James Stewart’s 10 greatest performances, from It’s a Wonderful Life to Vertigo

Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Alfred Kralik in The Shop Around the Corner open image in gallery ‘The Shop Around the Corner’ starring Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart This sublime romantic comedy set in Budapest sees Stewart displaying great chemistry opposite the woman he once loved in real life, Margaret Sullavan. Macaulay Connor in The Philadelphia Story open image in gallery James Stewart and Katharine Hepburn in ‘The Philadelphia Story’ That the performance for which Stewart won his only Oscar should be ranked just fifth on this list is testimony to the quality of numbers one to four. John “Scottie” Ferguson in Vertigo open image in gallery James Stewart in ‘Vertigo’ Stewart’s role as the obsessive fetishist haunted by his past is so dark and complex that it still comes as a surprise that he was willing to subvert his nice-guy image so dramatically. The darker themes of It’s a Wonderful Life, the flawed anti-heroes of the Mann westerns, the voyeur of Rear Window – all these roles led to Vertigo, Stewart’s greatest performance.