James Stephenson

James Stephenson

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: Acting

Born: Selby, Yorkshire, England, UK, 1889-04-13

Died: 1941-07-29

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1937	Transatlantic Trouble	Lewis	0
2	1937	You Live and Learn	Sam Brooks	0
3	1937	The Man Who Made Diamonds	Ben	0
4	1938	The Dark Stairway	Inspector Clarke	0
5	1938	Mr. Satan	Tim Garnett	0
6	1938	When Were You Born	Phillip Corey	52
7	1938	White Banners	Thomas Bradford	58
8	1938	Cowboy from Brooklyn	Prof. Landis	40
9	1938	Boy Meets Girl	Major Thompson	65
10	1938	Nancy Drew… Detective	Challon	63
11	1938	Heart of the North	Stephen Gore	37
12	1939	Devil's Island	Col. Armand Lucien	54
13	1939	King of the Underworld	Bill Stevens	64
14	1939	Torchy Blane in Chinatown	Dr. Mansfield	60
15	1939	Secret Service of the Air	Jim Cameron	58
16	1939	The Adventures of Jane Arden	Dr. George Vanders	57
17	1939	On Trial	Gerald Trask	55
18	1939	Wanted by Scotland Yard	Fingers	0
19	1939	Confessions of a Nazi Spy	British Military Intelligence Agent	61
20	1939	Sons of Liberty	Colonel Tillman	62
21	1939	Beau Geste	Major Henri de Beaujolais	70
22	1939	The Old Maid	Jim Ralston	71
23	1939	Espionage Agent	Dr. Anton Rader	59
24	1939	The Monroe Doctrine	Senor De La Torre	67
25	1939	The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex	Sir Thomas Egerton	63
26	1939	We Are Not Alone	Sir William Clintock	61
27	1940	Wolf of New York	Hiram Rogers	70
28	1940	Calling Philo Vance	Philo Vance	58
29	1940	Murder in the Air	Joe Garvey	46
30	1940	The Sea Hawk	Abbott	71
31	1940	River's End	McDowell	60
32	1940	A Dispatch from Reuters	Carew	58
33	1940	South of Suez	Inspector Thornton	50
34	1940	The Letter	Howard Joyce	73
35	1941	Flight from Destiny	Dr. Lawrence 'Larry' Stevens	52
36	1941	Shining Victory	Dr. Paul Venner	59
37	1941	International Squadron	Squadron Leader Charles Wyatt	55

No.

Year

Title

Role

Vote Average

1937