Martin Stephens (born 19 July 1949) is a former child actor and architect from England, best known for his performances in the films '' Village of the Damned'' and '' The Innocents''. Stephens appeared in 14 films between 1954 and 1966, then chose to drop out of acting and made his adult career outside the profession.

Career

Stephens was born in Southgate, Middlesex on 19 July 1949 and made his first film appearance aged 5 in the 1954 tug-of-love drama '' The Divided Heart''. In 1958 he featured as the young David Copperfield in three episodes of the TV series ''Tales from Dickens''. The same year he returned to the screen in '' Another Time, Another Place'', a sudsy melodrama in which he was cast as the child of

Sean Connery Sir Sean Connery (born Thomas Connery; 25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020) was a Scottish actor. He was the first actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond on film, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983. Origina ...

and Glynis Johns. Several more film appearances followed in the next two years before Stephens landed the role which would make him famous. '' Village of the Damned'' was a screen adaptation of John Wyndham's science fiction novel ''

The Midwich Cuckoos ''The Midwich Cuckoos'' is a 1957 science fiction novel written by the English author John Wyndham. It tells the tale of an English village in which the women become pregnant by brood parasitic aliens. The book has been praised by many critics ...

'' with Stephens cast as David Zellaby, the leader of a group of sinister hybrid children who are born simultaneously in a quiet country village. The film was shot in six weeks on a budget of £80,000, and distribution company MGM reportedly had little faith in the finished product, believing they had a dud on their hands. There were no press showings, and the film was slipped without any advance publicity into a small number of cinemas in the London area to fill a gap in programming. Much to MGM's surprise, it became an immediate word-of-mouth sensation with large queues forming in advance of each showing. Stephens' eerily chilling performance as a calm and controlling white-haired child without the capacity to feel any human emotion both thrilled and disturbed audiences, leaving a lasting impression on those who saw it. In 2003, English broadcaster Alan Dein noted: "Children were your friends, they were fun. But not this lot. This was the first time any of us had ever seen scary children, really bad seeds, and he was the scariest of the lot. That boy gave me nightmares." Stephens himself recalled: "I knew it was an unusual part. I quietly liked it...having these very adult qualities and having control over the adult. Imagine having that power.""Return of the Cuckoos"
Burman, Mark. ''The Guardian'', 5 December 2003. ''Retrieved 19 September 2010'' In 1961, Stephens appeared in a smaller part in '' The Hellfire Club'' before landing another starring role in '' The Innocents'', a screen version of the famously ambiguous Henry James novel '' The Turn of the Screw''. Cast as the precocious and strangely knowing Miles, he gave another unsettling performance as a disturbed and prematurely sexualised child, notably in the famous "goodnight kiss" scene with

Deborah Kerr Deborah Jane Trimmer CBE (30 September 192116 October 2007), known professionally as Deborah Kerr (), was a British actress. She was nominated six times for the Academy Award for Best Actress. During her international film career, Kerr won a G ...

. This proved to be Stephens' last film for several years, as his parents withdrew him from acting to concentrate on his education. He later said: "It was just accepted wisdom within my family: boarding school and the end of the acting career. I was a very malleable child. Which is probably why I was reasonably good in films, because I was very directable.""Suffer the Children"
Rothkopf, Joshua. ''Time Out New York'', 27 November 2008. ''Retrieved 19 September 2010'' Stephens returned to the screen in 1965, as one of the two siblings, the other played by Olivia Hussey, who travel from England to Italy to bring home their errant mother (

Maureen O'Hara Maureen O'Hara (; 17 August 1920 – 24 October 2015) was a native Irish and naturalized American actress and singer, who became successful in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood from the 1940s through to the 1960s. She was a natural ...

) in '' The Battle of the Villa Fiorita''. His final film appearance came in the indifferently-received

Hammer Films A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nails into wood, to shape metal (as wi ...

production '' The Witches'' in 1966. By this time, the appeal of acting had worn off, and Stephens decided to give up the profession to study architecture at

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. Stephens went on to have a career as an architect. He currently lives in Portugal.

Filmography

References

Bibliography

* Holmstrom, John. ''The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995''. Norwich, Michael Russell, 1996, p. 272-273.

External links

*
Martin Stephens Official Personal Website

Martin Stephens Official Charitable Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephens, Martin 1949 births Living people English male child actors English male film actors People from Southgate, London Alumni of Queen's University Belfast