BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) – There was always something warmly familiar about that tall, slender, soft-spoken man on the big screen. Something humble, kind and approachable.
Something about the actor Jimmy Stewart that struck Robyn Fargo Garibaldi as fatherly. As in, her father.
And one day almost 40 years ago she got the courage to tell him so. She wrote the actor a letter.
“You’ve definitely got a spot reserved in my heart,” she wrote. “Of all the people in the world right now, if someone asked me who you admire the most, and who would you like to meet, I’d have to say Jimmy Stewart. Thank you for that feeling, and my best to Mrs. Stewart.”
Though she didn’t explicitly say so in that first letter, Garibaldi was thinking of her father, Billy Jack Fargo, a Lamont farmer with a similar build, a similar demeanor and like Stewart, a World War II veteran.
Watch 17 News, After Sunrise and more local news free on your smart TV. Click to learn more about KGET+
To her delight and astonishment, Jimmy Stewart answered Garibaldi’s letter about six weeks later.
“Dear Robyn Fargo,” the actor wrote. “I read your letter several times and it’s wonderful every time.”
And their correspondence continued over the years, sporadically until his death in 1997.
Now, with the biopic “Jimmy” hitting theaters on Nov. 6, that original thrill of actually meeting the everyman Hollywood legend comes racing back.
Her husband, attorney and fitness expert Mark Garibaldi, is hardly jealous. In fact, he’s a huge fan himself.
How big of a fan are these two? During the pandemic five years ago, they entertained themselves and their friends with a series of social media videos, including a recreation of Stewart’s best loved film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Mark still has photos of himself as Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey, contemplating suicide just prior to his third-act redemption.
The Garibaldis are hoping for the best from the film, which stars Australian actor K.J. Apa, who somehow recreates Stewart’s flat, nasally Midwestern drawl.
As for the lessons they hope the films conveys and movie goers grasp:
“He’s such an enticing character,” said Mark Garibaldi. “You were asking the question about the movie, ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’ What a great movie. For people to realize what you do every day can affect many people. And we all go through stages at some times: Is what I’m doing making a difference? And you realize if you weren’t here you can see how your life meant so much to so many people. The whole domino effect.”
“Jimmy” premieres Thursday in Los Angeles area theaters and in Bakersfield Friday at Reading Cinemas at the Valley Plaza.
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17 News.