diff --git a/Lib/argparse.py b/Lib/argparse.py
index cc3e374..adecb88 100644
--- a/Lib/argparse.py
+++ b/Lib/argparse.py
@@ -1722,10 +1722,7 @@
             if action.dest is not SUPPRESS:
                 if not hasattr(namespace, action.dest):
                     if action.default is not SUPPRESS:
-                        default = action.default
-                        if isinstance(action.default, str):
-                            default = self._get_value(action, default)
-                        setattr(namespace, action.dest, default)
+                        setattr(namespace, action.dest, action.default)
 
         # add any parser defaults that aren't present
         for dest in self._defaults:
@@ -1948,9 +1945,24 @@
         # if we didn't consume all the argument strings, there were extras
         extras.extend(arg_strings[stop_index:])
 
-        # make sure all required actions were present
-        required_actions = [_get_action_name(action) for action in self._actions
-                            if action.required and action not in seen_actions]
+        # make sure all required actions were present and also convert
+        # action defaults which were not given as arguments
+        required_actions = []
+        for action in self._actions:
+            if action not in seen_actions:
+                if action.required:
+                    required_actions.append(_get_action_name(action))
+                else:
+                    # Convert action default now instead of doing it before
+                    # parsing arguments to avoid calling convert functions
+                    # twice (which may fail) if the argument was given, but
+                    # only if it was defined already in the namespace
+                    if (action.default is not None and
+                        hasattr(namespace, action.dest) and
+                        action.default is getattr(namespace, action.dest)):
+                        setattr(namespace, action.dest,
+                                self._get_value(action, action.default))
+
         if required_actions:
             self.error(_('the following arguments are required: %s') %
                        ', '.join(required_actions))