Mason, James, 1909–84, British stage and film actor. Mason, trained at Cambridge as an architect, became a leading man in British films in the 1940s and thereafter an international star. With a velvet smooth voice and introspective good looks, he played villains and romantic figures with equal skill. Among his best-known films are Odd Man Out (1946), Rommel, Desert Fox (1951), Julius Caesar (1953), A Star is Born (1954), Lolita (1962), Georgy Girl (1966), and The Seagull (1968).

Mason, James

(born May 15, 1909, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, Eng.—died July 27, 1984, Lausanne, Switz.) British film actor. After studying architecture at the University of Cambridge, he made his screen debut in Late Extra (1935) and soon became a star in British films such as The Man in Grey (1943), The Seventh Veil (1945), and Odd Man Out (1947). He moved to Hollywood in the late 1940s but continued to make films in Britain as well. Noted for his urbane characterizations of flawed individuals, he appeared in more than 100 movies, including Madame Bovary (1949), A Star Is Born (1954), North by Northwest (1959), Lolita (1962), Georgy Girl (1966), The Boys from Brazil (1978), and The Verdict (1982).

Mason, James (Murray) (1798–1871) U.S. senator, diplomat; born in Georgetown, D.C. (grandson of George Mason). As U.S. senator from Virginia (1847–61), he supported Southern rights and drafted the Fugitive Slave Act (1850). In 1861, en route to England on a mission to seek English diplomatic recognition for the Confederacy, he and John Slidell were taken by Union forces from the British ship Trent; held briefly in what threatened an international crisis, they were released and Mason spent the next four years in England. Although he had considerable success in purchasing naval and military supplies, he never gained diplomatic recognition. After the war, he lived in Canada until 1868 when he returned to Virginia.