Jimmy Stewart Honored by Lincoln Center Film Society

He’s still saying he was just lucky.

Jimmy Stewart was honored yet again Monday night and with almost 82 years and more than 70 films behind him, he once again refused to admit he might deserve it. “I’m just such a lucky man!” said the master of movie understatement following a night full of accolades.

This time it was a fund-raiser for the Film Society of Lincoln Center, where a sold-out crowd of usually hard-nosed, big-city Easterners paid homage to a man who came to embody the goodness of small-town America and the ruggedness of the panoramic West.

A sense of nostalgia seemed to hang alongside the crystal chandeliers of Avery Fisher Hall from the moment Film Society President Roy Furman mentioned former honorees “Laurence Olivier, Bette Davis and Alfred Hitchcock.” There was a palpable awareness that virtually all of Stewart’s contemporaries have gone on to what he himself called “God’s final editing room.”

So emotions were full as the audience watched the faces of Arthur, Fonda, Sullavan, Dietrich, Wayne and Kelly in clips from 30 Stewart movies, from classics like “You Can’t Take It With You” and “Rear Window” to otherwise forgettable forays such as “Born to Dance,” in which he proved he clearly wasn’t.

This exceptionally modest man sat with his wife of 40 years, Gloria, and endured two hours of gushing praise and documented evidence of a seemingly effortless artistry he still prefers to attribute to good timing and good directors.

Dorothy Lamour, who starred with him in “The Greatest Show on Earth,” recalled keeping him company one long night while his wife gave birth to their twins. “He was so nervous that night that I finally got to hear Jimmy Stewart talk fast!”

Both Janet Leigh and George C. Scott recalled Stewart’s generosity on the set. Scott, who co-starred with Stewart in “Anatomy of a Murder,” paid tribute to the star just by showing up. “Those of you who know me know I hate functions and I hate tuxedos.”

But he also remembered how unique it was for a star of Stewart’s stature to help newcomers like himself. “And no one could have played his parts but Jimmy Stewart,” Scott added. “Can you imagine me with a trombone as Glenn Miller?”

For Jack Lemmon, working with Stewart in “Bell, Book and Candle” was “similar to how I felt when I got to play a round of golf with Jack Nicklaus.” For June Allyson, happiness has been “being married to Jimmy Stewart--three times.” To Kim Novak, the object of his rare obsession in “Vertigo,” Stewart was “like a tall, sheltering redwood tree in the midst of a make-believe forest.”

Moved by it all, Stewart spoke only a few minutes, mostly paying tribute to the Film Society of Lincoln Center, which is dedicated to promoting movies and supporting new filmmakers.