Who played George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life?

James Stewart played George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life.

Frank Capra’s 1946 Christmas fantasy drama follows George Bailey, a building-and-loan manager in the fictional town of Bedford Falls. Although George repeatedly dreams of travel and architecture, he stays home to support his family and help ordinary residents afford houses. On Christmas Eve, a financial crisis leaves him despairing, and his guardian angel Clarence shows him what the town would have been like without his life and work.

Stewart’s performance is central to the film’s emotional force. The role was his first major movie appearance after serving as a bomber pilot in World War II, and it became one of his best-known performances. The film was adapted loosely from Philip Van Doren Stern’s 1943 booklet The Greatest Gift, which itself draws on ideas associated with A Christmas Carol.

Viewers sometimes confuse George Bailey with Henry Fonda or Gary Cooper because both actors were major stars of comparable Hollywood eras and played many idealistic American characters. The film’s other famous performances include Donna Reed as Mary Hatch, Lionel Barrymore as Henry F. Potter, and Henry Travers as Clarence.