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James Stephenson

James Stephenson

Birthday: 1889-04-14 | Place of Birth: 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)

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

1941
Flight from Destiny

as    Dr. Lawrence 'Larry' Stevens

1940
The Sea Hawk

as    Abbott

1940
A Dispatch from Reuters

as    Carew

1940
The Letter

as    Howard Joyce

1940
South of Suez

as    Inspector Thornton

1940
Murder in the Air

as    Joe Garvey

1940
River's End

as    McDowell

1940
Calling Philo Vance

as    Philo Vance

1939
King of the Underworld

as    Bill Stevens

1939
Confessions of a Nazi Spy

as    British Military Intelligence Agent

1939
Devil's Island

as    Col. Armand Lucien

1939
Sons of Liberty

as    Colonel Tillman

1939
Espionage Agent

as    Dr. Anton Rader

1939
The Adventures of Jane Arden

as    Dr. George Vanders

1939
Torchy Blane in Chinatown

as    Dr. Mansfield

1939
Secret Service of the Air

as    Jim Cameron

1939
The Old Maid

as    Jim Ralston

1939
Beau Geste

as    Major Henri de Beaujolais

1939
The Monroe Doctrine

as    Senor De La Torre

1939
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex

as    Sir Thomas Egerton

1939
We Are Not Alone

as    Sir William Clintock

1938
Nancy Drew… Detective

as    Challon

1938
When Were You Born

as    Phillip Corey

1938
Cowboy from Brooklyn

as    Prof. Landis

1938
Heart of the North

as    Stephen Gore