He was a popular leading man from the 1940s to the early 1960s, rising to fame through his appearances in the Gainsborough melodramas.The Power of Darkness was a 1949 play starring Stewart Granger, Jean Simmons, and Sonia Dresdel. The play was a stage production of the late 19th century drama by Leo Tolstoy about a peasant who seduces, marries, and impregnates women in 19th century Russia