John Ince

Actor/director 'John Ince' (qv) was born in 1878 in New York City to a pair of vaudeville performers. His two younger brothers, 'Ralph Ince' (qv) and 'Thomas H. Ince' (qv), were also in show business, with Thomas being the most well-known of the three, having been a pioneering producer/director who built the first complete movie studio, containing everything from sound stages to processing labs to standing permanent sets, known as Inceville. Ralph also became an actor/director (many contemporary critics believed him to be a better director than Thomas and a better actor than John), but his reputation off-screen tended to overshadow his on-screen accomplishments.In addition to being an actor, John directed quite a few two-reels for his brother Thomas' studio, in addition to a lesser number of features, and acted in many of his own films. One of his more bizarre productions was 'Thomas H. Ince' (qv), a drama based on a real-life murder, in which the actual murderer, 'Clara Smith Hamon' (qv), played herself!His brother Thomas died in 1924, under somewhat mysterious circumstances (supposedly he was on a party on a yacht owned by wealthy newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst). the story is that Hearst found his mistress, 'Marion Davies' (qv), in bed with actor 'Charles Chaplin' (qv) and, enraged, pulled a gun and fired at Chaplin, missing him but hitting and killing Ince. John opened up his own studio. That lasted until 1929, when a confluence of negative factors, including his divorce from his wife, the famous Wall Street stock market crash in which he lost all his money, and a fire that burned down his studio, pretty much killed his career. He managed to get a few supporting roles in modest "B" pictures, but by the mid-'30s his career consisted of one- or two-line speaking roles and uncredited extra work. He had a small part in _The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)_ (qv) as a guard at Frederic March's bank. He made his final film in 1947, uncredited appearance, and died that year. He appeared posthumously in _Gun Cargo (1949)_ (qv), but that film was shot in the late 1930s and not released until 1949.::frankfob2@yahoo.com