{"id":519855,"date":"2026-11-05T22:04:49","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T22:04:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/519855\/"},"modified":"2026-11-05T22:04:49","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T22:04:49","slug":"jimmy-stewart-biopic-hits-the-screen-and-actors-no-1-fans-from-bakersfield-are-ready-and-excited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/519855\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Stewart biopic hits the screen and actor\u2019s No. 1 fans from Bakersfield are ready and excited"},"content":{"rendered":"

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BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) \u2013 There was always something warmly familiar about that tall, slender, soft-spoken man on the big screen. Something humble, kind and approachable.<\/p>\n

Something about the actor Jimmy Stewart that struck Robyn Fargo Garibaldi as fatherly. As in, her father.<\/p>\n

And one day almost 40 years ago she got the courage to tell him so. She wrote the actor a letter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve definitely got a spot reserved in my heart,\u201d she wrote. \u201cOf 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\u2019d have to say Jimmy Stewart. Thank you for that feeling, and my best to Mrs. Stewart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though she didn\u2019t 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\tWatch 17 News, After Sunrise and more local news free on your smart TV. Click to learn more about KGET+\t<\/p>\n

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To her delight and astonishment, Jimmy Stewart answered Garibaldi\u2019s letter about six weeks later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDear Robyn Fargo,\u201d the actor wrote. \u201cI read your letter several times and it\u2019s wonderful every time.\u201d<\/p>\n

And their correspondence continued over the years, sporadically until his death in 1997.<\/p>\n

Now, with the biopic \u201cJimmy\u201d hitting theaters on Nov. 6, that original thrill of actually meeting the everyman Hollywood legend comes racing back.<\/p>\n

Her husband, attorney and fitness expert Mark Garibaldi, is hardly jealous. In fact, he\u2019s a huge fan himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u00a0 Stewart\u2019s best loved film, \u201cIt\u2019s a Wonderful Life.\u201d Mark still has photos of himself as Jimmy Stewart\u2019s George Bailey, contemplating suicide just prior to his third-act redemption.<\/p>\n

The Garibaldis are hoping for the best from the film, which stars Australian actor K.J. Apa, who somehow recreates Stewart\u2019s flat, nasally Midwestern drawl.<\/p>\n

As for the lessons they hope the films conveys and movie goers grasp:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s such an enticing character,\u201d said Mark Garibaldi. \u201cYou were asking the question about the movie, \u2018It\u2019s a Wonderful Life.\u2019 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\u2019t here you can see how your life meant so much to so many people. The whole domino effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJimmy\u201d premieres Thursday in Los Angeles area theaters and in Bakersfield Friday at Reading Cinemas at the Valley Plaza.<\/p>\n

\nCopyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
\nFor the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17 News.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) \u2013 There was always something warmly familiar about that tall, slender, soft-spoken man on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-519855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}