"It's a Wonderful Life" star Karolyn Grimes has met dozens of Hollywood icons throughout her career but it was Jimmy Stewart who left one of the most lasting impressions on her.
The actress, who was 6 when she landed the role of Zuzu in the Frank Capra-directed classic, sat down to an interview with Fox News during which she shared details of what it was like working with Stewart.
"He was very tall and very thin. But he was just the best thing," she said. "He was very gentle and kind. He was very generous with his time and really patient with me. So I really enjoyed working with him.
"I remember I made a mistake with a line and he said, 'Well, that's all right Karolyn, you'll get it the next time.' He was very encouraging. I felt like I learned a lot working with him."
Donna Reed starred alongside Stewart in "It's a Wonderful Life," but Grimes admitted she remembered very little of the actress. It was Stewart who had left an impression on her.
"He was so gentle with me. I was always in his arms or on his neck. And you have to remember, sometimes you have to film a scene over and over again, especially with Capra because he was such a perfectionist," she said. "But Jimmy never complained. He never made me feel bad if I got a line wrong. So I really appreciated all of those things as a child."
At the time, Grimes was unaware of the fact that she was acting with top Hollywood names. In an interview with Record Searchlight, she credited her mother for that, saying it helped her to get along with the cast.
"I was just a little kid, and my mom kept me from realizing that I was working with stars," Grimes said. "I didn't even know what a movie star was. They protected me from all that. I just saw them as regular people, and I liked them a lot."
During her interview with Fox News, Grimes also spoke about exiting Hollywood. She moved to Kansas after losing both her parents when she was barely a teenager.
She lived with her father's brother and his "mean" wife, who reportedly cut all Grimes' ties with anybody she had ever worked with. Acting became a past life for Grimes, but in the end she realized that Hollywood was not for her.
"Then I realized I didn’t want to go back to Hollywood anymore. It was a shallow, dog-eat-dog world," Grimes told Fox News. "I didn’t want that in my life. So I felt content staying in Kansas. At first, I did miss Hollywood. But after I was in Kansas for a year, things changed for me."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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