Jimmy Stewart was one of Hollywood's nice guys, who enjoyed one of the longest screen careers in history, from Murder Man in 1935 to a Lassie film in 1981. His films were also remarkably wide-ranging, from heartwarming Frank Capra classics like It's a Wonderful Life and Mr Smith Goes to Washington through George Cukor's The Philadelphia Story to creepy Hitchcock masterworks like Vertigo. His role in the comic film Harvey, about a man pursued by a giant invisible rabbit, he reprised on the London stage towards the end of his life. Marc Eliot's new biography is a superbly readable and comprehensively detailed account of Stewart's life and career, including notably a lengthy and fascinating account of his war service flying bombers for the US Air Force. He has obtained rare interviews from one of Stewart's daughters, from his Vertigo co-star Kim Novak, and from Frank Capra's son.