John Edward Ince, Jr. (August 29, 1878-April 10, 1947) was an actor, director, and producer. He was elected to The Lambs in 1919. His brothers were Lamb Ralph W. Ince and Thomas H. Ince, “Father of the Western.”
John Edward Ince, Jr. was born August 29, 1878 in New York. He was the son of John Ince and Emma Brennan, both natives of England. He was the older brother of Hollywood motion-picture pioneers Thomas and Ralph Ince.
His family were silent movie pioneers. His father was born in Wigan, Lancashire in 1841, and was the youngest of nine boys who enlisted in the British Navy as a “powder monkey”. He later disembarked at San Francisco, and found work as a reporter and coal miner. The family moved to New York to pursue theater work. Ince’s father worked as both an actor and musical agent and his mother, Emma Brennan, Ince himself, sister Bertha and brothers, Thomas and Ralph, all worked as actors.
In 1888, he began as a child actor in New York. He continued on the stage for 25 years, taking prominent roles in such plays as “Madame Sans Gene” and “Midsummer Night’s Dream”. In 1913, he moved to Hollywood and began work in silent films. He was an actor, director and producer until a week before his death.
He had at least 258 film appearances, and 54 directing credits between 1912 and 1947.
His appearances in the Three Stooges shorts were, “Cash and Carry” (1937) as Captain of the guard, “Termites of 1938” as Clayhammer, “Tassels in the Air” (1938) as a butler, “Three Little Sew and Sews” (1939) as a butler, and “You Nazty Spy!” (1940) as an Axis minister. His final film appearance was in David O. Selznick’s “The Paradine Case”.
John Ince died April 10, 1947 in Los Angeles, from heart disease and pneumonia. He was 68.