Ernest Torrence
Date of birth: 1878-06-24
Place of birth: Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Known for: Acting
Also known as: Ernest Torrance-Thomson
Biography
He was the man you loved to hiss. This towering (6' 4"), highly imposing character star with cold, hollow, beady eyes and a huge, protruding snout would go on to become one of the silent screen's finest arch villains. Born Ernest Thayson Torrence-Thompson on June 26, 1878, in Edinburgh, Scotland, he was, unlikely enough, an exceptional pianist and operatic baritone. A graduate of the Stuttgart Conservatory, Edinburgh Academy before earning a scholarship at London's Royal Academy of Music, he toured with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in such productions as "The Emerald Isle" (1901) and "The Talk of the Town" (1905) before serious vocal problems set in. Both Ernest and his actor brother David Torrence came to America directly from Scotland prior to WWI. Focusing instead on a purely acting career, both brothers developed into seasoned players on the New York stage. Ernest made his Broadway bow with "Modest Suzanne" in 1912 and a standout role in "The Night Boat" in 1920 brought him to the attention of Hollywood filmmakers. He earned superb marks playing the despicable adversary Luke Hatburn in Tol'able David (1921) opposite Richard Barthelmess, and immediately settled into films for the rest of his career. Adept at both comedy and drama, Ernest avoided what could have been a damaging stereotype with his sympathetic portrayal of a grizzled old codger in the classic western The Covered Wagon (1923). He further bolstered his celebrity with plum, lip-smacking roles alongside Lon Chaney in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) as Clopin, king of the beggars, and Betty Bronson in Peter Pan (1924) as the dastardly Captain Hook. In an offbeat bit of casting he paired up with Clara Bow in Mantrap (1926) as a gentle, bear-like backwoodsman in search of a wife, and participated in other silent classics such as The King of Kings (1927) (as Peter) and Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) as Buster Keaton's steamboat captain Dad. Despite his celluloid villainy, Ernest was known as a courtly and cultivated gentleman in private. He made the transition into talking films intact and was able to play a marvelous nemesis, Dr. Moriarty, to Clive Brooks ' Sherlock Holmes (1932) before his untimely death. Ernest died following his filming as a smuggler in I Cover the Waterfront (1933) starring Claudette Colbert in New York on May 15,1933, at the relatively young age of 54. It seems that while en route to Europe by ship, Torrence suffered an acute attack of gall stones and was rushed back to a New York hospital. He died of complications following surgery. Looking and usually playing much older than he was, Hollywood lost a marvelously talented and robust character player who had dozens of films ahead of him.
Movie Credits
Steamboat Bill, Jr.
1928-05-09
The just-out-of-college, effete son of a no-nonsense steamboat captain comes to visit his father who
A Dangerous Affair
1919-06-15
Elderly millionaire James Rance, whose only passion is chess, warns his grandson Tommy, who missed t
I Cover the Waterfront
1933-05-19
An investigative reporter romances a suspected smuggler's daughter.
The Blind Goddess
1926-04-04
Even though Big Bill Devens is a powerful politician, he still sticks to his working man's roots. Hi
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine
1923-04-15
June Tolliver is a Kentucky mountain girl whose family is feuding with the Falins. But their differe
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
1923-09-06
In 15th century France, a gypsy girl is framed for murder by the infatuated Chief Justice, and only
Mantrap
1926-07-24
A sexy young manicurist living with her older backwoodsman husband in a small Canadian town finds he
The Lady of the Harem
1926-11-01
Rafi arrives in the city in search of Pervaneh who was taken by the Sultan. He is joined by Hassan t
The Cuban Love Song
1931-11-18
A guilt-ridden U.S. Marine returns to Cuba to try to find the woman he promised to marry.
Across to Singapore
1928-04-07
While Joel and his older ship's captain brother Mark are at sea, the latter is abandoned in Singapor
Fighting Caravans
1931-02-01
Clint Belmet (Gary Cooper) is a bit of a firebrand and is sentenced to at least 30 days in jail, but
Speedway
1929-10-07
Bill Whipple is a happy-go-lucky mechanic for MacDonald who thinks that he is the worlds greatest dr
Ruggles of Red Gap
1923-10-07
An English valet brought to the American west assimilates into the American way of life.
Desert Nights
1929-03-09
Jewel thieves pull a heist on a diamond mining operation in Africa and take the foreman hostage befo
The Prodigal Judge
1922-02-19
The story takes place in the pre-Civil War era South. Judge Price has a fondness for liquor which re
The Unholy Night
1929-09-13
When a rash of murders depletes their number, a billionaire's employees are brought together at an E
Sherlock Holmes
1932-11-05
Moriarty is sentenced to death, and Sherlock Holmes prepares to retire to the country and marry his
The Great Lover
1931-07-18
An aspiring classical singer is romanced by both a famous opera star and his younger understudy.
