Biography
Thomas H. Ince was born into a family of stage actors and began performing on stage at age six, eventually making his Broadway debut at 15. His work in vaudeville was sporadic, leading him to take on roles as a lifeguard, promoter, and part-time actor. Despite his unsuccessful stage career, Ince entered the film industry in 1910 by joining Biograph. After a single film, Carl Laemmle's Independent Motion Pictures hired him as a director. Ince traveled to Cuba to produce films beyond the reach of the Motion Pictures Patent Company—a trust aiming to monopolize film production—but his output there was limited. In 1911, he joined the New York Motion Picture Corporation (NYMPC) and moved to California to produce Westerns. He pioneered a method requiring all scripts to be fully planned before filming, allowing multiple scenes to be shot simultaneously with assistant directors, including Francis Ford, the brother of John Ford.
In 1912, NYMPC and other independent studios merged to form Universal Pictures. Ince constructed a film studio called "Inceville" in the Santa Monica Mountains, where he filmed many outdoor scenes. At the end of 1912, he hired William Desmond Taylor to act in his film *Counterfeiters* (1914). By 1913, Ince had produced over 150 films, mainly Westerns and Civil War dramas, and employed directors such as Frank Borzage, Fred Niblo, Jack Conway, and Henry King. In 1914, he hired William S. Hart, who acted and directed his own films. Ince produced the epic *The Battle of Gettysburg* (1913) and thereafter focused on longer films, transitioning from director to producer. Utilizing an assembly-line approach, he employed thousands of technicians. In 1915, he co-founded the Triangle Motion Picture Company alongside D.W. Griffith and Mack Sennett in Culver City on Washington Boulevard (now the site of Sony Pictures). William S. Hart's profitable stardom helped keep the company afloat. In 1916, Ince produced and directed the anti-war film *Civilization* (1916), which cost $100,000 to make and earned $800,000. Always scouting for talent, he signed Olive Thomas, a rising star from the Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic, to star in his films.
Following World War I, Ince left Triangle and partnered with Adolph Zukor to form Paramount/Artcraft, building another studio in Culver City featuring a southern mansion facade modeled after Mount Vernon (later acquired by David O. Selznick). Ince developed a series of comedies starring Douglas MacLean and Doris May, with their debut film, *23 1/2 Hours' Leave* (1919), achieving success. After William S. Hart’s contract expired, he departed the company, and Zukor pushed Ince out of Paramount/Artcraft. In December 1919, Ince, Mack Sennett, Marshall Neilan, Maurice Tourneur, Allan Dwan, and other directors formed Associated Producers, an independent film alliance. Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle was invited but declined to join. In 1922, Associated Producers merged with First National. On February 1, 1922, Paramount director William Desmond Taylor was murdered in his bungalow; one suspect, though never seriously considered, was Mack Sennett, who claimed he had spent the night at Ince’s home.
In 1924, Ince was aboard newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst’s yacht when he suddenly became ill. He was rushed by train to Del Mar, where his wife, her son, and a doctor met him and accompanied him home, where he died. The Los Angeles Times reportedly ran the headline "Movie Producer Shot on Hearst Yacht!" but other publications, including The New York Times, attributed his death to heart failure. Sensational stories alleged that Hearst shot Ince by mistake, intending to shoot Charlie Chaplin, whom Hearst suspected of a secret affair with his mistress, actress Marion Davies. According to rumor, Hearst accidentally found Davies and Chaplin in her cabin and fired several shots, missing Chaplin but hitting Ince. Another story claimed columnist Louella Parsons was present and witnessed the shooting, though other sources place Parsons in New York at the time. Allegedly, Hearst promised Parsons a lifetime position as his Hollywood reporter in exchange for her silence; Parsons was already working for Hearst in 1923. Biographers of Ince have disputed these conspiracy theories, noting that he had long suffered from ulcers, angina, and had experienced a previous heart attack.
