Thomas H. Ince

Short Biography

Thomas H. Ince (November 16, 1882 – November 19, 1924) was an American silent film producer, director, screenwriter, and actor. He revolutionized the motion picture industry by creating the first major Hollywood studio facility and invented many mechanisms of professional movie production by introducing the "assembly line" system of filmmaking after being the first mogul to build his own film studio, dubbed "Inceville, " in Palisades Highlands. He was also instrumental in developing the role of the producer in motion pictures. Known as the "Father of the Western" he was responsible for making over 800 films. Two of them: The Italian (1915), for which he wrote the screenplay, and Civilization (1916), which he directed, were selected for preservation by the National Film Registry. He partnered with D.W. Griffith and Mack Sennett to form the famous Triangle Motion Picture Company whose studios are the present-day site of Sony Pictures. He then built his own studio, the present-day site of Culver Studios. Ince is also famous for his mysterious and untimely death, allegedly aboard the private yacht of media tycoon William Randolph Hearst, just as he was about to join forces with Hearst’s International Film Corporation.