The beloved Christmas classic film “It’s a Wonderful Life” was the movie that brought a beleaguered and combat-weary actor James “Jimmy” Stewart back to fans after the war — but it may have also been the movie that brought a desperate man back from the brink.
James Maitland Stewart was preparing to go to war for several years before he was drafted in 1941. He earned a civilian pilot’s license in the hopes that the Army would let him fly — and he even took a trip to Europe in 1939 to get a feel for the landscape, knowing that it was likely he would end up there at some point.
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