Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries

by Paul Donnelley

  CAUSE: Huston died in Middletown, Rhode Island, aged 81 of emphysema.

  FURTHER READING: An Open Book – John Huston (London: Columbus Books, 1988); The Hustons – Lawrence Grobel (London: Bloomsbury, 1990).

  Walter Huston

  (WALTER HOUGHSTON)

  Born April 6, 1884

  Died April 7, 1950

  Solid patriarch. Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, he studied drama and became a theatre actor before making the transition to films. He played Trampas in The Virginian (1929) but came to notice playing the president in Abraham Lincoln (1930). He developed into a stolid, reliable performer and was in, among others, the following films: The Bad Man (1930) as Pancho Lopez, Night Court (1932) as Judge Moffett, Law And Order (1932) as Frame Johnson, Rain (1932) as Reverend Alfred Davidson, Rhodes Of Africa (1936) as Rhodes, Dodsworth (1936) as Sam Dodsworth, Swamp Water (1941) as Thursday Ragan, The Maltese Falcon (1941) as Captain Jacobi, Edge Of Darkness (1942) as Dr Martin Stensgard, Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) as Jerry Cohan, The Outlaw (1943) as Doc Holliday, Dragonwyck (1946) as Ephraim Wells and The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (1948) as Howard, a part that won him a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award.

  CAUSE: He died in Hollywood, California, the day after his 66th birthday, after suffering an aneurysm.

  FURTHER READING: The Hustons – Lawrence Grobel (London: Bloomsbury, 1990).

  Jim Hutton

  (DANA JAMES HUTTON)

  Born May 31, 1934

  Died June 2, 1979

  Talent unfulfilled. Born in Binghamton, New York, Jim Hutton looked as though he would become a modern James Stewart before ill-health tragically cut short his career. He made his film début in A Time To Love And A Time To Die (1958) as Hirschland and went on to appear in Where The Boys Are (1960) as TV Thompson, Bachelor In Paradise (1961) as Larry Delavane, Period Of Adjustment (1962) as George Haverstick, Looking For Love (1964) as Paul Davis, Major Dundee (1965) as Lieutenant Graham, The Trouble With Angels (1966) as Mr Petrie, The Green Berets (1968) as Sergeant Petersen and Psychic Killer (1975) as Arnold Masters. He was also probably the best Ellery Queen in either television or movies. His son is the actor Timothy Hutton.

  CAUSE: He died of liver cancer aged 45 in Los Angeles, California.

  Wilfred Hyde-White

  Born May 12, 1903

  Died May 6, 1991

  The Englishman abroad. Born in Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, Hyde-White was educated at Marlborough and RADA, making his film début in 1934. In a career spanning almost 70 years he appeared in innumerable plays and television shows and over 150 films including The Winslow Boy (1948), The Third Man (1949), The Browning Version (1950), Let’s Make Love (1960), My Fair Lady (1964) as Colonel Pickering and Carry On Nurse (1959) in which a daffodil is utilised as a thermometer. His son, Alex, is also an actor.

  CAUSE: He died of congestive heart failure in Palm Springs aged 87.

  I

  Thomas Ince

  Born November 6, 1882

  Died November 19, 1924

  Hollywood riddle. Born in Newport, Rhode Island, Thomas Harper Ince was born into a theatrical family and made his stage début aged six and his first appearance on Broadway nine years later. However, acting wasn’t his strong suit and he worked as a lifeguard and a promoter. In 1907 he married Eleanor Kershaw and fathered three sons, William, Thomas, Jr and Dick. In 1910 he landed a job with Biograph and found his forte as a director and producer moving to Carl Laemmle’s Independent Motion Pictures Company. Then, in 1911, he joined the New York Motion Picture Company and moved west to make Westerns. In October 1911 he created a series of sets nicknamed ‘Inceville’, where he shot whatever outdoor scenes were necessary. In 1912 he hired William Desmond Taylor to act in his film The Counterfeiter (1913). On July 20, 1915, he teamed up with D.W. Griffith and Mack Sennett to form the Triangle Motion Picture Company. They built a studio for Mabel Normand to make Mickey (1918) but their hopes of making her a big star were dashed when she signed for Samuel Goldwyn. Always looking for new talent, Ince signed Olive Thomas to star in his films. In June 1917 Ince broke with Triangle and joined Adolph Zukor but the partnership ended quickly. On November 8, 1919, Ince, Allan Dwan, Marshall Neilan, Mack Sennett, Maurice Tourneur and George Loane Tucker formed Associated Producers, an independent film company. Among Ince’s films were Sweet Memories (1911), Over The Hills (1911), Little Nell’s Tobacco (1911), In Old Madrid (1911), His Nemesis (1911), Her Darkest Hour (1911), Their First Misunderstanding (1911), The Law Of The West (1912), For Freedom Of Cuba (1912), Custer’s Last Raid (1912), The Altar Of Death (1912), The Favorite Son (1913), The Battle Of Gettysburg (1913), In Love And War (1913), Jim Cameron’s Wife (1914), Out Of The Night (1914), His Hour Of Manhood (1914), Rumpelstiltskin (1915), Matrimony (1915), Madcap Ambrose (1916), Civilization (1916), Shell 43 (1916), The Return Of Draw Egan (1916), Somewhere In France (1916), Truthful Tulliver (1916), Sawdust Ring (1917), Shark Monroe (1918), 23 Hours’ Leave (1919), Silk Hosiery (1920), Let’s Be Fashionable (1920), Lying Lips (1921), Hail The Woman (1921) and Free And Equal (1925).

