Why James Stewart “refused to play” three roles that won the Oscar for ‘Best Actor’
Winning an Academy Award is the pinnacle of any actor’s career, and while James Stewart had one of his own, he could have ended up with as many as four if he hadn’t turned down three roles that won the person who played them the prize for ‘Best Actor’.
Cinema’s ultimate everyman claimed his trophy for The Philadelphia Story, and he notched additional nominations for Mr Smith Goes to Washington, It’s a Wonderful Life, Harvey, and Anatomy of a Murder, as well as an honorary gong for his contributions to the industry in 1985.
Some stars struggle under the weight of typecasting, but Stewart embraced it. He became a household name by playing characters that could best be described as James Stewart types, and even when he was being inundated with offers to go against the grain and try something new, daring, drastic, and different, he wasn’t interested.
His career operated under a strict set of non-negotiable principles that he adhered to throughout his decades-long stint in the Hollywood spotlight, and it didn’t hamper him in the slightest. Admittedly, it was a lot easier for leading men to coast by on their personas during the ‘Golden Age’, with John Wayne and Cary Grant just two of his contemporaries who also proved the rule, but it would have been fascinating to see him tear up his self-imposed rulebook just once.
Stewart did embody several characters with shades of grey, but nothing that completely upended expectations. He could have done, and he had plenty of chances, but as his friend and film producer, William Frye, explained to Marc Eliot, even the best-written parts in pictures that were nailed-on awards season contenders weren’t enough to convince him to abandon his ironclad rules.
“He turned down To Kill a Mockingbird because he felt the racial thing was too controversial; too liberal, really,” Frye explained. “But he would never say it in that way.” Gregory Peck’s performance as Atticus Finch is one of American cinema’s most iconic and formidable, but it could have been Stewart as the idealistic lawyer.
“He also turned down the lead in Network because of the language,” Frye added. “He would never allow himself to use profanity on the screen.” Peter Finch only had around 33 minutes of screentime in Sidney Lumet’s acerbic masterpiece, but he made the most of it, and his ‘Best Actor’ triumph saw him become the first posthumous winner of an acting Oscar.
Stewart’s third and final rejection had an air of cosmic kismet, since his decision to turn down On Golden Pond allowed his best friend, Henry Fonda, to win his first Oscar for what turned out to be his final big-screen appearance before his death. “He didn’t like the relationship the old man had with his daughter in the film,” Frye offered. “Jimmy loved both his daughters and couldn’t imagine a father treating one the way the character did in the film, and therefore refused to play him.”
The movie was much better served with having two generations of the Fonda family playing the father and daughter, and Stewart was thrilled to see his old pal land the big one. “When Henry won, all I ever heard Jimmy say was how happy he was for him,” Frye said. “He didn’t have a jealous bone in his body.”
