Who Played Me in "It's a Wonderful Life"? Quiz

Answer: Jimmy Stewart

Stewart, born on May 20th, 1908 in Indiana, Pennsylvania was cast as an older George Bailey. George was a kind, giving man, who had a nice family and a steady job working for the family business, a building and loan company. One night, George realized that he could be arrested for a monetary issue related to the company and contemplated killing himself. To prevent George from doing this, his guardian angel, Clarence, jumped into the river which George planned to jump into in order to kill himself. George rescued Clarence and then took him to a place where they could both warm up, as the river was freezing. Clarence decided to take George on a personal journey, for him to see what life would have been like had he never been born.

This was due to a comment made about how the world would have been better had he never existed. George indeed decided not to kill himself and he went back home to his family to celebrate Christmas with them. Stewart starred in the films, "Vertigo", "Rear Window" and "Rope".

In 1947, he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role for "It's a Wonderful Life" but lost to Fredric March for "The Best Years of our Lives". Other Oscar nominees for Best Actor in a Leading Role that year were Laurence Olivier for "The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fifth with his Battell Fought at Agincourt in France", Larry Parks for "The Jolson Story" and Gregory Peck for "The Yearling". In 2003, the American Film Institute ranked George Bailey from "It's a Wonderful Life" as the ninth best movie hero/heroine out of a list of fifty characters.

Answer: Donna Reed

Reed, a native of Denison, Iowa played Mary Hatch. Mary and George were friends and got reacquainted at a party one evening, when they shared a dance. While they danced, two people pulled a lever to open up the bottom portion of the dance floor to reveal a pool. Mary and George slipped into the pool and then everyone else at the party jumped in and started to swim. Mary and George walked home all soaked and sang the song, "Buffalo Gal". Mary and George began a courtship which resulted in marriage and they had four children together.

In Mary's final scene, she gathered with George and her children in front of their Christmas tree. Reed guest starred on the TV shows, "The Love Boat" and "Suspicion". She is best known for her role of Donna Stone on the TV show, "The Donna Reed Show".

In 1954, she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the film, "From Here to Eternity".

Answer: Lionel Barrymore

Barrymore, born in 1878 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania played Mr. Potter. Mr. Potter was an old man who lived in Bedford Falls, New York and was described as the richest person in town. At the beginning of the movie, Mr. Potter insulted George's father and George heard this so he blasted Mr. Potter for being mean to his father.

In one scene, Mr. Potter mentioned, at a meeting at the Bailey Savings & Loan, that it was the only business which he was unable to own outright. However, he did have an investment in the business. Midway through the movie, George went to Mr. Potter for financial aid, since Billy misplaced $8,000 of his company's money (George was taking responsibility for it) and Mr. Potter called the police to have George arrested. Mr. Potter did this since he was a stockholder in the building and loan company. Meanwhile, Mr. Potter located the $8,000 himself but refused to tell George this.

In Mr. Potter's final scene, he told George he would have a merry Christmas in jail but George managed to come up with the $8,000 and was not arrested. Barrymore was in the movies, "You Can't Take it With You", "Key Largo" and "Grand Hotel".

In 1931, he won an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for "A Free Soul". Other Oscar nominees for Best Actor in a Leading Role that year were Jackie Cooper for "Skippy", Richard Dix for "Cimarron", Fredric March for "The Royal Family of Broadway" and Adolphe Menjou for "The Front Page". In 2003, the American Film Institute ranked Mr. Potter as the sixth greatest film villain/villainess out of fifty characters.

Answer: Karolyn Grimes

Grimes landed the role of Zuzu. Zuzu was the daughter of George and Mary, as well as the sister of Janie, Tommy and Pete. Midway through the movie, George found out that Zuzu was not feeling well, due to walking home from school wearing an unbuttoned coat, and was resting in her bed.

When he went to talk to Zuzu, she showed him a flower she got at school and handed it to George. George took the flower and the petals fell off so Zuzu asked him to paste the petals together to form a flower. George put the petals in his pocket and then left Zuzu's bedroom, after he told her to go to sleep.

When George realized he wanted to live his life and not kill himself, he raced home and hugged Zuzu as well as his other children. Grimes had roles in the films, "The Bishop's Wife", "The Private Affairs of Bel Ami" and "Pardon My Past".

Answer: Robert J. Anderson

Anderson, born on March 6th, 1933 in Hollywood, California was cast as a younger George Bailey. Young George was seen, one day, going sledding down a small hill in Bedford Falls, New York with a couple other friends and his brother, Harry. Harry slid too far on one occasion and went through the ice. George saved his brother from freezing to death in the blistering cold water but suffered hearing loss in one of his ears as a result.

In a later scene, George went to the store where he worked and spoke to Mary about his plan to travel the world when he got older. Anderson starred in the movies, "Ruthless", "Born to the Saddle" and "The Officer and the Lady".

