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).