Henry Stephenson
From Wikipedia
Henry Stephenson Garraway (16 April 1871 – 24 April 1956), sometimes credited as Harry Stephenson, was a British stage and film actor. He portrayed friendly and wise Gentleman in many films of the 1930s and 1940s. Among his roles was Sir Joseph Banks in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) and Mr. Brownlow in Oliver Twist.
Stephenson was educated in Rugby in Warwickshire and started acting in his twenties. He appeared on British and American stages and made his Broadway debut in 1901, playing the messenger in A Message from Mars. In the following decades, he appeared in over 30 Broadway plays. Henry Stephenson made his film debut in 1917 and appeared in a few silent films, but made his mark mostly as an elder man in sound films. Between 1931 and 1932, he appeared in the successful Broadway play Cyanara with over 200 performances. He came to Hollywood for the film version of Cyanara, starring Ronald Colman and with Henry Stephenson in a supporting role.
In the same year year, he played the tycoon C.B. Gaerste in Red-Headed Woman and Doctor Alliott in A Bill of Divorcement. The following year, the English-born actor appeared as the intimidating yet warm-hearted Mr. Laurence in Little Women. The tall, white-haired actor specialized in portraying wise, dignified and friendly British gentlemans in supporting roles. He could be "both imposing and benevolent in his patrician portrayals, usually expounding words of wisdom or offering gentlemanly aid." He appeared overall in 90 films from 1917 to 1951, often as a doctor or professor, general, judge or aristocrat. He often played historical figures like Sir Joseph Banks in the oscar-winnig adventure film Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) and Florimond Claude, Comte de Mercy-Argenteau in Marie Antoinette (1938).
Stephenson worked with film star Errol Flynn in the films Captain Blood, The Charge of the Light Brigade, The Prince and the Pauper, and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex; often as Flynn's paternal friend and superior.
He portrayed Sir Thomas Lancing in Tarzan Finds a Son! in 1939 and playing an entirely different role as Sir Guy Henderson in Tarzan and the Amazons in 1945. He seldom played dark figures, among the exceptions was the snobbish Mr. Bryant in Mr. Lucky in 1943. Stephenson also appeared in literature adaptions, for example as the friendly lawyer Havisham in Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936) and as Mr. Brownlow in David Lean's literature adaption Oliver Twist (1948). He made his last film in 1949, but appeared in two TV-series in 1951 before the end of his career. In 1950, after finishing his role of Cardinal Gaspar de Quiroga in the drama play, That Lady, Stephenson retired from the stage.
He married actress Ann Shoemaker. They had one daughter.
Henry Stephenson died in 1956 at the age of 85 years. He was survived by Ann and his daughter.
Known for
Beloved Enemy
Lord Athleigh
Heartbeat
Minister
What Every Woman Knows
Charles Venables
Outcast Lady
Sir Maurice
Double Harness
Colonel Sam Colby
Dramatic School
Pasquel Sr.
Challenge to Lassie
Sir Charles Loring
Rings on Her Fingers
Colonel Prentiss
Enchantment
General Fitzgerald
The Night Is Young
Emperor Franz Josef
Rendezvous
Russian Ambassador Gregory
Captain Blood
Lord Willoughby
Night and Day
Omar Cole
Wild, Wild Susan
Peter Van Dusen
Give Me Your Heart
Edward, Lord Farrington
Little Lord Fauntleroy
Havisham
Tarzan Finds a Son!
Sir Thomas Lancing
The Richest Girl in the World
John Connors
Red-Headed Woman
Charles B. 'Charlie' / 'C.B.' Gaerste
The Perfect Gentleman
Bishop
Little Old New York
Robert R. Livingston
The Animal Kingdom
Rufus Collier
This Above All
General Cathaway
Tarzan and the Amazons
Sir Guy Henderson, the Archeologist
Song of Love
King Albert
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Sir Ronald Ramsgate
Julia Misbehaves
Lord Pennystone
Time Out of Mind
Wellington Drake
Suez
Count Mathieu de Lesseps
Dark Delusion
Evans Biddle
When You're in Love
Walter Mitchell
The Young in Heart
Felix Anstruther
Conquest
Count Anastas Walewski
Two Girls and a Sailor
John Dyckman Brown I
Ivy
Judge
She Loves Me Not
Dean Mercer
Hearts Divided
Charles Patterson
A Society Exile
Sir Howard Furnival
The Prince and the Pauper
Duke of Norfolk
A Bill of Divorcement
Doctor Alliot
Cynara
John Tring
One More River
Sir Laurence Mont
The Emperor's Candlesticks
Prince Johann
Mr. Lucky
Mr. Bryant
It's a Date
Capt. Andrew
Blind Adventure
Major Thorne
O'Shaughnessy's Boy
Maj. Winslow
Spring Parade
Emperor Franz Joseph
The Baroness and the Butler
Count Albert Sandor
Reckless Age
J. H. Wadsworth
The Flame Within
Dr. Jock Frazier
Tomorrow at Seven
Thornton Drake
The Locket
Lord Wyndham
If I Were Free
Hector Stribling
Marie Antoinette
Count de Mercey
Reckless
Colonel Harrison Sr.
Half Angel
Professor Jerome Hargraves
The Hour Before the Dawn
Gen. Hetherton
The Green Years
Blakely
The Homestretch
Don Humberto Balcares
Thirty Day Princess
King Anatol XII
Lady from Louisiana
General Anatole Mirbeau
The Return of Monte Cristo
Prof. Duval
The Man Who Lost Himself
Frederick Collins
Stingaree
Mr. Hugh Clarkson
The Charge of the Light Brigade
Sir Charles Macefield
Down Argentine Way
Don Diego Quintana
Mutiny on the Bounty
Joseph Banks
Oliver Twist
Mr. Brownlow
Little Women
Mr. Laurence
Wise Girl
Mr. Fletcher
The Mystery of Mr. X
Sir Herbert Frensham
Half Way to Shanghai
Col. Algernon Blimpton
My Lips Betray
De Conti
The Tower of Jewels
David Parrish
The Black Panther's Cub
Clive, Earl of Maudsley
Of Human Bondage
Dr. Tyrell
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
Lord Burghley
Her Sister's Secret
Mr. DuBois
Secrets of Scotland Yard
Sir Reginald Meade
The Mantrap
Sir Humphrey Quilp
Man of Two Worlds
Sir Basil Pemberton
Walking on Air
Mr. Horace Bennett
Guilty as Hell
Dr. Ernest S. Tindal
Vanessa: Her Love Story
Barney Newmark
Men and Women
Arnold Kirke
All Men Are Enemies
The Spreading Dawn
Mr. LeRoy