Trivia

Contrary to the portrait of him in The Cat's Meow (2001) as a washed-up producer lucky to make a film a year, in the year before his death in 1924 15 of his movies were released and, at the time of his death, he had nine more before the cameras that were completed posthumously.

Seeing a short film with Tsuru Aoki, a Japanese actress living in California, Ince realized the potential advantages of casting Asian players in Hollywood films. This was during a time when white actors wearing eye makeup were portraying Asians, due to the strong anti-Asian sentiment among the American public. This would remain the norm in American film for decades to come. When Aoki met Ince, she introduced him to another Japanese stage player, Sessue Hayakawa. Ince hired both Aoki and Hayakawa for a series of films that proved popular and gained even more notoriety when the Japanese couple fell in love and married as Ince stars. Some of the Aoki-Hayakawa films were Far Eastern stories, but others cast them as Native Americans.

After the death of Wallace Reid from drugs, Ince capitalized on the incident by casting Reid's widow in the anti-drug film Human Wreckage (1923), one of the first films to use psychedelic sets.

Inceville, located where Sunset Boulevard reaches the Pacific Ocean, is named for him. It was in Inceville that he established his first studio, before moving his studio to Culver City.

Made more than 150 films in 1913.

Built his Culver City studio in 1918. After his death, it was sold to Cecil B. DeMille, who later sold it to RKO, when it became known as RKO Culver. The studio was leased to David O. Selznick in the late 1930s. Gone with the Wind (1939) was filmed there, razing a number of old DeMille sets for the burning of Atlanta sequence. When Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz bought RKO in 1956, the lot became Desilu Culver. In the mid 1980s, Grant Tinker and Gannett Corp. bought the lot. They sold it to Sony in 1991, who in turn sold it to PCCP Studio City Los Angeles, who now operates it under the name The Culver Studios. The studio is now rented by all the major studios for both film and TV work.

To maintain his status as a safe investment, by the early 1920s he had to conceal the deteriorating state of his health, as he was suffering from ulcers and angina.

He created a second production unit in 1912 under the direction of Francis Ford, who later said that Ince had no scruples in claiming credit for the script and direction of pictures that turned out better than expected.

His films were praised for their sharp cinematography and his use of newly developed technology. The new Bell and Howell turret camera was employed nearly exclusively on all his films after 1912.

After his death little care was taken to preserve his films. The original negative for Civilization (1915) was sold for $750 in 1929 and what is generally considered his best comedy, 23 1/2 Hours' Leave (1919), was sold to its star, Douglas MacLean', for only $1000. Many of his other titles were trashed while many others decomposed with no effort to preserve them.

In a conversation with journalist/screenwriter Adela Rogers St. Johns, Marion Davies disputed the rumor that William Randolph Hearst killed Ince because he allegedly made a pass at her. Davies, who was Hearst's mistress, said that Ince was a very ambitious man who would not jeopardize his relationship with Hearst by flirting with her. Said Davies: "Why would [Ince] take such a million-to-one chance? Ince was devoted to his wife and family. If he cheated he was damn discreet about it. No, no--I could still recognize it when a man gave me the eye and Tom Ince didn't. Moreover, I would not have given it back to him, so why would [Hearst] get mad enough to murder him? It's plain silly." From Adela Rogers St. Johns, The Honeycomb (1969 Doubleday & Company, Inc.), page 192.

He was taken ill while on board William Randolph Hearst's yacht on November 18, 1924. Also on board were Marion Davies, Charles Chaplin, among other celebrities.

HIs differences with contractee William S. Hart resulted from the producer's reluctance to give a fair share of the star's enormously profitable films. However, they ultimately parted company after an argument over Hart's horse Fritz the Horse, which Ince thoroughly disliked.

In 1915 he participated in the formation of Triangle Film Corp., which merged his production unit with those of D.W. Griffith and Mack Sennett. Their objective was to stop the growing power of Paramount's Adolph Zukor. Among the stars they put under contract were Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, DeWolf Hopper Sr., Constance Collier, Douglas Fairbanks, William S. Hart, Raymond Hitchcock, Frank Keenan, Billie Burke, Willard Mack and Dustin Farnum.

Is portrayed by Cary Elwes in The Cat's Meow (2001).

According to the New York Times (December 11, 1924), the San Diego District Attorney announced that Ince's death was caused by heart failure and no further investigation was necessary. Despite the fact that Charles Chaplin 's valet said that Ince's head was "bleeding from a bullet wound", The Los Angeles Times (November 21, 1924) reported that during Ince's funeral his casket remained open for one hour so that friends and studio employees could have "one last glimpse of the man they loved and respected". No one reported any bullet wound.

Younger brother of John Ince, elder brother of Ralph Ince. Father of Thomas H. Ince Jr..

By 1920 he was starting his own independent firm, hoping to lavish more time on fewer movies. Instead, he had to juggle arrangements constantly, releasing through a variety of distributors and having to be sure they actually paid what he was owed in ticket sales. To help lower overhead on his studio, his facility was available for rental by other independents, but this often meant he had to guarantee their loans and provide creative input. To secure bank loans to make his own productions, he had to use completed films as collateral. Hollywood had adopted his model of a producer-centered team of writers and directors, but in turn the role of an independent became ever more tenuous as the studio system took shape.

It was while working as a lifeguard in 1902 in Atlantic Highlands, NJ, that he became convinced that money could be made by staging vaudeville in the town's seaside pavilion. He was wrong.

There are no known surviving prints of his first feature, The Battle of Gettysburg (1913), released as a five-reeler in December 1913 by Mutual, although a very detailed script still exists. It is notable for its inclusion of specific dialogue, directions for actors' facial expressions and camera directions for the eight cameras that were used to film the epic. Although he would go on to produce other features, this is likely the only one he personally directed.

According to Brian Teves' biography, "Thomas Ince: Hollywood's Independent Pioneer" (2012, University Press of Kentucky), Ince died of a heart attack and had been suffering from ulcers. For years his health had been deteriorating, although many were not aware of the gravity of his condition. Teves refutes many rumors, including Ince's so-called mysterious cremation: Both Ince and his wife Elinor were Theosophists who preferred cremation and had arranged for it long before his death. Teves adds that Elinor did not "suddenly depart" the country after her husband's death but in July 1925, about seven months later. Also, Teves documents that Louella Parsons did not gain her position with publisher William Randolph Hearst as part of a "hush money" deal to keep quiet about Hearst's alleged killing of Ince but that she had been the motion picture editor of the Hearst-owned New York American in December 1923, and her contract was signed a year before Ince's death.

Co-founder and President (1920-21) of Associated Producers Inc., formed in 1919.

Owner of production company Thomas H. Ince Corp.

Owner of production company Thomas H. Ince Productions.