Jimmy Stewart's World War II Service and "It's a Wonderful Life"-- Part 2: Return From War

Before agreeing to do "It's a Wonderful Life" with director Frank Capra, Jimmy Stewart even considered quitting acting altogether.

"The war changed Jim down to the molecular level," Matzen writes in his book.  "He could never articulate what those four-and-a-half years, including fifteen months in combat, had done to him.  One thing he could do was express a bit of it on-screen."  And, we see plenty of that angst in George Bailey's breakdown.

Jimmy Stewart was the former squadron commander of the 703rd Bombing Squadron.  he flew his final mission at the end of February 1945 and was grounded because of PTSD issues.  Then, he came back to the U.S. at the end of August, returning to his parents home in Indiana, Pennsylvania, where he stayed for a week or ten days before deciding to go back to Hollywood.

There, a whole new generation of leading men were taking roles that likely would have gone to him.  To make  matters worse, the war had tremendously aged him.  A photo of him in 1942 shows him looking very youthful, but by 1944 he was "looking like hell."

--GreGen