‘The Spirit of St. Louis’: James Stewart Flies a Special Plane

Billy Wilder brings to film Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight across the North Atlantic.

Jimmy Stewart with the aircraft replica used in the film, "Spirit of St. Louis." Warner Bros.

G | 2h 15min | Drama | 1957

Prompted by his father, young James Stewart went to Princeton University instead of pursuing aviation in the U.S. Naval Academy. But his life did include flying. Off screen, he fulfilled his dream of becoming a pilot. Onscreen, in Billy Wilder’s film, “The Spirit of St. Louis,” he played aviator and U.S. military officer Charles Lindbergh, who in 1927 was the first to fly solo, nonstop, across the North Atlantic.