If there had been a competition in the mid-forties to choose the smuggest man in British cinema, then Stewart Granger would have won hands down; but then he was good-looking, charming, successful and refreshingly free of the false modesty assumed by most of his contemporaries.
James Stewart was born in London and drifted into acting after having given up a medical degree, changing his name along the way. He's one of the few star actors who actually started out as an extra, though he trained at Webber-Douglas. He was climbing up the cast lists of various theatre productions when the war started. His big break came – if you can call it that – when he was invalided out of the army. There was a shortage of good-looking men with a valid excuse for not fighting Hitler so he was in demand.
The Man in Grey was the film that really brought him into the public eye. Its huge success kick-started the Gainsborough melodrama cycle and typed him as the handsome hero through the many that followed. Despite this success, he wasn't happy. He hated the films, and the best roles in them went to James Mason.
As Mason prepared to depart for Hollywood, the standard of Granger's films improved. By the end of the decade, Granger too was on his way to Hollywood with his bride-to-be Jean Simmons (his first wife was actress Elspeth March).
His first Hollywood film, the remake of King Solomon's Mines, was a big hit and for the rest of the decade he was a feature of many of MGM's epic adventures. He still wasn't happy though, particularly since Simmons was getting the pick of the "proper" acting jobs. The marriage was over by the start of the 60s and so was his MGM contract.
The rest of his film career was spent freelancing in trashy co-productions. When these dried up he took to TV movies. He continued to find work right up to his death, in Santa Monica.
| 1933 | A Southern Maid |
| 1934 | Over the Garden Wall |
| 1934 | Give Her a Ring |
| 1937 | Mademoiselle Docteur |
| 1937 | So This is London |
| 1940 | Convoy |
| 1942 | Secret Mission |
| 1943 | Thursday's Child |
| 1943 | The Lamp Still Burns |
| 1943 | The Man in Grey |
| 1944 | Fanny by Gaslight |
| 1944 | Love Story |
| 1944 | Madonna of the Seven Moons |
| 1945 | Waterloo Road |
| 1946 | Caravan |
| 1946 | Caesar and Cleopatra |
| 1946 | The Magic Bow |
| 1947 | Captain Boycott |
| 1948 | Blanche Fury |
| 1948 | Saraband for Dead Lovers |
| 1948 | Woman Hater |
| 1948 | Adam and Evelyne |
| 1950 | King Soloman's Mines (US) |
| 1951 | The Light Touch (US) |
| 1951 | Soldiers Three (US) |
| 1952 | The Wild North (US) |
| 1952 | Scaramouche (US) |
| 1952 | The Prisoner of Zenda (US) |
| 1953 | Young Bess (US) |
| 1953 | Salome (US) |
| 1954 | All the Brothers Were Valiant (US) |
| 1954 | Beau Brummell (US) |
| 1955 | Green Fire (US) |
| 1955 | Moonfleet (US) |
| 1955 | Footsteps in the Fog |
| 1956 | Bhowani Junction (US) |
| 1956 | The Last Hunt (US) |
| 1957 | The Whole Truth |
| 1958 | Harry Black |
| 1960 | North to Alaska (US) |
| 1961 | The Secret Partner |
| 1961 | The Swordsman of Siena (It.) |
| 1962 | Commando (It.) |
| 1962 | La Congiura Dei Dieci |
| 1962 | Sodom and Gomorrah (It.) |
| 1963 | The Shortest Day |
| 1963 | The Legion's Lost Patrol (It.) |
| 1964 | The Crooked Road (Yugo.) |
| 1964 | Frontier Hellcat |
| 1964 | The Secret Invasion (Yugo.) |
| 1965 | Rampage at Apache Wells (Ger.) |
| 1965 | Old Shatterhand (Ger.) |
| 1966 | Red Dragon (Ger.) |
| 1966 | Target for Killing (Ger.) |
| 1966 | Requiem for a Secret Agent (It.) |
| 1967 | The Trygon Factor |
| 1967 | The Last Safari |
| 1978 | The Wild Geese |
| 1978 | Hell Hunters |
