rd Bomb Squadron, 445th Bombardment Group, Eighth Air Force, in Tibenham, England.
“It’s such an interesting story to see that fish-out-of-water of a Hollywood actor moving into these roles, and he was actually really good at it,” Burns said. “He was a very articulate communicator who could lead well from his experience and training in Hollywood, and it translated well to the military. He rallied his troops, and he got the briefs, and he put in the homework, and he was a lucky, successful pilot and a successful commander.”
Stewart was transferred to the 453rd Bombardment Group at Old Buckenham, “Old Buc,” in March 1944. He completed 20 combat missions over 18 months as a lead pilot on B-24 Liberators in Berlin, Brunswick, Bremen, Frankfurt and Schweinfurt. The Eisenhower Foundation highlighted one of his most notable assignments as the flight leader of a 1,000-plane raid on Berlin.
“We end up showing, in pretty good detail, three of Jimmy’s missions in the film, and they’re all between two and seven minutes of screen time,” Burns said. “You’re cutting down a 13-hour mission into just the highlights.”
Stewart remained in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and served a tour in Southeast Asia as an observer on a B-52 Stratofortress bombing mission in 1966 before he retired on May 31, 1968, as a brigadier general, according to the National Museum of the USAF. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States, by President Ronald Reagan in 1985.
Life after the war
Following Stewart’s time overseas during WWII, he starred as George Bailey in the 1946 Christmastime film, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” right at the beginning of the actor-turned-airman’s spiritual, emotional healing from the PTSD he was experiencing, Burns said.
“Jimmy, as much as he is above all of us — this amazing hero — he’s a perfect example of someone who went all the way down to the bottom but then found hope and lived a wonderful life despite that,” Burns said. “He was able to take that brokenness and turn it into something so hopeful.”
Burns said the world wouldn’t have the great films Stewart acted in if it were not for how he was able to channel that into something positive to share with the world.
“I hope for the service men and women out there, I hope they hear that ‘thank you’ and can find the same hope that Jimmy found,” Burns said. “I hope that also if they find themselves in a place where they need help and they’re hurting, they know there’s hope for them, too.”
To learn more, visit the movie’s website. “JIMMY” is also on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok: @jimmystewartmovie; and on X: @jimmymovie2026.
Watch the trailer now:
