Jimmy Stewart AT HOME

THE DAUGHTER OF THE BELOVED OSCAR-WINNING ACTOR SHARES FAMILY MEMORIES WITH CLOSER

- By LOUISE A. BARILE

Kelly Stewart-Harcourt recalls watching monumental world events — from the first American in space to the Kennedy assassination — with her parents in the library of their home at 918 N. Roxbury Drive in Beverly Hills. “About 5 or 5:30, we would gather in the library and Dad would turn on the news,” Kelly tells Closer about their daily ritual. “Mom and Dad would make their vodka and tonics. My sister and I would have our Shirley Temples. When Mike and Ron were home, because they went away to boarding school, we'd all gather there.”

Kelly and her twin sister, Judy, were born in 1951, the same year the star of It's a Wonderful Life and his wife, Gloria, purchased the ivy-covered Tudor-style home where the couple would live for the rest of their lives. “It wasn’t big and fancy,” says Kelly, who notes that her mom did most of the decorating herself. “It was really cozy inside. I think that’s what mom and dad liked about it.”

Gloria and Jimmy shared a dance.

Henry Fonda, a close friend of Jimmy’s since their struggling actor days, once said of the house: “It’s as comfortable as Jimmy, with a splash of style thrown in by Gloria.”

Reared in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Jimmy discovered acting in college and spent time on Broadway before landing in Hollywood in the early 1930s. He became famed for playing relatable everyman characters and won an Oscar as a reporter who fatefully crosses paths with Katharine Hepburn’s socialite in 1940’s The Philadelphia Story.

Not long after his win, Jimmy, an accomplished private pilot, became the first big-name Hollywood star to enlist in the Army. He flew 20 combat missions over Europe during World War II and was awarded the distinguished Flying Cross.

THE SWEET LIFE