George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart)’s Timeline and Summary
- As a kid, George saves his brother, Harry, from drowning in an icy pond and also prevents the drugstore owner, Mr. Gower, from accidentally poisoning a kid.
- After he grows up, George plans on traveling the world before going to college. But, when his father dies, he has to take over the Building and Loan.
- George plans on handing over the Building and Loan to his brother, but Harry ends up getting married and moving elsewhere. George gets married to Mary Hatch and remains in Bedford Falls.
- He saves the Building and Loan during the Great Depression, making sure that Mr. Potter doesn't take over the entire home building and rental business in town.
- After he's finished helping out during World War II while still remaining in town, George runs into trouble. His Uncle Billy loses $8,000 of the Building and Loan's money on Christmas Eve. (Mr. Potter finds and steals it.)
- George freaks out, thinking he's a failure and is going to be arrested for losing his customers' funds. He contemplates suicide, staring over a bridge into the freezing river below.
- Fortunately, his guardian angel, Clarence, comes down and falls in the river, prompting George to rescue him.
- When George wishes he'd never been born, Clarence decides to show him how the world would look if he'd never been born. Bedford Falls has been renamed Pottersville, and it's totally horrible. Also, Harry's dead, Uncle Billy is in an insane asylum, Mary is an "old maid," and Mr. Gower is a drunk widely despised for poisoning that kid.
- George begs to have his life back—and he gets it.
- Overjoyed, he runs home to find that the townspeople have bailed him out, giving him more than enough money. His friends and family all have a merry Christmas together.