James Albert Stephenson (14 April 1889 – 29 July 1941) was a British stage and film actor.

He took up film acting at 49 and after a typically slow start delivered an Academy Award-nominated performance in the William Wyler-directed melodrama, The Letter in 1940.

He grew up in the West Riding of Yorkshire and Burnley, Lancashire, with his brothers, Alan and Norman.

Warner Bros. signed him the following year, and he began playing urbane villains and disgraced gentlemen.

[2] His big break came when director William Wyler cast him as a conscience-stricken lawyer, in spite of studio resistance, in The Letter (1940), opposite Bette Davis.