James Stephenson

Acting

Born April 13, 1889, Selby, Yorkshire, England, UK

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)

Filmography

• 1941Flight from Destiny — Dr. Lawrence 'Larry' Stevens
• 1941International Squadron — Squadron Leader Charles Wyatt
• 1941Shining Victory — Dr. Paul Venner
• 1940A Dispatch from Reuters — Carew
• 1940Calling Philo Vance — Philo Vance
• 1940Murder in the Air — Joe Garvey
• 1940River's End — McDowell
• 1940South of Suez — Inspector Thornton
• 1940The Letter — Howard Joyce
• 1940The Sea Hawk — Abbott
• 1940Wolf of New York — Hiram Rogers
• 1939Beau Geste — Major Henri de Beaujolais
• 1939Confessions of a Nazi Spy — British Military Intelligence Agent
• 1939Devil's Island — Col. Armand Lucien
• 1939Espionage Agent — Dr. Anton Rader
• 1939King of the Underworld — Bill Stevens
• 1939On Trial — Gerald Trask
• 1939Secret Service of the Air — Jim Cameron
• 1939Sons of Liberty — Colonel Tillman
• 1939The Adventures of Jane Arden — Dr. George Vanders
• 1939The Monroe Doctrine — Senor De La Torre
• 1939The Old Maid — Jim Ralston
• 1939The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex — Sir Thomas Egerton
• 1939Torchy Blane in Chinatown — Dr. Mansfield
• 1939Wanted by Scotland Yard — Fingers
• 1939We Are Not Alone — Sir William Clintock
• 1938Boy Meets Girl — Major Thompson
• 1938Cowboy from Brooklyn — Prof. Landis
• 1938Heart of the North — Stephen Gore
• 1938Mr. Satan — Tim Garnett
• 1938Nancy Drew… Detective — Challon
• 1938The Dark Stairway — Inspector Clarke
• 1938When Were You Born — Phillip Corey
• 1938White Banners — Thomas Bradford
• 1937The Man Who Made Diamonds — Ben
• 1937Transatlantic Trouble — Lewis
• 1937You Live and Learn — Sam Brooks