  CAUSE: Ince’s death has been shrouded in mystery for years. What is certain is that he was a weekend guest aboard Oneida, the luxury 280-foot yacht of billionaire press baron William Randolph Hearst. Other guests included Hearst’s mistress Marion Davies, Charlie Chaplin, Louella Parsons, novelist Elinor Glyn and actresses Aileen Pringle and Seena Owen. On November 19, 1924, the Associated Press issued the following bulletin: “Thomas H. Ince, nationally known motion picture producer, died at 5.30 o’clock this morning at his home in the Hollywood foothills, it was announced at his Culver City studio. “Death was due to angina pectoris. He became ill on a trip to San Diego, was taken from a train at Del Mar Monday night and brought to his home here last night. The attack was sudden. He had been active in his motion picture work up to the time he was stricken …” A later wire service story added some more details that really didn’t add up. After repeating AP’s story that the death was due to “angina pectoris,” which in itself isn’t fatal – the condition is a syndrome of insufficient coronary circulation – it added, “His death ended an illness which began Monday night while he was en route to San Diego. The suddenness of the attack prompted his friends to take him from a train at Del Mar, then to hurry him to Los Angeles in a special car, during which journey he was attended by two specialists and three nurses. From Los Angeles he was taken to his Canyon home, where his wife, his two sons, and two brothers rushed to his bedside before the end came.” The bulletin posed more questions than it answered. What was Ince doing in San Diego, one hundred miles south of Hollywood, and a place that didn’t then figure prominently in film-making? If a location scene was being shot, why did it require someone as important as Ince to oversee it? Who were the mysterious “friends” Ince was travelling with? How many of them were present? Where did the “two specialists and three nurses” come from? Who were they? If Ince’s condition was serious enough to cancel the trip, why wasn’t he taken to the nearest hospital rather than endure an eighty-mile train and ten-mile car journey back to his home? On November 21, Ince was buried. The Los Angeles Times announced “MOVIE PRODUCER SHOT ON HEARST YACHT” in its first edition and then yanked the story from all subsequent editions. Then the publicists announced that Ince had already been to San Diego over the previous weekend, and had travelled not by train but aboard the yacht Oneida. The yacht dropped anchor early Saturday and left San Pedro Harbor. It arrived in San Diego early Sunday and by that time Ince was desperately ill. Despite this, no doctor was called to the vessel. The only doctor aboard was Dr Daniel Carson Goodman, a doctor of letters not medicine. Early Monday, after no improvement in his condition, Ince was brought to shore. Officially, no one explained how. From reports that circulated later, Ince was said to have been carried off the Oneida to a dinghy, then brought to shore and carried aboard the Los Angeles-bound AT&SF morning train. Still the puzzles continued. At Del Mar, 20 miles out of San Diego, Ince was in such d
iscomfort that Dr Goodman took him off the train, flagged down a passing car and again, instead of taking him to a hospital, brought him to a hotel! Goodman then telephoned a Dr T.A. Parker, of nearby La Jolla, who rushed to the hotel. Arriving, he found a shirtsleeved Ince lying in bed in the suite Goodman had thoughtfully taken for the ailing producer. Undressing Ince, Parker diagnosed heart trouble and wrote a prescription. Parker questioned Ince and later said he learned that the movie maker’s distress had been brought on by a great deal of smoking, too much eating and heavy drinking over the previous 24 hours. Still, Ince was not sent to a hospital but Parker did call a nurse, Jessie Howard, to be in attendance. According to a later statement from Parker, “I left him with instructions to Dr Goodman to let Mr Ince rest and to be given medication I prescribed. I called later that night and was told Mr Ince appeared much improved. I said I would see the patient again in the morning. But when I arrived at the hotel on Tuesday, I found a note left with the hotel clerk informing me that