[1] He appeared on British and American stages and made his Broadway debut in 1901, playing the messenger in A Message from Mars starring Charles Hawtrey.

He came to Hollywood for the film version of Cynara, starring Ronald Colman and with Stephenson reprising his role of John Tring.

Gaerste in Red-Headed Woman, Leslie Howard's father Rufus Collier in The Animal Kingdom and Doctor Alliot in A Bill of Divorcement.

He often played historical figures like Sir Joseph Banks in the Oscar-winning[citation needed] adventure film Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) and Florimond Claude, Comte de Mercy-Argenteau in Marie Antoinette (1938).

In 1950, after completing his role of Cardinal Gaspar de Quiroga in the play That Lady, Stephenson retired from the stage.