Ernest Torrence was a Scottish film character actor who appeared in many Hollywood films, including Broken Chains with Colleen Moore, Mantrap with Clara Bow and Fighting Caravans with Gary Cooper and Lili Damita. A towering figure, Torrence frequently played cold-eyed and imposing villains.
Biography
Education and early work
He was born to Colonel Henry Torrence Thayson and Jessie on 26 June 1878, in Edinburgh, Scotland, and as a child was an exceptional pianist and operatic baritone and graduated from 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 and The Talk of the Town before disarming vocal problems set in and he was forced to abandon this career path. Sometime prior to 1900, he changed the spelling of Torrance to Torrence and dropped the name Thomson. Both Ernest and his actor brother David Torrence went to America, with Ernest joining David in New York in September 1911. Focusing on a purely acting career, Ernest and his brother developed into experienced players on the Broadway New York stage. Ernest received significant acclaim with Modest Suzanne in 1912, and a prominent role in The Night Boat in 1920 brought him to the attention of the early Hollywood filmmakers.
Film career
Torrence played the despicable adversary Luke Hatburn in Tol'able David opposite Richard Barthelmess and immediately settled into films for the rest of his career and life. He played an old codger in the acclaimed classic western The Covered Wagon and gained attention from his roles in The Hunchback of Notre Dame as Clopin, king of the beggars, and with Betty Bronson in Peter Pan as the dastardly Captain Hook. He played an Army General who escapes into the circus world and becomes a clown in The Side Show of Life. In an offbeat bit of casting he paired up with Clara Bow in Mantrap, unusually as a gentle, giant type backwoodsman in search of a wife. He appeared in other silent film classics such as The King of Kings and Steamboat Bill, Jr. as Buster Keaton's steamboat captain father. During the course of his twelve-year film career, Ernest made 49 films, both silent and "talkies".
Death
Torrence made the transition into talking films very well, starring in Fighting Caravans with Gary Cooper and Lili Damita. He was able to play a notable nemesis, Dr. Moriarty, to Clive Brook's Sherlock in Sherlock Holmes in one of his last roles. Filming for I Cover the Waterfront, in which he starred as a smuggler opposite Claudette Colbert in New York City, had just been completed when he died suddenly on 15 May 1933. While en route to Europe by ship, Torrence suffered an acute attack of gall stones and was rushed back to a New York City hospital. He died of complications following surgery.
