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James Stephenson
Acting
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 Os…
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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)
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BODY OF WORK
James Stephenson's Filmography
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International Squadron
as Squadron Leader Charles Wyatt
Shining Victory
as Dr. Paul Venner
Flight from Destiny
as Dr. Lawrence 'Larry' Stevens
The Letter
as Howard Joyce
South of Suez
as Inspector Thornton
A Dispatch from Reuters
as Carew
The Sea Hawk
as Abbott
River's End
as McDowell
Murder in the Air
as Joe Garvey
Calling Philo Vance
as Philo Vance
No Poster
Wolf of New York
as Hiram Rogers
We Are Not Alone
as Sir William Clintock
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
as Sir Thomas Egerton
The Monroe Doctrine
as Senor De La Torre
Espionage Agent
as Dr. Anton Rader
The Old Maid
as Jim Ralston
Beau Geste
as Major Henri de Beaujolais
Sons of Liberty
as Colonel Tillman
Confessions of a Nazi Spy
as British Military Intelligence Agent
Wanted by Scotland Yard
as Fingers
On Trial
as Gerald Trask
The Adventures of Jane Arden
as Dr. George Vanders
Secret Service of the Air
as Jim Cameron
Torchy Blane in Chinatown
as Dr. Mansfield
King of the Underworld
as Bill Stevens
Devil's Island
as Col. Armand Lucien
Heart of the North
as Stephen Gore
Nancy Drew… Detective
as Challon
Boy Meets Girl
as Major Thompson
Cowboy from Brooklyn
as Prof. Landis
White Banners
as Thomas Bradford
When Were You Born
as Phillip Corey
No Poster
Mr. Satan
as Tim Garnett
No Poster
The Dark Stairway
as Inspector Clarke
No Poster
The Man Who Made Diamonds
as Ben
No Poster
You Live and Learn
as Sam Brooks
No Poster
Transatlantic Trouble
as Lewis