Guess Which Acting Giant Sent Love Letters Star Carol Burnett a Note She Had to Frame (Plus, Video That Will Make You Cry!)

Comedy legend Carol Burnett, who recently stepped into Broadway’s Love Letters opposite Brian Dennehy, says she’s a good letter writer. “I used to write a lot, especially when I was in college,” she told Broadway.com. But there’s one letter Burnett cherishes above all else: a thank-you note from her hero.

“I have a framed handwritten letter that I got from my idol Jimmy Stewart,” Burnett told us. “Years ago, when he was honored at the Kennedy Center Honors, I was on the program. I sang ‘You’d Be So Easy to Love’ to him, which was the first song he ever sang in a movie.” [Stewart famously crooned the song to Eleanor Powell in the 1936 musical comedy Born to Dance.] Burnett added, “We were friends at that point, and he wrote me the sweetest thank-you note. I treasure it because I just love that man. It’s still in a frame on my wall at home.”

Burnett is a lifelong admirer of Stewart, and she explained the origin of her adoration in her memoir, This Time Together. They later became friends with frequent dinner parties and social activities. Stewart even surprised Burnett on the very last episode of The Carol Burnett Show in 1978. See her priceless reaction below.