Exclusive: Jimmy Stewart’s Daughter Discusses Father’s WWII Service, New Film ‘JIMMY

Published by Military.com on Jun 24, 2026 9:55 AM

Exclusive: Jimmy Stewart’s Daughter Discusses Father’s WWII Service, New Film ‘JIMMY’

Stewart was already one of Hollywood’s biggest names when he entered the service.

By Ryan Thomas LaBee
Military.com – 6/24/2026

KJ Apa, left, who portrays Jimmy Stewart in JIMMY, stands with Stewart’s daughter, Kelly Stewart-Harcourt, and co-star Kara Killmer during production. The film follows Stewart from Hollywood fame into World War II service and back to It’s a Wonderful Life. (Photo Credit: Andrew McPherson / Burns & Co. Entertainment)

Before Jimmy Stewart became George Bailey, he kept a wartime flight log.

In it, according to his daughter Kelly Stewart-Harcourt, the actor and World War II pilot recorded his missions and marked the aircraft that did not return. The detail stayed with her because Stewart, remembered by generations for It’s a Wonderful Life, rarely spoke at home about the war.

“He hated it when planes didn’t come back, when he lost men,” Stewart-Harcourt told Military.com in an exclusive interview.

That quiet burden is at the center of JIMMY, a new film directed by Aaron Burns and starring KJ Apa as Stewart. The movie follows the actor from his Academy Award win for The Philadelphia Story to his enlistment in the U.S. Army Air Corps, combat service over Europe, and return to Hollywood before making It’s a Wonderful Life. The film opens nationwide Nov. 6, ahead of Veterans Day.

For Burns, the story began with his own surprise.

The director said he grew up watching Stewart’s films, from It’s a Wonderful Life to Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. But he said he didn’t understand the depth of Stewart’s military record until he read an article Stewart had written about the making of It’s a Wonderful Life.

“I got back from the war, and I was like, ‘Wait, hold on. Jim Stewart’s in war?'” Burns said. “He didn’t just wear a uniform for some publicity photos.”

…

JIMMY follows Stewart from his Hollywood success into military service and his eventual return to acting before It’s a Wonderful Life. (Photo Credit: Courtesy of Burns & Co. Entertainment)

“He returned without a job,” she said. “He said, ‘I don’t know if I’m an out-of-work pilot or if I’m an out-of-work actor. I don’t know how to think of myself. All I know is that I’m out of work.’”

That uncertainty gives new weight to the film’s use of It’s a Wonderful Life, a movie now treated as holiday comfort viewing but rooted in despair, financial ruin, and a man on the edge.

Stewart-Harcourt said she has watched the movie many times and still finds something new in it. For her, the scene in Martini’s bar, where George Bailey prays at the end of his rope, remains the most powerful.

“Nothing says desperation like that scene,” she said. “And I wonder if he could have done that without the war.”

She said Stewart came home “a changed, darker person,” and that his acting changed along with him. So did the movies being made after the war, she said, as American audiences moved away from some of the lighter pre-war rhythms.

‘Dad is Still Alive’

JIMMY will open nationwide through Fathom Entertainment on Nov. 6, close to Veterans Day. Burns said that timing was deliberate.

The film is also connected to a Vet Tix campaign after Papaian Studios and Commerce Casino presented the veteran-led nonprofit with nearly $1 million to help active-duty military members, veterans and their families see the film in theaters.

Burns said the release window and veteran outreach were tied to Stewart-Harcourt’s view of her father’s legacy.

“She said that’s what her dad was the most proud of, was his military service,” Burns said.

For military audiences, Burns said he hopes the film shows respect for what service members and their families have sacrificed. He also hopes Stewart’s story offers something beyond a historical tribute.

“My prayer is that you find hope for yourself as well as you see Jimmy’s journey,” Burns said.

Stewart-Harcourt described the film as a story about courage, fear and redemption, saying she wants viewers to leave feeling hopeful—not because the film ignores what Stewart endured, but because it shows him continuing after it.

She also hopes it introduces younger audiences to a side of her father they may not know. Stewart is still widely remembered as George Bailey, Jefferson Smith or the tall, gentle presence in decades of Hollywood classics.

But to his daughter, the military service he rarely discussed remained central to who he was. Before he was a Christmas movie icon, Stewart was a pilot who wrote about fear, counted planes and crossed out the ones that did not come back.

And although he tried to keep Hollywood and military service apart, Stewart-Harcourt said she believes the film honors both without cheapening either.

“It was a part of his life he was most proud of,” she said.

At the end of her interview, Stewart-Harcourt turned back to her father’s fans—the public she said he saw as a kind of partner.

She said she never saw him refuse an autograph, recalling one instance of watching him sign for every person waiting outside in the rain after a performance of Harvey in New York.

For her family, that connection still matters.

“Dad is still alive,” she said. “They keep him alive.”