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 megastar 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 firstbilled in the aboveaverage 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
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