Jimmy Stewart’s Twin Daughters Share Rare Glimpse Into Family Life

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Film legend Jimmy Stewart was a rich and famous movie star to the rest of the world, but to his twin daughters he was simply Dad.

Instead of a sprawling mansion, Jimmy and his wife, Gloria, a divorced former fashion model with two sons, raised their family in a sensible ivy covered Tudor-style home in a Beverly Hills neighborhood known as The Flats because of its lack of hills.

“It wasn’t big and fancy,” reveals daughter Kelly Stewart-Harcourt, who was born with her twin, Judy, in 1951. “It was really cozy inside. I think that’s what Mom and Dad liked about it.”

Jimmy’s good friend Henry Fonda once said, “It’s as comfortable as Jimmy, with a splash of style thrown in by Gloria.”

By the time Jimmy met Gloria Hatrick McLean, he’d lived a full life! He won an Oscar for 1940’s “The Philadelphia Story,” and soon after he joined the U.S. Army, flew 20 combat missions over Europe during World War II, and won the Distinguished Flying Cross.

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After tying the knot in 1949, they bought the home where they would live for the rest of their lives. They purchased the derelict house next door too‚ and tore it down so Gloria could expand her flower and vegetable garden!

“Mom would spend a lot of time out in the garden with the dogs, and Dad would be in the library reading the newspaper,” remembers Kelly.

She also cherishes memories of the family enjoying simple evenings watching TV together.

“Dad left his work at the door,” she says. “He didn’t bring it home with him. Mom and Dad loved game shows. Mom would always yell out the answers.”

As an actor, Jimmy chose roles that aligned with his own values, like one of his most famous roles as dad George Bailey in the Christmas film “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

“He never played a horrible villain or a super selfish man,” says Kelly. “He was always true to himself and he chose roles that were too.

“Before we went to college, Dad called my sister and me into the library. He said, ‘I just want to say to you that the most important thing you should remember in life is, always be nice to people.’”

Jimmy’s beloved Gloria died just months after being diagnosed with lung cancer in 1994. It hit the actor hard. In his final three years before he passed in 1997 at age 89, Kelly recalls, “He would smile, but he stopped laughing.”