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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
April 13, 1889
Died
July 29, 1941
Place of Birth
Selby, Yorkshire, England, UK
James Stephenson
0.3 Popularity
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
5.5
Squadron Leader Charles Wyatt
International Squadron
1941
5.9
Dr. Paul Venner
Shining Victory
1941
4.7
Dr. Lawrence 'Larry' Stevens
Flight from Destiny
1941
7.3
Howard Joyce
The Letter
1940
4.0
Inspector Thornton
South of Suez
1940
6.1
Carew
A Dispatch from Reuters
1940
7.2
Abbott
The Sea Hawk
1940
6.0
McDowell
River's End
1940
4.6
Joe Garvey
Murder in the Air
1940
5.9
Philo Vance
Calling Philo Vance
1940
Credits
International Squadron
as Squadron Leader Charles Wyatt
1941
5.5
Shining Victory
as Dr. Paul Venner
1941
5.9
Flight from Destiny
as Dr. Lawrence 'Larry' Stevens
1941
4.7
The Letter
as Howard Joyce
1940
7.3
South of Suez
as Inspector Thornton
1940
4.0
A Dispatch from Reuters
as Carew
1940
6.1
The Sea Hawk
as Abbott
1940
7.2
River's End
as McDowell
1940
6.0
Murder in the Air
as Joe Garvey
1940
4.6
Calling Philo Vance
as Philo Vance
1940
5.9
🎬
Wolf of New York
as Hiram Rogers
1940
7.0
We Are Not Alone
as Sir William Clintock
1939
6.1
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
as Sir Thomas Egerton
1939
6.3
The Monroe Doctrine
as Senor De La Torre
1939
6.7
Espionage Agent
as Dr. Anton Rader
1939
5.9
The Old Maid
as Jim Ralston
1939
7.0
Beau Geste
as Major Henri de Beaujolais
1939
6.9
Sons of Liberty
as Colonel Tillman
1939
6.2
Confessions of a Nazi Spy
as British Military Intelligence Agent
1939
6.0
Wanted by Scotland Yard
as Fingers
1939
0.0
On Trial
as Gerald Trask
1939
5.5
The Adventures of Jane Arden
as Dr. George Vanders
1939
5.7
Secret Service of the Air
as Jim Cameron
1939
5.8
Torchy Blane in Chinatown
as Dr. Mansfield
1939
6.0
King of the Underworld
as Bill Stevens
1939
6.4
Devil's Island
as Col. Armand Lucien
1939
5.4
Heart of the North
as Stephen Gore
1938
3.7
Nancy Drew… Detective
as Challon
1938
6.3
Boy Meets Girl
as Major Thompson
1938
6.5
Cowboy from Brooklyn
as Prof. Landis
1938
4.0
White Banners
as Thomas Bradford
1938
5.8
When Were You Born
as Phillip Corey
1938
5.0
🎬
Mr. Satan
as Tim Garnett
1938
0.0
🎬
The Dark Stairway
as Inspector Clarke
1938
0.0
🎬
The Man Who Made Diamonds
as Ben
1937
0.0
🎬
You Live and Learn
as Sam Brooks
1937
0.0
🎬
Transatlantic Trouble
as Lewis
1937
0.0