James Stephenson

Actor · 1889 – 1941 · 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)

Movies24

Movie7.2
Adventure
Dashing pirate Geoffrey Thorpe plunders Spanish ships for Queen Elizabeth I and falls in love with Dona Maria, a beautiful Spanish royal he captures.
The Sea Hawk
1940 · 161 votes
Movie7.3
CrimeDrama
After a woman shoots a man to death, a damning letter she wrote raises suspicions.
The Letter
1940 · 253 votes
Movie6.3
DramaHistory
This period drama frames the tumultuous affair between Queen Elizabeth I and the man who would be King of England.
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
1939 · 100 votes
Movie7.0
AdventureDrama
Brothers Beau, John and Digby Geste join the Foreign Legion, where they fall under the rule of tyrannical Sergeant Markoff. Beau and John are assigned to Fort Zinderneuf, where Markoff tries to break their spirit, aware of a dark family secret concerning a fabulous jewel one of them carries. As tensions rise, Arabs attack the fort and rivalries must be thrown aside in a desperate battle for life.
Beau Geste
1939 · 113 votes
Movie6.1
DramaWar
FBI agent Ed Renard investigates the pre-War espionage activities of the German-American Bund.
Confessions of a Nazi Spy
1939 · 34 votes
Movie7.0
Drama
The lives of two cousins are complicated by the return of an ex-boyfriend and an illegitimate child.
The Old Maid
1939 · 57 votes
Movie6.4
RomanceCrime
Physician Carole Nelson, suspected of having ties to notorious gangster Joe Gurney, must prove her innocence or the Medical Board will revoke her license. When Gurney seeks her out for treatment after being shot, it could be the break Nelson needs. Now she has a chance to use her medical know-how to outwit Gurney and his goons and reestablish her professional reputation.
King of the Underworld
1939 · 27 votes
Movie5.7
Drama
A French doctor sentenced for treason performs brain surgery on the prison commandant's daughter.
Devil's Island
1939 · 15 votes
Movie6.9
CrimeDrama
A British doctor and his son's Austrian governess have an affair and are accused of killing his wife.
We Are Not Alone
1939 · 6 votes
Movie6.1
ActionAdventure
Brass Bancroft and his sidekick Gabby Watters are recruited onto the secret service and go undercover to crack a ruthless gang that smuggles illegal aliens.
Secret Service of the Air
1939 · 6 votes
Movie6.8
ActionComedy
Torchy Blane joins her police-detective fiance to solve a series of murders involving a set of Chinese grave tablets taken and sold to a collector and death-threats written in Chinese characters.
Torchy Blane in Chinatown
1939 · 4 votes
Movie6.3
DramaHistory
German Julius Reuter sends 19th-century news by carrier pigeon and then by wire, founding a news agency.
A Dispatch from Reuters
1940 · 17 votes
Movie5.3
MysteryRomance
A San Francisco astrologer correctly predicts a ship passenger's death and then helps the police look for the murderer.
When Were You Born
1938 · 12 votes
Movie5.1
ActionThriller
Enemy agents are everywhere and they are sabotaging all important war deliveries. The body of a hobo found in a train wreck had a money belt with $50,000 and a tattoo of a circle and arrow. This is a tattoo for saboteurs for hire and Brass must impersonate the dead man to find out what his orders are. As Steve Coe, he meets with the band of enemy agents in California and everything goes well until the wife of the dead 'Hobo' shows up. Luckily, Gabby is able to save Brass and Brass learns what is his assignment. He is to board the USN airship 'Mason', which is testing the super secret Inertia Projector, and destroy the airship.
Murder in the Air
1940 · 7 votes
Movie5.2
WesternAdventure
A two-fisted Canadian Mountie leads lawmen in pursuit of the thieves who stole an Edmonton-bound freighter's cargo.
Heart of the North
1938 · 5 votes
Movie7.0
ComedyWestern
A singing cowboy turns out to be a tenderfoot.
Cowboy from Brooklyn
1938 · 2 votes
Movie6.1
Drama
An ambitious attorney (Edward Norris) tries to prove a man (John Litel) who killed to protect his wife's (Margaret Lindsay) honor was justified.
On Trial
1939 · 4 votes
Movie6.3
CrimeDrama
Reporter Jane Arden goes undercover to try to expose a gang of jewel thieves and smugglers. Her mission becomes more dangerous when her identity is discovered early on by one of the gang leaders.
The Adventures of Jane Arden
1939 · 4 votes
Movie6.0
CrimeMystery
Philo is in Vienna working for the US Government to see if Archer Coe is selling aircraft designs to foreign powers. He grabs the plans with Archer's signature, but is captured by police before he can escape. Deported he comes back to America and plans to confront Archer, but Archer is found dead in his locked bedroom with a gun in his hand. While it looks like a suicide, Vance knows better and the coroner finds that Archer has been shot, hit with a blunt instrument and stabbed - making suicide unlikely. But Vance is on the case and is looking to see if government secrets have been sold and who has murdered Coe. This is a remake of "The Kennel Murder Case" using aircraft designs and espionage instead of Chinese porcelain and dog shows.
Calling Philo Vance
1940 · 13 votes
Movie6.5
ComedyMystery
After a wealthy dowager who has made a substantial donation to her alma mater suddenly disappears, Nancy Drew sets out to solve the mystery.
Nancy Drew… Detective
1938 · 21 votes
Movie4.6
MysteryDrama
Greedy diamond mine owner Eli Snedeker, resentful that his ex-foreman John Gamble stopped him from taking over kindly, but drunken, mine owner Roger Smythe's mine just as he was about to strike it rich, kills Smythe and blames it on Gamble. Grabbing the diamonds, Gamble flees Africa to England where he changes his name and begins a new life. What he hasn't counted on, though, is meeting and falling in love with Smythe's daughter Katherine, who falls in love with him but can't marry him until she can deal with her hatred of John Gamble, the man she believes killed her father.
South of Suez
1940 · 5 votes
Movie6.3
DramaThriller
When Barry Corvall discovers that his new bride is a possible enemy agent, he resigns from the diplomatic service to go undercover to route out an espionage ring planning to destroy American industrial capability.
Espionage Agent
1939 · 10 votes
Movie6.1
Drama
In a Scottish sanitarium, a brilliant research psychiatrist works on a treatment for dementia praecox. He falls for his altruistic female lab assistant and they begin a passionate, tragic relationship.
Shining Victory
1941 · 9 votes
Movie7.5
Drama
A New York attorney defends a young man with a criminal past who has been accused of murdering a police inspector.
Wolf of New York
1940 · 2 votes