Mr Ince had left for home.” Ince’s inexplicable departure mystified Dr Parker. (Even more strangely, no one has been able to trace a Dr T.A. Parker of La Jolla. Did he exist? Was he an actor hired to give credibility to the coronary story?) Nurse Howard was no less bemused. She also wondered out loud what had gone on aboard the Oneida. From the sketchy description offered by the desperately ill Ince, she had every good reason to wonder. “He told me that he had drunk considerable liquor aboard the yacht. He attributed his illness to the amount of liquor he consumed. I saw myself in the hotel room how bad off he was. He was seized by a coughing spell that brought up traces of blood.” So what did happen aboard the Oneida ? One report had Charlie Chaplin firing a gun. Another had Ince being “carried off the yacht in San Diego with a gaping hole in the back of his head …” If Ince was wounded, how did the assault occur and by whom? Perhaps a clue can be found in Marion Davies’ posthumously published autobiography, The Times We Had: Life With William Randolph Hearst. “There were some men who were a bit strenuous in their pursuit of me. That happened occasionally, but the moment W.R. (Davies’ nickname for Hearst) would arrive, they’d all run for shelter. Nobody ever dared to stand up to him, and I didn’t ever give anybody encouragement. I was a jolly, happy, free catch with everybody. I’d say hello, and that was as far as it ever went.” Hearst’s friends, colleagues and enemies were aware of the high degree of possessiveness with which he held onto Marion Davies. From his wife and mistress he demanded total and absolute loyalty, love, and devotion. He also had a fierce temper. He would lose his rag under the slightest provocation. In later years Davies spoke in support of Ingrid Bergman during her scandal-plagued romance with Roberto Rossellini. The editor of Hearst’s Los Angeles Herald-Examiner cut Davies’ quotes, but they appeared in the arch-rival Los Angeles Times. It was only Davies’ intervention that saved the editor’s job. Everyone aboard the Oneida subsequently remained silent about that fateful weekend. Did Charlie Chaplin fire a shot onboard the yacht? What role, if any, did Hearst play in Ince’s demise? The public and certain sections of the press demanded an inquiry into Ince’s death. The silence from the Hearst organisation was deafening. San Diego County District Attorney Chester C. Kemply interviewed Dr Parker and nurse Howard but didn’t attempt to speak to anyone aboard the Oneida before announcing his verdict: “I am satisfied that the death of Thomas H. Ince was caused by heart failure as the result of an attack of acute indigestion. There will be no investigation into the death of Ince, at least so far as San Diego County is concerned. As there is every reason to believe that the death of Ince was due to natural causes, there is no reason why an investigation should be made.” One would have imagined that Kemply would have at least wondered why alcohol was being served aboard the Oneida, but he neatly passed the buck, stating that as the ship sailed from San Pedro the booze had been bought there as well. As for who might have fired a shot and why, there are a number of theories. One postulates that Charlie Chaplin was having a secret affair with Marion Davies and that Hearst found out. According to this version of events, on the night in question Hearst saw Marion Davies with a man and, assuming him to be Chaplin, shot him. It was only when Davies screamed that Hearst realised he had shot Ince in error. Or, Charlie Chaplin was having a secret affair with Marion Davies and when he saw Ince innocently chatting to Davies, Chaplin shot him. A third version involves a complete newcomer to the story. Marion Davies’ secretary, Abigail Kinsolving, claimed she was raped by Ince that weekend. Not long after giving birth to a child, Louise, she was killed in a mysterious car crash near Hearst’s San Simeon estate. Her body was discovered by two of Hearst’s bodyguards and a suicide note was supposedly found in the wreckage, although it was dissimilar to other samples of her writing. Did Abigail Kinsolving shoot Ince in revenge for raping her? Marion Davies discreetly paid for the child’s education and Hearst set up a trust fund for Mrs Ince.

