SmokingJoe: I agree with you. One of my favorite childhood memories was listening to old 45 RPM records of Jimmy Stewart reading the Winnie the Pooh books (I'd get to listen to these when I was home sick).
A favorite Jimmy Stewart memory was back in the mid-1960's when he came out to campaign for William Scranton, who was running for governor in Pennsylvania. I was a teenager at the time and lived in Delaware but since we got our broadcast TV from Philly, we always got Pennsylvania news. Well, Jimmy shows up at a campaign event in Scranton, PA, to support William Scranton running for governor against the Pennsylvania Dem machine (must have been around 1962). He shows up wearing his Air Force Reserve uniform -- I think he was still an active Air Force Reserve Brigadier General, I believe -- and he comes out in this huge auditorium with 20,000 screaming Republicans. In typical fashion Jimmy begins, "You know, I was once told that you could put all of the Republicans you can find in Pennsylvania and put them into a single phone booth..... Some phone booth!" What a rip-roaring pitch he made. I hadn't realized what a good conservative he was until that night and it made him even more my favorite Hollywood personality.
Great quote.
You know he flew hundreds of bombing raids against Germany in WW II, and won the Air Medal and the Distinguished Flying Crossyes?
Then movie followed real life when he did “Strategic Air Command” with June Allyson.
He and June Allyson were really great together. They must have made at least 3 movies together, including Strategic Air Command, The Glenn Miller Story and The Stratton Story.
Then there were the chilling movies he made with Alfred Hitchcock, Rear Window, Vertigo, etc.
We haven't even talked about his trademark westerns yet. Truly a versatile, multi-faceted, super talented actor of many parts, and a truly great man.