Great article. Amazing man.
A lovely clip playing tribute to how Jimmy Stewart’s real life WWII experiences impacted his acting:
https://youtube.com/shorts/8muJ8U8AYK0?si=93lTsjtzl5vxr9C6
The war changed him and his character style, in my opinion. He was a kid in the neighborhood type early on. After the war, he could play a character with a hard edge. Harvey to Bend in The River type change. He and Audie Murphy were good together. Both had been through the fire and both showed the edge that seeing more than you should made them great actors. I miss the those types of people in our movies. PTSD from war is a real thing, yet in their time you just handled it.
After the war the first movie Jimmy made was It's a Wonderful Life. Jimmy was in bad shape psychologically after the stress of all those bombing missions--the only thing he could eat was ice cream. But Lionel Barrymore (Mr. Potter) came alongside and coaxed Jimmy through a project he wanted to quit.