James Stephenson

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 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

as Howard Joyce

The Sea Hawk

as Abbott

Beau Geste

as Major Henri de Beaujolais

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex

as Sir Thomas Egerton

The Old Maid

as Jim Ralston

Confessions of a Nazi Spy

as British Military Intelligence Agent

King of the Underworld

as Bill Stevens

Nancy Drew… Detective

as Challon

Devil's Island

as Col. Armand Lucien

Calling Philo Vance

as Philo Vance