In life, Jimmy Stewart never talked about his war. But in death, he granted his family — and now the world — a greater window into the Academy Award-winning actor turned combat pilot.
“My father didn’t speak about his war experience very much,” his daughter, Kelly Stewart-Harcourt, told Military Times. “After he died, my sister found a journal, a handwritten journal that he had kept during the war” alongside his flight logbook filled with little scribbles, drawings and sketch marks from both Stewart and his men.
The journal, according to Stewart-Harcourt, “described dad’s fears and his uncertainties, uncertainties about the war and the struggles and wanting to please his father. Dad didn’t talk very much about himself, so this was a real look inside dad that we had never had before.”
“I don’t think [the movie] could have been done without that input,” she added. “It just made it so much deeper, richer and more profound.”
Poignantly, perhaps almost fittingly, the last line of the journal stops mid-sentence.
Wednesday, in honor of Stewart’s birthday, Burns & Co. production has dropped the official “Jimmy” trailer starring KJ Apa (“Riverdale”) as the World War II veteran and famed “It’s a Wonderful Life” star.
“I was just overwhelmed by this idea that someone would do that — someone who is in his position of power, wealth and influence would choose to serve in such a profound way,” Aaron Burns, director and producer of the film, told Military Times. “Then he came back as a hero, highly decorated, won all kinds of awards, and was a full colonel, but was racked with PTSD.”
“He gave everything he had, including his soul, to the cause and for his men, and he comes back and bottoms out … but he doesn’t stay there. And that’s what I think is so hopeful for any of us. Jimmy is an example of someone who went through the worst you could imagine and came out the other side with hope and healing and inspiration for all of us, so that was the story that I was drawn to telling,” Burns continued.
The film chronicles Stewart’s rise in Hollywood — including his Academy Award-winning performance in “The Philadelphia Story” — before his shock enlistment in the U.S. Army Air Corps in March 1941, shortly before the branch became the U.S. Army Air Forces.
It concludes in 1946, as Stewart struggles to find his footing back home and in Hollywood.
“Dad would tell us that his military service was the thing he was most proud of in his life. He was proud of what he had achieved in his craft as an actor, but in terms of meaning I think his military service was what he was most proud of,” said Stewart-Harcourt.
Stewart-Harcourt’s intimate knowledge of her father helps centers the film — giving insight into specifics like Stewart’s favorite music, the restaurant he went to every week and what he ordered — as well as lines that felt true to her father.
That experience would shape his life and his acting forevermore.
Less than a year after his return home, Stewart famously starred in Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life,” delivering the now iconic, tear-soaked monologue: “God, God, dear Father in Heaven. I’m not a praying man, but if you’re up there and you can hear me, show me the way. I’m at the end of my rope. I … show me the way, oh God.”
“I think maybe it took ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ for him to get back into being an actor, maybe no other role would work,” Stewart-Harcourt mused.
“Jimmy” is set to debut in theaters Nov. 6, 2026.
Claire Barrett is an editor and military history correspondent for Military Times. She is also a World War II researcher with an unparalleled affinity for Sir Winston Churchill and Michigan football.