Known For
Acting
Born
Apr 13, 1889
Died
Jul 29, 1941
Place of Birth
Selby, Yorkshire, England, UK
Credits
37 titles
James Stephenson
Biography
British stage actor James Stephenson made his film debut quite late in life, at the age of 49, in 1937, making four pictures that year. Warner Bros. got a glimpse of this distinguished gent and signed him to a contract where he indulged himself in urbane villainy. Proving a reliable support in such films as Boy Meets Girl (1938), You Can't Get Away with Murder (1939), The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), and the classic adventure The Sea Hawk (1940), he was entrusted by director William Wyler and mega-star Bette Davis to play the sympathetic role of the family attorney Howard Joyce in The Letter (1940). It was the role of a lifetime and he didn't let them down for he earned an Oscar nomination in the process. Stephenson was soon on a roll, playing the titular sleuth in Calling Philo Vance (1940) and was first-billed in the above-average "B" movie Shining Victory (1941) when he died suddenly in 1941 of a heart attack at the rather young age of 53. Date of Death: 29 July 1941, Pacific Palisades, California (heart attack)
Known For
Filmography
International Squadron
Squadron Leader Charles Wyatt
Shining Victory
Dr. Paul Venner
Flight from Destiny
Dr. Lawrence 'Larry' Stevens
The Letter
Howard Joyce
South of Suez
Inspector Thornton
A Dispatch from Reuters
Carew
The Sea Hawk
Abbott
River's End
McDowell
Murder in the Air
Joe Garvey
Calling Philo Vance
Philo Vance
Wolf of New York
Hiram Rogers
We Are Not Alone
Sir William Clintock
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
Sir Thomas Egerton
The Monroe Doctrine
Senor De La Torre
Espionage Agent
Dr. Anton Rader
The Old Maid
Jim Ralston
Beau Geste
Major Henri de Beaujolais
Sons of Liberty
Colonel Tillman
Confessions of a Nazi Spy
British Military Intelligence Agent
Wanted by Scotland Yard
Fingers
On Trial
Gerald Trask
The Adventures of Jane Arden
Dr. George Vanders
Secret Service of the Air
Jim Cameron
Torchy Blane in Chinatown
Dr. Mansfield
King of the Underworld
Bill Stevens
Devil's Island
Col. Armand Lucien
Heart of the North
Stephen Gore
Nancy Drew… Detective
Challon
Boy Meets Girl
Major Thompson
Cowboy from Brooklyn
Prof. Landis
White Banners
Thomas Bradford
When Were You Born
Phillip Corey
Mr. Satan
Tim Garnett
The Dark Stairway
Inspector Clarke
The Man Who Made Diamonds
Ben
You Live and Learn
Sam Brooks
Transatlantic Trouble
Lewis