20 May: James Stewart

James Stewart, the American actor was born on this date in 1908. Here are 10 things you might not know about him:

1. James Maitland Stewart was born on May 20, 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania. He was of Scottish and Scottish-Irish ancestry. His father ran a hardware store, and fully expected his only son to return home and take over the store after university.

2. He attended Princeton University and studied architecture. However, when he graduated, America was in the midst of the Great Depression, so architects weren’t so much in demand. Instead, Stewart decided to follow his interest in acting, joining a theatre group in Falmouth, Massachusetts. This led to roles on Broadway and a contract with MGM.

3. His film debut was in 1935, as a cub reporter in The Murder Man.

4. His mother was a pianist, so Stewart was interested in music from an early age. Once, a customer at the family hardware store was unable to pay his bill, and offered an old Accordion in lieu of payment. Stewart learned to play the instrument, and would have it with him on movie sets so he could play it during down time.

5. He could write poetry as well as act. A book of his poems was published in 1989. His best known poem is probably “Beau,” about his late dog. Stewart read this verse to Johnny Carson during a Tonight Show appearance in 1981.

6. He also had a keen interest in aviation. In 1935, he got his private pilot license and often flew home to Pennsylvania to visit his parents. He got his commercial license in 1938.

7. When America entered WWII, he was keen to serve his country and was the first major American movie star to enlist. However, the military turned him down at first because he was too thin. So he went home and ate as much as he could, then asked to be weighed again. This time, he got in. As he was already a pilot, he joined the Air Force in the hope that he could fly missions. Although he did get some flight training, the authorities seemed to want him more as the star of recruitment videos. He did eventually get sent to England, where he participated in more than 20 combat missions over Germany. He earned the Distinguished Flying Cross with two Oak Leaf clusters, and some other awards, making him the most decorated actor in the war.

8. After the war he went home and resumed his acting career. The first film he made after the war was It's a Wonderful Life. Later on, he would strongly object to the film being colourised, believing the director had never intended it to be colourful. He described the colourised version as “a bath of Easter egg dye.” He particularly objected to colouring the costumes of a character named Violet in costumes of that colour. It was, he wrote, “the kind of obvious visual pun that Frank Capra never would have considered.”

9. He won one Oscar, for The Philadelphia Story in 1940. However, he didn’t really think he deserved it, and thought his close friend Henry Fonda should have won it for The Grapes of Wrath. Stewart’s father suggested he bring the award home so it could be displayed in the hardware store. Stewart did so, and the Oscar remained there for 25 years.

10. He didn’t marry until he was over 40, although he had relationships with many famous names including Ginger Rogers, Norma Shearer, Marlene Dietrich and Olivia de Havilland. He was dubbed the "Great American Bachelor". He eventually married Gloria Hatrick McLean, who he first met at a Christmas party where he got drunk. She wasn’t impressed and the marriage might never have happened had the pair not both been invited to a dinner party at Gary Cooper’s house, where Stewart succeeded in changing her mind. They remained married until she died.

Character Birthday

Superwil, aka Wilson Warner, a genetic variant who grew up in the Republic of Ireland. He discovered in his early teens that he had superpowers, including flight and the ability to generate energy bolts. He has a danger sense which alerts him to problems and can also detect emotions emitting from other beings. He has X-Ray vision and a healing power. He was an extraordinarily gifted student of medicine and achieved his first degree in medicine by the time he was 18. He had decided he wanted to go into general practice with a particular interest in genetic variant medicine. He went to university in England to start his GP training and there met Judith Brent, aka Electric Blue, also a prodigy, who was a post grad in electrical engineering despite being only 18. The pair joined the Freedom League and began dating, but the relationship ended when Judith believed he was cheating on her with another member of the team and left to join the G-Men. They met again after a number of years and rekindled their relationship and subsequently married. By this time, Superwil had achieved his ambition and was running a general practice which was a cover for a superhero hospital where injured heroes could be healed. He and Judith had five children and a documentary was made about the family, called The Warners: Superhero Family. He appears in a number of my novels although his story is mostly told in Eternal Flame.

Eternal Flame

The Freedom League's numbers have dwindled to three - but leader Unicorn knows his team isn't finished yet. The turning point comes with Russell, a boy with bright red hair and a genetic variant ability to start fires. He's the first of an influx of new members who will take the League into the future. 

Judith and Wil are child prodigies - Judith in physics and electronics, and Wil in medicine. They have another thing in common - they are both genetic variants. And another thing - they both have fiery red hair. They are drawn to one another as their destinies intertwine, but the course of true love doesn't always run smoothly!

Richard is not a variant. He's an Olympic athlete who has picked up useful knowledge from his unusual friends to add to his own natural abilities. A chance encounter with a dying alien throws him into a Freedom League mission in which his skills are put to the ultimate test, along with theirs.

The Freedom League's arch-enemy, the super-villain Obsidian, wants his family fortune all to himself. One person stands in his way - his niece, Fiona. Fiona, devastated by a family tragedy and her failure to get in to her first choice university, is miserable and has few friends. When she realises her brother's death was no accident, and his killer is also after her, she fears it may be too late to gather allies around her and learn how to use her own genetic variant powers.

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