James Stephenson (actor)

James Stephenson (actor)
James Albert Stephenson (14 April 1889 – 29 July 1941) was a British stage and film actor. He took up film acting at 49 and after a typically slow start delivered an Academy Award-nominated performance in the William Wyler-directed melodrama, The Letter in 1940. The roles offered to Stephenson dramatically improved following this performance, but he died just a year later at 52.
Early life
Stephenson was the son of chemist and druggist John G. Stephenson and his wife Emma. He grew up in the West Riding of Yorkshire and Burnley, Lancashire, with his brothers, Alan and Norman. He became a bank clerk and later had a career as a merchant. In the 1930s, he emigrated to the United States and took U.S. nationality in 1938.
Career
After acting on the stage, Stephenson made his film debut in 1937 at age 48, initially making films in Britain. Warner Bros. signed him the following year, and he began playing urbane villains and disgraced gentlemen. His big break came when director William Wyler cast him, in spite of studio resistance, in The Letter (1940), opposite Bette Davis. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for this role. Later that year, he played the title role in Calling Philo Vance. In 1941 he was first-billed in Shining Victory, in which he played the character of Dr. Paul Venner.
Just as Stephenson's acting career was starting to rise, he died of a heart attack at the age of 52. He is interred at Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park.
Partial filmography
The Perfect Crime (1937) - Parker
The Man Who Made Diamonds (1937) - Ben
You Live and Learn (1937) - Sam Brooks
Take It from Me (1937) - Lewis
The Dark Stairway (1938) - Inspector Clarke
White Banners (1938) - Thomas Bradford
Mr. Satan (1938) - Tim Garnett
It's in the Blood (1938) - Milky Joe
When Were You Born (1938) - Phillip 'Phil' Corey (Libra)
Cowboy from Brooklyn (1938) - Prof. Landis
Boy Meets Girl (1938) - Major Thompson
Nancy Drew... Detective (1938) - Challon
Heart of the North (1938) - Inspector Stephen Gore
Devil's Island (1939) - Col. Armand Lucien
King of the Underworld (1939) - Bill Stevens
Torchy Blane in Chinatown (1939) - Mr. Mansfield
Secret Service of the Air (1939) - Jim Cameron
The Adventures of Jane Arden (1939) - Dr. George Vanders
On Trial (1939) - Gerald Trask
Wanted by Scotland Yard (1939) - Fingers
Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) - British Military Intelligence Agent
Sons of Liberty (1939, Short) - Colonel Tillman
Beau Geste (1939) - Major Henri de Beaujolais
The Old Maid (1939) - Jim Ralston
Espionage Agent (1939) - Dr. Anton Rader
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939) - Sir Thomas Egerton
We Are Not Alone (1939) - Sir William Clintock
Wolf of New York (1940) - Hiram Rogers
Calling Philo Vance (1940) - Philo Vance
Murder in the Air (1940) - Joe Garvey
River's End (1940) - Insp. McDowell
The Sea Hawk (1940) - Abbott
A Dispatch from Reuters (1940) - Carew
The Letter (1940) - Howard Joyce
South of Suez (1940) - Inspector Thornton
Flight from Destiny (1941) - Dr. Lawrence Stevens
Shining Victory (1941) - Dr. Paul Venner
International Squadron (1941) - Squadron Leader Charles Wyatt
The Smiling Ghost (1941) - John Eggleston in Photo (uncredited) (final film role)
References
External links
1889 births
1941 deaths
English male film actors
People from Selby
Male actors from Yorkshire
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
20th-century English male actors
British expatriate male actors in the United States
People with acquired American citizenship