George Bailey

George Bailey is a fictional character and the protagonist in Frank Capra's 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life. The character is a building and loan banker who sacrifices his dreams in order to help his community, to the point where he feels life has passed him by. Eventually, due to a cruel business rival's manipulations, Bailey falls into despair so deep that he contemplates suicide, until his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody, gives him a valuable perspective on the worth of his life. He finds through Odbody's angelic power and gift, what life would be like if he didn’t have Mary and his relationships in his life, and what their lives would be like without him. The character was listed ninth on the American Film Institute's 2003 list of the 50 greatest screen heroes. Bailey is played by James Stewart as an adult and Bobby Anderson as a child, and is loosely based on George Pratt, a character in Philip Van Doren Stern's 1943 booklet The Greatest Gift.