Stewart's first credited acting role came in 1977 at age 21 in the movie Fire Sale, a comedy in which a Jewish basketball coach adopts a tall African-American teenage boy (played by Stewart) to help him win games.
Ken Howard stated in The White Shadow season 1 DVD commentary that, after seeing a re-run of Fire Sale, he immediately phoned Bruce Paltrow and said he wanted Stewart for a role as one of his basketball players.
Stewart, who is 6'8" tall, later reprised the role of Warren Coolidge in another Paltrow-directed series, St.
The explanation was that Coolidge had to give up basketball because of an injury while in his sophomore year at Boston College.
Due to his injury, he lost his scholarship, dropped out and became an orderly at St. Eligius Hospital.