Untamed
1929-11-23
In her first Talkie, Joan Crawford plays Bingo, a jungle-raised oil heiress, who turns Manhattan ups
Shipmates
1931-04-25
A sailor falls in love with the admiral's daughter but finds they can't marry because of his lowly r
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
1929-03-30
This first cinematic version of the classic book is a part-talkie, although the only surviving print
The Cossacks
1928-06-23
Stirring romance, hard riding, desperate fighting with the Cossacks playing their game of war and ch
Clara Bow: Discovering the It Girl
1999-06-14
Clara Bow: Discovering the 'It' Girl features scenes from 25 of her films, as well as interviews wit
Call of the Flesh
1930-08-16
A postulant falls in love with a flamboyant singer from a cafe next door to her convent.
Sporting Blood
1931-08-08
A horse with great potential is reluctantly sold by the breeder and by chance passes through multipl
Screen Snapshots (Series 22, No. 10)
1942-01-01
The edition of Screen Snapshots celebrates 25 years of production. It looks at the content of editio
Captain Salvation
1927-05-14
A young divinity student helps and protects a down and out prostitute, at the cost of his own standi
New Adventures of Get Rich Quick Wallingford
1931-10-03
Wallingford is a con-man whose specialty is taking money from suckers. His partners are Schnozzle, a
Sweet Kitty Bellairs
1930-09-05
Kitty Bellairs, a flirtatious young woman of 18th Century England, cuts a swath of broken hearts and
The Covered Wagon
1923-03-15
Two wagon caravans converge at what is now Kansas City, and combine for the westward push to Oregon.
Officer O'Brien
1930-02-15
Bill O'Brien is promoted to lieutenant in the police department for his arrest of Mike Patello, gang
Strictly Unconventional
1930-05-03
An adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's The Circle. A young woman married into an aristocratic Englis
Hypnotized
1932-12-25
A Gypsy violinist searches for her missing fiance, a circus worker who recently won a sweepstakes pr
North of 36
1926-03-20
A young woman inherits her father's large Texas ranch and plans to begin a cattle drive to Abilene,
The King of Kings
1927-04-19
The King of Kings is the Greatest Story Ever Told as only Cecil B. DeMille could tell it. In 1927, w
Peter Pan
1924-12-29
Peter Pan enters the nursery of the Darling children and, with the help of fairy dust, leads them of
Night Life of New York
1925-08-02
John Bentley hates New York City, because of an unhappy romance as a young man, but his son, Ronald,
Broken Chains
1922-12-10
Twelve Miles Out
1927-07-08
Jerry always wins in his rivalry with Red over women, gunrunning, and diamond smuggling. While runni
The Pony Express
1925-09-03
The Pony Express is a silent 1925 Western film produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed by P
Tol'able David
1921-12-31
Young David Kinemon is a good-natured, easy-going lad in a mountain village. Circumstances force him
The Kingdom Within
1922-12-24
Silent film directed by Victor Schertzinger
The Tingler
1959-07-29
A pathologist experiments with a deaf-mute woman who is unable to scream to prove that humans die of
The American Venus
1926-01-31
A lost film - Mary Gray, whose father manufactures cold cream, is engaged to sappy Horace Niles, the
The Brass Bottle
1923-07-22
Horace Ventimore, a young London architect, stumbles across an old brass bottle. When he picks it up
The Wanderer
1925-08-19
Jether, a shepherd, is lured from his home by Tisha, priestess of the goddess Ishtar. He journeys to
Singed Wings
1922-11-26
Spanish dancer Bonita della Guerda has a dream in which she is killed by a jester after declaring he
The Fighting Coward
1924-03-14
Southerner Tom Rumford was sent up north to be raised by relatives who happen to be Quakers. As a re
The Heritage of the Desert
1924-01-23
The year is 1876 and Holderness "tyrant of the desert" is trying to force August Naab to sell his pr
The Dressmaker from Paris
1925-03-30
An American soldier falls in love with a French maiden but their romance is thwarted when the Yanks
The Side Show of Life
1924-07-21
An English circus clown finds he's lost his touch after returning from war.
The Rainmaker
1926-05-10
The story of a racetrack tout whose prayers could bring a dry or muddy racetrack, and how he learned
West of the Water Tower
1924-01-06
Young marrieds Guy & Bee are ostracized by their supposed friends in town when Bee discovers she is