  Jill Ireland

  Born April 24, 1936

  Died May 18, 1990

  Gutsy dame. Born in London, beautiful blonde Jill Dorothy Ireland began her showbiz career aged 15 as a Tiller Girl at the London Palladium. She was cast in two other shows when she turned 16 and at 17 she went off to Paris. Following her appearance in Oh … Rosalinda!! (1956) she was signed to a contract by Rank and met actor David McCallum. They married and their son Paul was born 13 months later. Jill appeared in There’s Always A Thursday (1957) as Jennifer Potter, Robbery Under Arms (1957) as Jean Morrison, Carry On Nurse (1958) as Jill Thompson, Girls Of The Latin Quarter (1959) as Jill, So Evil, So Young (1961), Raising The Wind (1961) as Janet, Jungle Street (1961) as Sue, Twice Round The Daffodils (1962) as Janet and The Battleaxe (1962) as Audrey Page. Two more sons Jason and Valentine arrived before she and McCallum were divorced in 1967. The following year, on October 5, she married Charles Bronson. Their daughter Zuleika (named after Max Beerbohm’s heroine) was born on August 4, 1971, in Los Angeles. She and Bronson worked in many films together – “I think I’m in so many of his pictures because no other actress would work with him,” she once joked. Her films, with and without Bronson, included: The Karate Killers (1967) as Imogen, Villa Rides (1968), Città Violenta (1970) as Vanessa, Someone Behind The Door (1971) as Frances, The Valachi Papers (1972) as Maria, The Mechanic (1972), Breakout (1975) as Ann Wagner, Hard Times (1975) as Lucy Simpson, Breakheart Pass (1975) as Marcia Scoville, From Noon Till Three (1976) as Amanda Starbuck, Love And Bullets (1979) as Jackie Pruit, Death Wish II (1982) as Geri Nichols, Assassination (1987) as Lara Royce Craig and Caught (1987) as Janet Devon.

  CAUSE: In May 1984 she was diagnosed as having breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy. She died in Malibu, California, aged 54, from cancer.

  FURTHER READING: Life Wish– Jill Ireland (London: Arrow, 1988).

  John Ireland

  Born January 30, 1914

  Died March 21, 1992

  The King’s Man. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, John Benjamin Ireland was raised in New York. He began his professional career as part of a water carnival before moving into legitimate theatre. He made his film début in the classic war epic A Walk In The Sun (1945) as Private Windy Craven. Due to his height (he was 6˝1˝), Ireland usually found himself cast as a heavy but in 1949 he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as the journalist Jack Burden in All The King’s Men. He lost to Dean Jagger for 12 O’Clock High and the following decade was not kind to Ireland. He found himself in starring roles, albeit almost exclusively in B-movies. He decided to seek his fame abroad and appeared in many Italian films with the occasional return to Tinseltown for films like Spartacus (1960) where he played Crixus. His films included: It Shouldn’t Happen To A Dog (1946) as Benny Smith, Wake Up And Dream (1946) as Howard Williams, Railroaded! (1947) as Duke Martin, I Love Trouble (1948) as Reno, Red River (1948) as Cherry Valance, I Shot Jesse James (1949) as Bob Ford, Anna Lucasta (1949) as Danny Johnson, Cargo To Capetown (1950) as Steve Conway, Little Big Horn (1951) as Lieutenant John Haywood Scarf, Red Mountain (1952)
as General John Quantrell, Hurricane Smith (1952) as Hurricane Smith, The Return Of Jesse James (1950) as Johnny Callum, Vengeance Valley (1951) as Hub Fasken, The Bushwhackers (1952) as Jefferson Waring, Combat Squad (1953) as Sergeant Fletcher, The Fast And The Furious (1954) as Frank Webster, Stormy Crossing (1957) as Griff Parker, Gunfight At The O.K. Corral (1957) as Johnny Ringo, Med Mord I Bagaget (1959) as Johnny Greco, 55 Days At Peking (1963) as Sergeant Harry, I Saw What You Did (1965) as Steve Marak, Odio Per Odio (1967) as Cooper, Fort Utah (1967) as Tom Horn, Dalle Ardenne All’Inferno (1967) as Captain O’Conner, Corri, Uomo, Corri (1968) as Santillana, Arizona Bushwhackers (1968) as Dan Shelby, Villa Rides (1968), Femmine Insaziabili (1969), Quel Caldo Maledetto Giorno Di Fuoco (1969), Lo Strangolatore Di Vienna (1971), Northeast Of Seoul (1972) as Flanaghan, The House Of Seven Corpses (1974) as Eric Hartman, Farewell, My Lovely (1975) as Lieutenant Nulty, Marilyn: The Untold Story (1980) as John Huston, Graveyard Story (1990) as Dr McGregor, Big Bad John (1990), Sundown: The Vampire In Retreat (1991) as Ethan Jefferson and Waxwork II: Lost In Time (1992) as King Arthur. Ireland married three times. His first wife was Elaine Sheldon Rosen (1940–1948). Then came Joanne Dru (1949–1956) by whom he had two sons, John and Peter. In 1962 he married Daphne Myrick Cameron and they were together until his death.