John Ince

Actor/director John Ince was born in 1878 in New York City to a pair of vaudeville performers. His two younger brothers, Ralph Ince and Thomas H. Ince, 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, a drama based on a real-life murder, in which the actual murderer, Clara Smith Hamon, 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, in bed with actor Charles Chaplin 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) as a guard at Frederic March's bank.

He made his final film in 1947, uncredited appearance, and died that year.