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 Cant 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 didnt 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)
Col. Armand Lucien
Film 1939
Abbott
Film 1940
Bill Stevens
Film 1939
Jim Ralston
Film 1939
Sir Thomas Egerton
Film 1939
Challon
Film 1938
Howard Joyce
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Joe Garvey
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Dr. Anton Rader
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Senor De La Torre
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Dr. Lawrence 'Larry' Stevens
Film 1941
Hiram Rogers
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Jim Cameron
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Gerald Trask
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McDowell
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Philo Vance
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Dr. George Vanders
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Phillip Corey
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Dr. Paul Venner
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Colonel Tillman
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Thomas Bradford
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Fingers
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Prof. Landis
Film 1938
Major Thompson
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Sam Brooks
Film 1937
British Military Intelligence Agent
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Sir William Clintock
Film 1939
Stephen Gore
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Dr. Mansfield
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Carew
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Lewis
Film 1937
Inspector Clarke
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Ben
Film 1937
Squadron Leader Charles Wyatt
Film 1941
Tim Garnett
Film 1938