James Stephenson was a slim British gentleman best known for one performance - and it's a fantastic one, the lawyer in The Letter. But really that was it. He may have added to the tally but he died shortly after The Letter, of a heart attack, aged 53. Still, he inspired enough devotion from David Redfern to write a very thorough biography on him.
Stephenson was born into a reasonably prosperous middle class family in northern England. Fir the first part of his life he was a good boy and did the right thing - appropriate school, war service in World War One, working as a bank clerk and a merchant (including a stint in China). He got the acting bug relatively late in life and starting performing in amateur theatricals. He had looks, height, presence and a beautiful speaking voice and eventually decided to take the plunge and go professional. There was work to be had in rep and also British quota quickies. Stephenson didn't appear in the more memorable British films of the time but he did come under the eye of Irving Asher who ran Warner Bros' London operation and spotted Errol Flynn and Patric Knowles... he thought Stephenson had possibilities for Hollywood and so Warners paid him to come over.
Stephenson was screen tested by Warners who elected to keep him and put him in lots of small roles - there were plenty of parts for authoritative British actors during the late 30s at Warners. He pops up in movies like Boys Meets Girl and Nancy Drew. His parts grew better in the B movie division like King of the Underworld and Devil's Island and he had bits in As such as The Sea Hawk and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex. Warners eventually gave him a lead in Calling Philo Vance and he eventually was cast in The Letter. This earned him an Oscar nomination; if it didn't propel Stephenson to stardom, Warners were impressed - he had good roles in Shining Victory and International Squadron.
How big a star would James Stephenson have become? This is all hypothetical of course but I think, not very - he lacked great individuality, he was too old by the time he "made it". However I think he would have had a long, impressive career - the sort of actor who would have benefited from the decline of the Hollywood studios and the rise of quality in Britain; I can see him hopping back and forth across the Atlantic, doing lots of Broadway and TV in between films, maybe getting a TV show, playing a lot of leading men to aging female stars and generals and dads, never being a great star but never being out of work. Alas, it was not to be.
Redfern's biography is exhaustive and would have to be definitive - he had access to family papers and really fleshes out Stephenson's history. It feels almost a shame to report that Stephenson didn't have that interesting a life - he was a decent guy, seemed to live well; the most outlandish thing he did was to go into acting. He was a gentleman - no outrageous sex life, or bad habits. Which leaves his work and the movies he made on the whole weren't that awesome.
Still I did enjoy the book. Stephenson was lucky to have a biographer as devoted as Redfern.
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