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Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick are the most shining examples of the Academy shunning brilliant directors from their pantheon, yet Ron Howard and Kevin Costner are more than worthy of their great esteem. Yet, these injustices also extend to the fine actors who added to the suspense and hypnotic feel of their films. Shadow of a Doubt, Notorious, Strangers on a Train, North by Northwest, Dr. Strangelove, The Shining and Full Metal Jacket all contained performances cruelly ignored by Oscar. Yet, of all these snubs, none seem more painful than the Academy overlooking Jimmy Stewart for Rear Window and Vertigo.

Stewart represents America as much as apple pie and baseball, yet he failed to receive recognition for two of his most highly attuned performances. These are performances that used the all-American everyman appeal of Stewart, but added more depth and complexity than his previously nominated performances. His characters, Jeff and Scottie, may not have the younger charm he exuded for Frank Capra, but Hitchcock managed to channel Stewart’s personality and popularity to create a couple of his greatest films. Both are films that channel voyeuristic obsession and both Stewart characters are looking to fuel underlying sexual desires. Even so, despite their charm, these two characters are worlds apart.

Rear Window is one of my very favorite films and Hitchcock rightfully deserves much of the praise for the film’s success. He successfully draws us into Stewart’s voyeuristic activities in Rear Window, and that skill garnered him of one of his five directing nominations. Still, without Stewart’s skill and mastery of Jeff, could Rear Window have succeeded as it did? We recognize Jeff’s complacency with his life, and why he seeks excitement elsewhere. Yes, the lives of his neighbors may be no more exciting than his own, but he’s able to create a back story that sensationalizes their lives in order to fill his emptiness. Hitchcock wants his audience to participate in Jeff’s activities just as much as Jeff, to feel his urge and to feel his fear. This act reflects our desire to see the lives of fictional people in movies. For Hitchcock to connect these activities, he needed the appropriate actor and he had that in Jimmy Stewart. Without Stewart’s identifiable persona, the audience can’t connect with Jeff and as a result can’t be drawn in by Jeff’s obsession.

Yet, Stewart’s performance is perfect for more than just his obsession about the apartment across the courtyard. Stewart sells us his disinterest in life. Yes, he’s been confined to his apartment due to a broken leg, but he’s also in a relationship with a beautiful young women named Lisa (played wonderfully by Grace Kelly). By all accounts, he should be happy with his relationship, but Lisa doesn’t seek adventure in the same manner as Jeff. What could have easily been played as a one-note, lifeless relationship has far more complexity. Stewart sells us on his feelings for Lisa, but also gives us the feeling that he wants them to be more than the appealing-but-far-from-exciting relationships that he observes around him. His only excitement in his own relationship comes when Lisa joins the investigation and becomes part of his movie screen.

As appealing as Stewart is in Rear Window, his nuanced, captivating work in Vertigo stands along cinema’s very finest. Vertigo, like Rear Window, is a movie driven by obsession. It also begs us to question our notions of love. Vertigo starts innocently enough, with Jimmy Stewart again playing an everyman, reluctantly taking a job to track an old friend’s wife around San Francisco. Yet, he finds this woman remarkable. She’s a mysterious woman driven by her own obsession and when he saves her life, she becomes an icon for him. Stewart makes this love more than a romantic love, but also a representation of beauty and fascination. Does he love this woman in the same way that his friend Midge loves him? Likely not, but Stewart’s character believes so. Scottie's obsession with this woman creates an ideal in his mind that could not be matched.

Stewart manages to subtlety to move Scottie from a quiet sort of everyman to a man driven by obsession. He even manages to be come creepy when he tries to recreate the woman that he loved. Scottie is also a man damaged by his past, a man struck with fear and a man betrayed, so despite those lingering feelings of creepiness, Stewart makes the character sympathetic. Once Scottie learns of the truth, this pain intensifies, yet he remains in remarkable control of himself building to the film’s climax. Scottie builds to a cathartic moment only to be snatched back to the culmination of his pain.

Stewart’s portrayal of Scottie is remarkably restrained. He’s quiet, yet deeply affected by his fear of heights, something Stewart does play up for theatricality, but uses it to further spiral Scottie into his obsession. Stewart allows Scottie to be so obsessed with the woman that he’s oblivious to the rest of the world. Still, Stewart allows the audience to share in his interest of this woman, mirroring an audience's own obsession with the mysterious. And when Scottie does become creepy, Stewart remains just as restrained, keeping in mind that the audience must remain sympathetic with his situation.

Stewart did face stiff competition from Marlon Brando’s own iconic performance in 1954’s On the Waterfront, but none of the other nominated roles could claim to be as memorable as Rear Window. David Niven won for 1958’s Separate Tables and the field also included Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier, Tony Curtis and Spencer Tracy, but all of these legends delivered finer performances for which they are remembered than their work in 1958. On the other hand, Stewart’s work in Vertigo is just as iconic as Jefferson Smith or George Bailey. Stewart’s performance may not contain the malice of many winners, or be as heroic or even be retarded, but it remains an iconic performance of one of our finest actors.