Answer: Henry Travers

Travers, a native of Berwick-Upon-Tweed, Northumberland, England played Clarence. Clarence was given an assignment by his fellow angels in the sky to help George Bailey. Clarence asked them if he could get his wings if he was successful in aiding George and the other angels assured him that would happen.

After George made a comment on the world being better without him, Clarence decided to show George how awful life would be without him, so as to convince him not to go through with killing himself. Clarence transformed the present world to what it would be like if George had never been born.

He took George to Harry's gravestone and informed George that Harry died when he slipped through the ice, since George was not alive to be there to save Harry. Clarence took George around town and George noticed that Pottersville (formerly Bedford Falls) was a mess without him, with pandemonium erupting everywhere he turned.

When Clarence saw that he got through to George, he went back to the sky since George commented on how he wanted to live.

At the very end of the movie, George saw a note from Clarence where he said no man with friends was a failure. He also thanked George for helping him get his wings. When George was asked who Clarence was, he simply responded that Clarence was an old friend. Travers was in the films, "The Girl from Jones Beach", "Beyond Glory" and "The Bells of St. Mary's". In 1943, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for "Mrs. Miniver" but lost to Van Heflin for "Johnny Eager". Other Oscar nominees for Best Supporting Actor that year were William Bendix for "Wake Island", Walter Huston for "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and Frank Morgan for "Tortilla Flat".

Answer: H.B. Warner

Warner, born in 1875 in London, England portrayed Mr. Gower in a small role. Mr. Gower owned a drug store and employed George there while he was a young boy. A serious tragedy happened to him one day while at work. Mr. Gower received a telegram that his son had died from influenza and this distressed him. George recognized that Mr. Gower accidentally put poison in a customer's prescription and informed him of this. Mr. Gower was grateful George did this and George told him he saw the telegram and understood Mr. Gower was upset. Warner portrayed characters in the movies, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", "New Moon" and "City of Missing Girls".

In 1938, he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for "Lost Horizon" but lost to Joseph Schildkraut for "The Life of Emile Zola".

Other Oscar nominees for Best Supporting Actor that year were Ralph Bellamy for "The Awful Truth", Thomas Mitchell for "The Hurricane" and Roland Young for "Topper".

Answer: Samuel S. Hinds

Hinds starred as Mr. Bailey in "It's a Wonderful Life" in a minor role. Mr. Bailey opened up a home loan company in Bedford Falls, New York and was the proud father of two sons, George and Harry. Near the beginning of the movie, Mr. Bailey was in a business meeting with Mr. Potter and others and Mr. Bailey mentioned that many of their customers had fallen on hard times.

He stated that most of the customers had trouble making their payments, so Mr. Potter suggested they all be tossed out of their homes onto the streets. Mr. Bailey objected to this and Mr. Potter then accused Mr. Bailey of wanting to run a charity ward as opposed to a business.

When Mr. Potter bashed Mr. Bailey, George blasted Mr. Potter for it but Mr. Bailey took George outside and informed him he could handle Mr. Potter. Hinds was in the films, "Scarlet Street", "Inside Job" and "The Egg and I".

Answer: Thomas Mitchell

Mitchell, born on July 11th, 1892 in Elizabeth, New Jersey was cast as Billy Bailey. Billy was George's uncle and helped him out at the building and loan business, when George headed the operations. There was one instance in the film when Billy said he would deposit $8,000 of company money at the bank.

When he got to the bank, he showed Mr. Potter a newspaper which ran an article on Harry Bailey receiving the Medal of Honor. Billy became distressed when he could not locate the money while he was at the bank and George later blasted Billy for losing it. George yelled at Billy that one of them would be getting in trouble for misplacing the money and it would not be him since he did not lose the money. Mitchell had roles in the movies, "Gone with the Wind", "High Noon" and "The Hurricane".

In 1940, he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for "Stagecoach". Other Oscar nominees for Best Supporting Actor that year were Brian Aherne for "Juarez", Harry Carey for "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", Brian Donlevy for "Beau Geste" and Claude Rains for "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington".

Answer: Sheldon Leonard

Leonard, a native of New York City, played Nick. Nick was a bartender at a bar in Bedford Falls which George liked to frequent on occasion. In one scene, George went to Nick's bar, after he realized money was missing from the building and loans business and a customer there got into a fight with him. Nick kicked the customer out of his establishment and then assured George that customer would never be allowed back at his bar.

When George next went to Nick's bar, it was with Clarence and Clarence had just made it appear as if George had never been born. George spoke to Nick and Nick said he had no idea who George was. Nick got annoyed with George and Clarence so he told them to leave his bar. Leonard guest starred on the TV Series', "Cheers", "The Cosby Show" and "Murder, She Wrote".