George Bailey (It's a Wonderful Life) George Bailey (It's a Wonderful Life) 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. The character was listed ninth on the American Film Institute's 2003 list
It's a Wonderful Life Life" received five Academy Award nominations: "It's a Wonderful Life" won just the one Academy Award, in the Technical Achievement category for developing a new method of creating artificial snow. Before "It's a Wonderful Life", fake movie snow was mostly made from cornflakes painted white. And it was so loud when stepped on that any snow-filled scenes with dialogue had to be re-dubbed afterwards. RKO studio's head of special effects, Russell Shearman, developed a new compound, utilizing water, soap flakes, foamite and sugar. "The Best Years of Our Lives", a drama about servicemen attempting to return to their pre-World War