The best-actor Oscar-winner for 1940's The Philadelphia Story suffered cardiac arrest at his home in Beverly Hills, the actor's agent said. The cause: A blood clot on the lung.
"America lost a national treasure today," President Clinton said. "Jimmy Stewart was a great actor, a gentleman and a patriot."
The supermarket tabloids had been on a Stewart health watch virtually since his longtime wife, Gloria, died in 1994. Onetime co-star Charlton Heston told CNN today that he thought "Jimmy was ready to go."
Katharine Hepburn, his Philadelphia Story co-star, now 90, was "very sorry" to hear of her colleague's death, her business manager said today.
Stewart's list of credits are awesome: Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window and Vertigo; the screwball comedy, You Can't Take It With You; the western, Winchester '73. There were nearly 80 movies in all, plus a handful of TV appearances. His last film credit was voice work for the 1991 animated feature, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West.
Stewart's defining movie role, perhaps, was as suicidal, besieged George Bailey in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life in 1946. The dark, often cynical film, about small town life bombed in its initial theatrical run--earning a scant $525,000 (the equivalent of $2.5 million by early 1990s finances). It took years of repeated TV viewings--in the happy holiday season of all places--to raise the movie to classic status.
Born May 20, 1908, in the town of Indiana, Pennsylvania, Stewart made his movie debut in 1935's The Murder Man. Directors looking for the tall, decent, all-American type soon had their man. He was nominated for an Academy Award a total of five times in his career.
Though a movie star of privilege, Stewart was the first among his Hollywood peers to join the armed forces as the United States faced World War II. A bomber pilot, he eventually rose to the rank of colonel. In the 1960s, he lost a stepson, Marine Lt. Ronald McLean, to Vietnam War combat.
In recent years, Stewart--formerly known in screen credits as "James Stewart"-- fought the colorization of black-and-white movies, including many of his own beloved films.
The Jimmy Stewart Museum, celebrating the life and work of a local boy made good, was dedicated in 1995 in his hometown of Indiana.
"It's been a wonderful experience for me, making movies," Stewart told the Los Angeles Times in 1991. "I've had the feeling for a long time that I was in something that was important to the public."
Survivors include two daughters and a stepson.
(Updated 5:30 p.m. PT)