James Stephenson

Known for ActingBorn 1889-04-13Died 1941-07-29Selby, Yorkshire, England, UK

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)Read more

Movies & web series

Mr. Satan

You Live and Learn

Transatlantic Trouble

The Man Who Made Diamonds

Wanted by Scotland Yard

The Dark Stairway

Wolf of New York

The Letter

The Monroe Doctrine

The Sea Hawk

The Old Maid

Beau Geste

Torchy Blane in Chinatown

Cowboy from Brooklyn

We Are Not Alone

Boy Meets Girl

River's End

Nancy Drew… Detective

King of the Underworld

Sons of Liberty

International Squadron

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex

Espionage Agent

Secret Service of the Air

The Adventures of Jane Arden

A Dispatch from Reuters

White Banners

On Trial

Shining Victory

Confessions of a Nazi Spy

Calling Philo Vance

Flight from Destiny

Devil's Island

When Were You Born

Heart of the North

Murder in the Air

South of Suez