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