Tom Hanks Still Recalls ‘Every Moment’ of Visiting Jimmy Stewart’s ‘Lovely’ Home 35 Years Later (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Tom Hanks on Oct. 19, Jimmy Stewart ca. 1945.Photo:Matt Winkelmeyer/WireImage; Silver Screen Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty

Matt Winkelmeyer/WireImage; Silver Screen Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty

Tom Hankscan recall “every moment” of seeing the house of a Hollywood legend.

Hanks visitedJimmy Stewart’s home in 1989 when they were photographed together for a special issue ofLifemagazine. It was “a lovely house,” as Hanks remembers it on the red carpet of the world premiere of hisnew movieHereat AFI Fest in Los Angeles on Friday, Oct. 25.

“He had absolutely no memorabilia from his career,” reports Hanks. “None. Zero. He had nothing. No sign of a movie that he had made.”

The two-time Oscar winner conceded that there were a handful of reminders of Stewart’s legendary screen career, but not nearly as many as there could have been. “He had one tiny little figurine of Harvey the rabbit on a bookshelf,” he says. Stewart, who died in 1997 at age 89, starred in the 1950 filmHarvey, about a man and his invisible rabbit friend.

Jimmy Stewart ca. 1940.Silver Screen Collection/Getty

Silver Screen Collection/Getty

“That was it,” recalls Hanks, “in a huge house.”

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That, and a watercolor painting of Pie,the horse Stewart rode in many of his movies. Hank Fonda, a costar from 1970’sThe Cheyenne Social Club, gifted Stewart a rendering of the beloved animal — who, Hanks recalls, Stewart said died two weeks later.

“Would you forget a story like that?” quips Hanks.

Stewart, he adds, “used to live right across the street fromLucille Ball… What are those parties like?”

Tom Hanks in 1988.Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty

Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty

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The 1989Lifemagazine issue featured pairs of actors hailing from different generations, includingWilliam Hurtand Olivia de Havilland,Meryl Streepand Bette Davis andMichael Keatonand Mickey Rooney, in addition to Hanks and Stewart.

source: people.com