James Stephenson

James Stephenson

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)

  • Title: James Stephenson
  • Popularity: 1.313
  • Known For: Acting
  • Birthday: 1889-04-13
  • Place of Birth: Selby, Yorkshire, England, UK
  • Homepage:
  • Also Known As:
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James Stephenson Movies

  • 1939
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    Devil's Island

    Devil's Island

    5.4 1939 HD

    A French doctor sentenced for treason performs brain surgery on the prison commandant's daughter.

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  • 1940
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    The Sea Hawk

    The Sea Hawk

    7.1 1940 HD

    Dashing pirate Geoffrey Thorpe plunders Spanish ships for Queen Elizabeth I and falls in love with Dona Maria, a beautiful Spanish royal he captures.

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  • 1939
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    King of the Underworld

    King of the Underworld

    6.4 1939 HD

    Physician Carole Nelson, suspected of having ties to notorious gangster Joe Gurney, must prove her innocence or the Medical Board will revoke her...

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  • 1939
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    Beau Geste

    Beau Geste

    6.958 1939 HD

    When three brothers join the Foreign Legion to escape a troubled past, they find themselves trapped under the command of a sadistic sergeant deep in...

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  • 1939
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    The Old Maid

    The Old Maid

    7.1 1939 HD

    The lives of two cousins are complicated by the return of an ex-boyfriend and an illegitimate child.

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  • 1939
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    The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex

    The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex

    6.2 1939 HD

    This period drama frames the tumultuous affair between Queen Elizabeth I and the man who would be King of England.

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  • 1938
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    Nancy Drew… Detective

    Nancy Drew… Detective

    6.3 1938 HD

    After a wealthy dowager who has made a substantial donation to her alma mater suddenly disappears, Nancy Drew sets out to solve the mystery.

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  • 1940
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    The Letter

    The Letter

    7.3 1940 HD

    After a woman shoots a man to death, a damning letter she wrote raises suspicions.

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  • 1940
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    Murder in the Air

    Murder in the Air

    4.6 1940 HD

    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...

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  • 1939
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    Espionage Agent

    Espionage Agent

    5.9 1939 HD

    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...

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  • 1939
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    The Monroe Doctrine

    The Monroe Doctrine

    7 1939 HD

    The story of President Monroe's response to attempts by Spain to interfere in South America.

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  • 1941
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    Flight from Destiny

    Flight from Destiny

    5.2 1941 HD

    After his doctor informs him he will die in six months, Professor Henry Todhunter decides to spend his last days killing someone who contributes...

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  • 1940
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    Wolf of New York

    Wolf of New York

    7 1940 HD

    A New York attorney defends a young man with a criminal past who has been accused of murdering a police inspector.

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  • 1939
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    Secret Service of the Air

    Secret Service of the Air

    5.8 1939 HD

    Brass Bancroft and his sidekick Gabby Watters are recruited onto the secret service and go undercover to crack a ruthless gang that smuggles illegal...

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  • 1939
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    On Trial

    On Trial

    5.5 1939 HD

    An ambitious attorney (Edward Norris) tries to prove a man (John Litel) who killed to protect his wife's (Margaret Lindsay) honor was justified.

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  • 1940
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    River's End

    River's End

    6 1940 HD

    An escaped criminal pretends to be a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in order to prove his innocence of murder. Star Dennis Morgan plays...

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  • 1940
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    Calling Philo Vance

    Calling Philo Vance

    5.8 1940 HD

    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...

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  • 1939
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    The Adventures of Jane Arden

    The Adventures of Jane Arden

    5.7 1939 HD

    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...

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  • 1938
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    When Were You Born

    When Were You Born

    5.188 1938 HD

    A San Francisco astrologer correctly predicts a ship passenger's death and then helps the police look for the murderer.

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  • 1941
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    Shining Victory

    Shining Victory

    5.9 1941 HD

    In a Scottish sanitarium, a brilliant research psychiatrist works on a treatment for dementia praecox. He falls for his altruistic female lab...

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  • 1939
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    Sons of Liberty

    Sons of Liberty

    5.7 1939 HD

    Set during the American Revolution, this colorful 2 reel short tells the story of Haym Salomon, American patriot and financier of the American...

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  • 1938
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    White Banners

    White Banners

    5.8 1938 HD

    A homeless woman named Hannah drifts into the lives of the kindly Ward family, in a small Indiana town in 1919. Hannah makes herself useful as a cook...

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  • 1939
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    Wanted by Scotland Yard

    Wanted by Scotland Yard

    1 1939 HD

    A safecracker, just released from prison, falls in love with a young woman who wants him to go straight. He finds, however, that going straight is...

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  • 1938
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    Cowboy from Brooklyn

    Cowboy from Brooklyn

    4 1938 HD

    A singing cowboy turns out to be a tenderfoot.

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  • 1938
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    Boy Meets Girl

    Boy Meets Girl

    6.2 1938 HD

    Two lazy screenwriters need a story for the studio's cowboy star. A studio waitress turns out to be pregnant. This gives them the idea for a movie...

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  • 1940
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    South of Suez

    South of Suez

    5 1940 HD

    Greedy diamond mine owner Eli Snedeker, resentful that his ex-foreman John Gamble stopped him from taking over kindly, but drunken, mine owner Roger...

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  • 1937
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    You Live and Learn

    You Live and Learn

    1 1937 HD

    American chorus-girl Mamie Wallace (Farrell) travels to Paris with a ramshackle touring musical revue. The company runs out of money, and it looks as...

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  • 1939
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    Confessions of a Nazi Spy

    Confessions of a Nazi Spy

    6 1939 HD

    FBI agent Ed Renard investigates the pre-War espionage activities of the German-American Bund.

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  • 1939
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    We Are Not Alone

    We Are Not Alone

    6.2 1939 HD

    A British doctor and his son's Austrian governess have an affair and are accused of killing his wife.

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  • 1938
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    Heart of the North

    Heart of the North

    3.7 1938 HD

    A two-fisted Canadian Mountie leads lawmen in pursuit of the thieves who stole an Edmonton-bound freighter's cargo.

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  • 1939
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    Torchy Blane in Chinatown

    Torchy Blane in Chinatown

    6 1939 HD

    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...

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  • 1940
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    A Dispatch from Reuters

    A Dispatch from Reuters

    5.7 1940 HD

    German Julius Reuter sends 19th-century news by carrier pigeon and then by wire, founding a news agency.

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  • 1937
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    Transatlantic Trouble

    Transatlantic Trouble

    1 1937 HD

    Max Miller plays a boxer's manager who fails to get fights for his simple-minded boxer. The manager sets up a scene in an American nightclub whereby...

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  • 1938
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    The Dark Stairway

    The Dark Stairway

    1 1938 HD

    “Professional jealousy over the discovery of a formula for an anaesthetic leads to murder in a hospital.” - BFI.

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  • 1937
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    The Man Who Made Diamonds

    The Man Who Made Diamonds

    1 1937 HD

    “Professor Calthrop, actuated only by scientific motives, and his assistant, out for his own gain, have invented a system for the manufacture...

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  • 1941
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    International Squadron

    International Squadron

    5.5 1941 HD

    The true story of the exploits of the RAF's (Royal Air Force) foreign legion battling the German Luftwaffe (Nazi Germany's Air Force) during the...

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  • 1938
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    Mr. Satan

    Mr. Satan

    1 1938 HD

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