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THOMAS H. INCE
NE of the film folk who looked far into the future and foresaw great things for motion pictures, even during those days when the photoplay was supposed to be a "passing novelty," was Thomas H. Ince.
It required nerve, commercial daring and years of plucky persistence to put the cinema firmly on the throne, but Mr. Ince was one of the indomitables who never wavered or relaxed his efforts. And he won through. Years of previous struggle had well fitted him for the fray.
Mr. Ince was born in Newport, R. I., November 16, 1882, the second son of John E. and Emma (Jones) Ince. Inheriting a love of the drama from his mother, his early boyhood showed unmistakable predilection for theatricals.
Before he was fifteen he made his appearance with Leo Ditrichstein in a play that marked the real beginning of his career. He next was general utility man with the Beryl Hope Stock Company. During a "barnstorming" tour of Canada he played every sort of role from the dapper juvenile to an old maid.
The summer of 1902 Ince spent at Atlantic Highlands as a life guard. As the half-wit in "The Ninety and Nine" the following season he managed to save enough money out of his small salary to return to the fashionable summer resort the next summer as lessee and manager of the pavilion. For the next few years he played a variety of parts with Orrin Johnson in "Hearts Courageous" and with Margaret Illington in "A Japanese Nightingale;" in
This is a scene from one of the first Charles Ray pictures that Thomas Ince directed. Ray is at the extreme right and Mr. Ince is walking toward the camera.
stock for a season playing important roles in "Davy Crockett," "The Sporting Duchess," "Monte Cristo," "The Christian" and other noted plays.
Organizing the "Ince Dramatic Stock Company" he toured with it for several months with only indifferent success, and then became associated with William Thompson in "The Bishop" and later in "For Love's Sweet Sake" in which he played for two years.
Accepting an offer to play a "heavy" part in a picture at the old Imp studio, he was later offered $15 a day to play a comedy role for the Biograph company. By a freak of fate he returned to the Imp as a director when Mary Pickford was with the company, a position which brought him prominently to the attention of a group of New York producers who offered him $150 a week to go to California.
October 19, 1907, while he was playing in "For Love's Sweet Sake," he was married to Miss Elinor Kershaw, who was then playing at the theater in which he was appearing.
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