It's a special benefit performance of the one-man show As Always, Jimmy Stewart: A Journey Through a Beloved Actor's Wonderful Life.
Los Angeles actor Steve Nevil brings Jimmy Stewart to life in this special tribute, and will give three benefit performances. Nevil, a college friend of SRT founder Dennis Jones, has been earning audience and critics' raves for his one-man show, which has been playing at theaters in Southern California since April of this year. It's a warm, one-hour visit with Stewart in his living room, as he reminisces about his journey from small-town kid to lanky Hollywood actor, World War II fighter pilot and loveable movie legend. Along the way, you learn about his time at Princeton, bachelor days with life-long friend Henry Fonda, his long and loving marriage, fatherhood and the ups and downs of acting life.
STEVE NEVIL (Jimmy Stewart) Beginning his fourth decade as an actor, Steve has worked in the arenas of stage, television, and feature films since the mid-seventies. Around the age of fourteen, Steve stayed up late one night to watch the movie "Harvey" on TV, which featured an amazing and naturalistic performance by a fellow named James Stewart. From that moment on, Steve began to nurture an ambition to become an actor. After a few seasons of college plays and summer stock, he went to New York to study first with the Circle-in-the-Square Theatre School and then later with his mentor Herbert Berghof at the HB Studio. Steve returned to the west coast to obtain his Master of Arts in Theatre degree at UCLA, was seen in an acting competition, and was eventually cast as the son of McLean Stevenson (from TV's "MASH") on the NBC series The McLean Stevenson Show. Innumerable television appearances followed including guest roles on Lou Grant, Trapper John, Cheers, Murder She Wrote, Wings, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Moonlighting, Quantum Leap, and According to Jim.
Steve's regular series roles have included the NBC programs Mama's Family (in the 80's) and Hope and Gloria (in the 90's). He was honored to work with Gregory Peck in the CBS miniseries The Blue and the Gray and with Jimmy Stewart himself on the Campbell's Home Cookin' Soup commercials in 1989. Among Steve's film credits are the classic horror film The Howling and the long-lost Those Lips Those Eyes, with Frank Langella, about a Cleveland summer-stock theatre company in the fifties. His stage credits include The Genius with Mare Winningham, Alone Together with Florence Henderson and Robert Reed, and the 40th anniversary production of Spoon River Anthology, directed by original cast member Betty Garrett. From 2001 to 2004 Steve was a member of Ray Bradbury's Pandemonium Theatre Company, where he played leading roles in Falling Upward! (at Theatre West & the Falcon), Any Friend of Nicholas Nickelby's Is a Friend of Mine (at Theatre West), and The Time of Going Away (at the Court).
Steve spent years in research on a one-person play about the life and career of actor James Stewart. After many revisions and workshops, the play received the approval of the Stewart family children--Kelly, Judy, and Michael--and opened at Theatre West in Hollywood on April 1, 2004, where it played for an extended run. Since then, "As Always, Jimmy Stewart" has been performed all over the country, from up and down the California coast to New York and even at the Jimmy Stewart Museum in Stewart's hometown of Indiana, Pennsylvania. Last year, Steve performed at the James Stewart U.S. Postage Stamp Unveiling at Universal Studios, where the Stewart family and many of Stewart's co-stars and friends were in attendance.
After the premiere of the play in Los Angeles, the Stewart family presented Steve with Jimmy Stewart's original script binder, in which he kept each one of his movie scripts from the mid-forties through the end of his career. It was given by Kelly Stewart on behalf of the family "as a token of appreciation for the wonderful play created about Dad, and for the affection and respect that you show him. You have no idea how heartening it is for children to have their father kept alive like that."
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