Ralph Ince Biography

The youngest of the three filmmaking Ince brothers, he was a child actor in theater and became a cartoonist at Vitagraph in 1906. He soon began acting in films and became a director in 1912. Continuing as an actor, Ince had a penchant for impersonating Abraham Lincoln, for other directors as well as in his own mid-teens films Lincoln the Lover and The Highest Law. He helmed numerous films in the '20s, several of which he also acted in, including Bigger Than Barnum's, The Sea Wolf (appearing as Jack London's Wolf Larsen) and Chicago After Midnight. Ince found few directing opportunities in Hollywood after the advent of sound, although he continued to act in others' films, including Little Caesar and Law and Order. He relocated to England in 1934 and helmed numerous features there until his untimely death in an auto accident in 1937. ~ Rovi