Tuesday, August 12, 2008
(Click image for bigger) Seeing atherdiscretion’s photo of Jimmy Stewart reminded me of my favourite photo of him, which I’ve only ever seen once in the October 2000 (issue 45) Total Film (I just scanned this image from the magazine. Yes I still have it - I keep old magazines that have articles I like).  It was in an article called The Thirty Toughest Nuts In Hollywood, about real-life hard-men actors.  Jimmy Stewart made it in at Number 3. The photo I like is the black and white one on the right.  I think the reason I like it so much is that it seems to show him in airforce flight gear, maybe during training or before a mission, but I can’t work out if he looks relaxed, confident or nervous.  Maybe all three. You can click here for a larger image, but the text reads: It’s hard to believe that the guy with the hound-dog eyes from ‘Harvey’ was harder than Chuck Norris, Bruce Lee and Lee Marvin - but look at Jimmy Stewart’s war record and then argue otherwise.  An Academy Award winner at the time he enlisted, Stewart signed up for the airforce a year before the bombing of Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into the conflict, such was his outrage at German and Japanese policy.  What’s more, he should have been disqualified from fighting for being five pounds underweight, but asked the examiner to overlook it, before piloting 20 bomber missions over Germany, including heavily-fortified Brunswick. Rising to the rank of colonel, Stewart’s bravery earned him the Air Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Croix-De-Guerre and seven Battle Stars, before he was made a brigadier general in the Air Force Reserve on retiring from active service.  But his courage never spilled over into arrogance; although he made a film about his exploits (‘Strategic Air Command’), he refused to discuss his service in interviews.” For the record, the full list was: Steve McQueen Jackie Chan JAMES STEWART Lee Marvin Bruce Lee Chuck Norris John Huston Yakima Canutt Eddie Bunker Audie Murphy Jack Palance Robert Mitchum R Lee Ermey Burt Reynolds Richard Farnsworth Woody Strode Charles Bronson Errol Flynn Sam Peckinpah Klaus Kinski James Caan Burt Lancaster Lenny McLean Orson Welles Vinnie Jones Oliver Reed James Coburn Dolph Lundgren Russell Crowe Jean-Paul Belmondo

(Click image for bigger)

Seeing atherdiscretion’s photo of Jimmy Stewart reminded me of my favourite photo of him, which I’ve only ever seen once in the October 2000 (issue 45) Total Film (I just scanned this image from the magazine. Yes I still have it - I keep old magazines that have articles I like).  It was in an article called The Thirty Toughest Nuts In Hollywood, about real-life hard-men actors.  Jimmy Stewart made it in at Number 3.

The photo I like is the black and white one on the right.  I think the reason I like it so much is that it seems to show him in airforce flight gear, maybe during training or before a mission, but I can’t work out if he looks relaxed, confident or nervous.  Maybe all three.

You can click here for a larger image, but the text reads:

It’s hard to believe that the guy with the hound-dog eyes from ‘Harvey’ was harder than Chuck Norris, Bruce Lee and Lee Marvin - but look at Jimmy Stewart’s war record and then argue otherwise.  An Academy Award winner at the time he enlisted, Stewart signed up for the airforce a year before the bombing of Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into the conflict, such was his outrage at German and Japanese policy.  What’s more, he should have been disqualified from fighting for being five pounds underweight, but asked the examiner to overlook it, before piloting 20 bomber missions over Germany, including heavily-fortified Brunswick.

Rising to the rank of colonel, Stewart’s bravery earned him the Air Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Croix-De-Guerre and seven Battle Stars, before he was made a brigadier general in the Air Force Reserve on retiring from active service.  But his courage never spilled over into arrogance; although he made a film about his exploits (‘Strategic Air Command’), he refused to discuss his service in interviews.”

For the record, the full list was:

  1. Steve McQueen
  2. Jackie Chan
  3. JAMES STEWART
  4. Lee Marvin
  5. Bruce Lee
  6. Chuck Norris
  7. John Huston
  8. Yakima Canutt
  9. Eddie Bunker
  10. Audie Murphy
  11. Jack Palance
  12. Robert Mitchum
  13. R Lee Ermey
  14. Burt Reynolds
  15. Richard Farnsworth
  16. Woody Strode
  17. Charles Bronson
  18. Errol Flynn
  19. Sam Peckinpah
  20. Klaus Kinski
  21. James Caan
  22. Burt Lancaster
  23. Lenny McLean
  24. Orson Welles
  25. Vinnie Jones
  26. Oliver Reed
  27. James Coburn
  28. Dolph Lundgren
  29. Russell Crowe
  30. Jean-Paul Belmondo
Posted at 11:25pm Comments (View)