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