1889-04-13 Selby, 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)
 |
Shining Victory | Dr. Paul Venner | 1941-05-30 |
 |
Flight from Destiny | Dr. Lawrence 'Larry' Stevens | 1941-02-08 |
 |
International Squadron | Squadron Leader Charles Wyatt | 1941-08-13 |
 |
Wolf of New York | Hiram Rogers | 1940-01-23 |
 |
River's End | McDowell | 1940-08-10 |
 |
South of Suez | Inspector Thornton | 1940-11-16 |
 |
A Dispatch from Reuters | Carew | 1940-10-19 |
 |
Murder in the Air | Joe Garvey | 1940-06-01 |
 |
Calling Philo Vance | Philo Vance | 1940-02-03 |
 |
The Letter | Howard Joyce | 1940-11-21 |
 |
The Sea Hawk | Abbott | 1940-08-10 |
 |
Confessions of a Nazi Spy | British Military Intelligence Agent | 1939-05-06 |
 |
Beau Geste | Major Henri de Beaujolais | 1939-07-24 |
 |
Espionage Agent | Dr. Anton Rader | 1939-09-30 |
 |
We Are Not Alone | Sir William Clintock | 1939-11-25 |
 |
King of the Underworld | Bill Stevens | 1939-01-14 |
 |
Wanted by Scotland Yard | Fingers | 1939-04-19 |
 |
The Old Maid | Jim Ralston | 1939-08-16 |
 |
Torchy Blane in Chinatown | Dr. Mansfield | 1939-02-02 |
 |
Sons of Liberty | Colonel Tillman | 1939-05-20 |
 |
On Trial | Gerald Trask | 1939-04-01 |
 |
Secret Service of the Air | Jim Cameron | 1939-03-04 |
 |
The Monroe Doctrine | Senor De La Torre | 1939-10-14 |
 |
Devil's Island | Col. Armand Lucien | 1939-01-07 |
 |
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex | Sir Thomas Egerton | 1939-11-11 |
 |
The Adventures of Jane Arden | Dr. George Vanders | 1939-03-18 |
 |
Nancy Drew… Detective | Challon | 1938-11-19 |
 |
White Banners | Thomas Bradford | 1938-06-23 |
 |
Cowboy from Brooklyn | Prof. Landis | 1938-07-09 |
 |
Boy Meets Girl | Major Thompson | 1938-08-27 |
 |
Heart of the North | Stephen Gore | 1938-12-10 |
 |
When Were You Born | Phillip Corey | 1938-06-18 |
|
You Live and Learn | Sam Brooks | 1937-09-01 |
