James Stephenson

Acting

James Stephenson

Born — Died

1889-04-13 — 1941-07-29

Place of birth

Selby, Yorkshire, England, UK

Known for

Acting

Credits

37 titles

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 Os…

Known for

Film credits

1940s · 11 titles

The Sea Hawk poster
7.2

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

The Letter poster
7.3

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

The Letter

1940

Shining Victory poster
6.1

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

Murder in the Air poster
5.1

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

A Dispatch from Reuters poster
6.3

In 19th-century England, German journalist Paul Julius Reuter and his partner, Max Wagner, utilize messenger pigeons to connect telegraph stations across Europe. As time passes and technology outdates his system, Reuter invents a wire system that transmits news stories directly to newspapers. But when a rival creates a faster means, Reuter must transmit high-profile news to stay on top of the industry.

A Dispatch from Reuters

1940

Flight from Destiny poster
5.8

After his doctor informs him he will die in six months, Professor Henry Todhunter decides to spend his last days killing someone who contributes nothing but harm to society. When Henry learns that his friend Betty's husband, Michael, has been painting forgeries of ancient paintings for gallery owner Ketti Moret, he investigates the fraudulent dealer's life. Judging that Ketti is truly evil, Henry prepares to murder her.

Flight from Destiny

1941

International Squadron poster
6.3

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 early months of 1941 during WWII before America officially entered the war at the end of the year when Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan and Hitler declared war on the United States. The United States then drafted all of their airmen and fighter pilot aces into the United States Air Force for their own combat missions against the Luftwaffe

International Squadron

1941

Calling Philo Vance poster
6.0

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

South of Suez poster
4.6

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

River's End poster
6.6

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 two roles.

River's End

1940

No artwork available
7.5

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

1930s · 26 titles

Beau Geste poster
7.0

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

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex poster
6.3

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

Confessions of a Nazi Spy poster
6.1

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

Confessions of a Nazi Spy

1939

When Were You Born poster
5.3

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

King of the Underworld poster
6.4

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

The Old Maid poster
7.0

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

The Old Maid

1939

Espionage Agent poster
6.3

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

The Adventures of Jane Arden poster
6.2

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

Devil's Island poster
5.7

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

Devil's Island

1939

On Trial poster
6.1

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

Nancy Drew… Detective poster
6.5

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

Heart of the North poster
5.2

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

We Are Not Alone poster
6.9

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

We Are Not Alone

1939

Cowboy from Brooklyn poster
7.0

A singing cowboy turns out to be a tenderfoot.

Cowboy from Brooklyn

1938

Secret Service of the Air poster
6.1

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

No artwork available
10.0

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 though Mamie and her dancing colleagues are going to be stranded in Europe with no way home. Luckily, she meets a handsome, well-spoken Englishman Peter Millett (Hulbert), who falls in love with her and proposes marriage. Under the impression that he is a man of means, she readily accepts, imagining an entrée to English high society. The couple return to England and Mamie discovers to her horror that not only is her new home a decrepit farmhouse out in the sticks, but that Peter is a widower and his three children also come as part of the package.

You Live and Learn

1937

The Monroe Doctrine poster
7.0

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

The Monroe Doctrine

1939

Sons of Liberty poster
6.3

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

Sons of Liberty

1939

Torchy Blane in Chinatown poster
6.8

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

White Banners poster
6.1

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 and housekeeper and stays with the Wards... but her real interest is in meeting their neighbor, teenager Peter Trimble. It turns out that Peter is the son she bore out of wedlock and gave up for adoption, and now Hannah has returned to town to see what sort of young man her son has become.

White Banners

1938

Boy Meets Girl poster
6.9

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 about a cowboy and a baby. The waitress's baby becomes the star. The cowboy and his agent run off with the waitress and her valuable asset. The writers retaliate by hiring an unemployed extra to impersonate the baby's father. But the extra already knows the waitress...

Boy Meets Girl

1938

No artwork available
9.0

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

The Man Who Made Diamonds

1937

Wanted by Scotland Yard poster
8.0

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 easier said than done.

Wanted by Scotland Yard

1939

No artwork available
8.0

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

The Dark Stairway

1938

No artwork available
9.0

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 his fighter gets the chance to knock down the reigning champion. The ruse fails to get the fighter a job but a female acquaintance of the champion takes a fancy to his opponent. The plot develops aboard a ship back to England.

Transatlantic Trouble

1937

No artwork available
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

Mr. Satan

1938