James Stephenson
Actor
- Born
- April 13, 1889 · Selby, Yorkshire, England, UK
- Died
- July 29, 1941 (age 52)
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
The Letter
November 21, 1940
The Sea Hawk
August 10, 1940
Beau Geste
July 24, 1939
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
November 11, 1939
The Old Maid
August 16, 1939
Confessions of a Nazi Spy
May 6, 1939
King of the Underworld
January 14, 1939
Nancy Drew… Detective
November 19, 1938
A Dispatch from Reuters
October 19, 1940
Devil's Island
January 7, 1939
Calling Philo Vance
February 3, 1940
When Were You Born
June 18, 1938
Acting37
- 1941International Squadron as Squadron Leader Charles Wyatt
- 1941Shining Victory as Dr. Paul Venner
- 1941Flight from Destiny as Dr. Lawrence 'Larry' Stevens
- 1940The Letter as Howard Joyce
- 1940South of Suez as Inspector Thornton
- 1940A Dispatch from Reuters as Carew
- 1940The Sea Hawk as Abbott
- 1940River's End as McDowell
- 1940Murder in the Air as Joe Garvey
- 1940Calling Philo Vance