Jimmy (Burns & Co., 11.6.26) is obviously a sentimental, low-budget, family-friendly attempt at ennobling and glorifying James Stewart‘s World War II experience as a bombardier in the European theatre. Pic was directed by Aaron Burns, whose company Burns & Co. also produced.
Burns & Co. mission statement: “In the truest sense of the word, Burns & Co. is a company of creatives crafting timeless adventure films and stories for the enjoyment of families around the world.”
posted on 8.6.25:”>Totally Wrong Actor Will Portray James Stewart, posted on 8.6.25:
In Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder (‘59) James Stewart and Ben Gazzara were about as opposed and disparate as they come.
Gazzara was an urban, method-y, dark-eyed “ethnic” type with a sassy, laid-back personality, and Stewart was an American heartland beanpole type (i.e., tall, corn-fed, blue-eyed, non-ethnic) with an upfront manner and an improvisational, half-gawky manner of speaking.
And yet the curiously named KJ Apa, a half-Samoan Gazzara look-alike from New Zealand, has been cast to portray Stewart in a forthcoming feature.
Stewart in heaven after reading about Apa’s casting: “All right, now wait a minute, just hold on for one doggone minute here…this swarthy Apa guy just isn’t my type…hell, I grew up in Pennsylvania and never even visited Samoa…he doesn’t even look like a cousin of mine…plus I was 6’ 3” and he’s 5’11” so there goes the beanpole resemblance. Plus he has a heavy beard-stubble thing going on.”
Stewart was drafted into the U.S. Armed Forces on 3.22.41. He was assigned to the Army Air Corps as an enlisted man and stationed at Moffett Field, Calif. During his nine months of training at that base, he also took extension courses with the idea of obtaining a commission. He completed the training and was awaiting the results when the Pearl Harbor attack happened (12.7.41).
A month later (January ’42) Stewart received his commission, and because he had logged over 400 hours as a civilian, he was permitted to take basic flight training at Moffett and received his pilot wings. In the fall of 1943, Stewart went to England as Commanding Officer of the 703d Bomb Squadron, equipped with B-24s.
He began flying combat missions and on March 31, 1944, was appointed Operations Officer of the 453rd Bomb Group and, subsequently, Chief of Staff of the 2nd Combat wing, 2nd Air Division of the 8th Air Force. Stewart flew over 20 combat missions as a B-24 bomber commander with the Eighth Air Force, leading dangerous raids over Germany, and earning numerous medals, including the Distinguished Flying Cross.