Rex Ingram (January 15, 1892 – July 21, 1950) was a
film directorA film director, or filmmaker is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Some also consider a film producer to be a filmmaker....
, producer, writer and actor. Legendary director
Erich von StroheimErich von Stroheim was an Austrian-born star of the silent film age, lauded for his directorial work in which he was a proto-auteur. As an actor, he is noted for his arrogant Teutonic character parts which led him to be described as "not a character actor, but what a character!"...
once called him "the world's greatest director."
Born
Reginald Ingram Montgomery Hitchcock in
DublinDublin is the largest city and capital of Ireland. It is officially known in Irish as Baile Átha Cliath or Áth Cliath ; the English name comes from the Irish Dubh Linn meaning "black pool". It is located near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and at the...
,
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
, the son of a
clergyClergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. The term ultimately comes from the Greek κλῆρος - klēros, "a lot", "that which is assigned by lot" or metaphorically, "inheritence"....
man. He was educated at Saint Columba's College, near Rathfarnam, County Dublin. He spent most of his adolescent life living in the Old Rectory, Kinnity,
BirrBirr is a town in County Offaly, Ireland. Once called Parsonstown, after the Parsons family who were local landowners and hereditary Earls of Rosse, Birr is situated at the meeting of the Camcor and Little Brosna rivers...
,
County OffalyCounty Offaly is one of the traditional counties of Ireland and is located within the province of Leinster. It was named after the of Kingdom of Uí Failghe. Offaly is the 18th largest of Ireland’s 32 counties in area and 23rd largest in terms of population...
where his father was the
Church of IrelandThe Church of Ireland is a Christian church, an autonomous province of the Episcopal/Anglican Communion, operating across the island of Ireland, and the largest non-Roman Catholic religious body on the island...
rector.
Rex Ingram (January 15, 1892 – July 21, 1950) was a
film directorA film director, or filmmaker is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Some also consider a film producer to be a filmmaker....
, producer, writer and actor. Legendary director
Erich von StroheimErich von Stroheim was an Austrian-born star of the silent film age, lauded for his directorial work in which he was a proto-auteur. As an actor, he is noted for his arrogant Teutonic character parts which led him to be described as "not a character actor, but what a character!"...
once called him "the world's greatest director."
Born
Reginald Ingram Montgomery Hitchcock in
DublinDublin is the largest city and capital of Ireland. It is officially known in Irish as Baile Átha Cliath or Áth Cliath ; the English name comes from the Irish Dubh Linn meaning "black pool". It is located near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and at the...
,
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
, the son of a
clergyClergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. The term ultimately comes from the Greek κλῆρος - klēros, "a lot", "that which is assigned by lot" or metaphorically, "inheritence"....
man. He was educated at Saint Columba's College, near Rathfarnam, County Dublin. He spent most of his adolescent life living in the Old Rectory, Kinnity,
BirrBirr is a town in County Offaly, Ireland. Once called Parsonstown, after the Parsons family who were local landowners and hereditary Earls of Rosse, Birr is situated at the meeting of the Camcor and Little Brosna rivers...
,
County OffalyCounty Offaly is one of the traditional counties of Ireland and is located within the province of Leinster. It was named after the of Kingdom of Uí Failghe. Offaly is the 18th largest of Ireland’s 32 counties in area and 23rd largest in terms of population...
where his father was the
Church of IrelandThe Church of Ireland is a Christian church, an autonomous province of the Episcopal/Anglican Communion, operating across the island of Ireland, and the largest non-Roman Catholic religious body on the island...
rector. He emigrated to the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1911. His brother
Francis Clere HitchcockColonel Francis Clere Hitchcock MC wrote Stand To—A Diary of the Trenches 1915-1918 about the activities of the second Leinster Regiment of the British Army in World War I....
went on to join the British army and fought during World War I where he was awarded the
Military CrossThe Military Cross is the third level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
and rose to the rank of Colonel.
Ingram studied sculpture at the
Yale University School of ArtYale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Yale has produced many notable alumni, including five...
, but soon moved into film, first taking acting work from 1913 and then writing, producing and directing. His first work as producer-director was in 1916 on the romantic drama
The Great Problem. He worked for
Edison StudiosEdison Studios was an American motion picture production company owned by the Edison Company of inventor Thomas Edison. The studio made close to 1,200 films as the Edison Manufacturing Company and Thomas A. Edison, Inc. until the studio's closing in 1918...
, Fox Film Corporation,
Vitagraph StudiosAmerican Vitagraph was a United States movie studio, founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 and bought by Warner Brothers in 1925.-History:...
, and then MGM, directing mainly action or supernatural films. In 1920 he moved to Metro, where he was under supervision of executive
June MathisJune Mathis was an American screenwriter and one of the highest paid Hollywood executives in the 1920s. Mathis was the first female executive for Metro/MGM and at only 35, she was the highest paid executive in Hollywood. In 1926 she was voted the third most influential woman in Hollywood, behind...
. Mathis and Ingram would go on to make 4 films together, "Hearts are Trump", "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse", "The Conquering Power", and "Turn to the Right". It is believed the two held a romantic relationship which ended when Ingram eloped with Alice Terry in 1921. Ingram and Mathis had begun to grow distant when her new find,
Rudolph ValentinoRudolph Valentino was an Italian actor, sex symbol, and early pop icon. Known as the "Latin Lover", he was one of the most popular stars of the 1920s, and one of the most recognized stars from the silent film era. He is best known for his work in The Sheik and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse...
began to overshadow his own fame.
He married twice, first to actress
Doris PawnDoris Pawn was an American actress who appeared in films of the silent era.-Early life:Pawn was born and raised in Norfolk, Nebraska. She was the third Nebraskan woman to make a name for herself as an actress. Previously, Mrs...
in 1917; this ended in divorce in 1920. He then married
Alice TerryAlice Terry was an American film actress who began her career during the silent film era, appearing in thirty-nine films between 1916 and 1933.-Career:...
in 1921 with whom he remained for the rest of his life. In 1925, Ingram and
Fred NibloFred Niblo was an American pioneer film actor, director and producer.He was born Frederick Liedtke in York, Nebraska to a French mother and a father who had served as a captain in the American Civil War and was wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg...
directed the hugely successful epic
Ben-HurBen-Hur is a 1925 silent film directed by Fred Niblo. It was a blockbuster hit for newly merged Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. This was the second film based on the novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace....
, filming parts of it in
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
. He and his wife decided to move to the
French RivieraThe Côte d'Azur, often known in English as the French Riviera, is the Mediterranean coastline of the south eastern corner of France, extending from Menton near the Italian border in the east to either Hyères or Cassis in the west....
. They formed a small studio in
NiceNice is a city in southern France located on the Mediterranean coast, between Marseille, France, and Genoa, Italy, with 347 060 inhabitants in the 2006 estimate...
and made several films on location in
North AfricaNorth Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the UN definition of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia,Mauritania, and...
,
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
, and Italy for MGM and others.
Amongst others to work for Ingram at MGM on the Riviera during this period was the young
Michael PowellMichael Latham Powell was a British film director, born in Bekesbourne, Kent, England who was renowned for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger...
, who later went on to direct (with
Emeric PressburgerEmeric Pressburger was an Oscar-winning Hungarian/British screenwriter, film director, and producer. He is known for his series of collaborations with Michael Powell.-Biography:...
)
The Red ShoesThe Red Shoes is a British feature film about ballet, written, directed and produced by the team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, known collectively as The Archers...
and other classics. By Powell's own account, Ingram was a major influence on him. Indeed Ingram's influence on Powell's later work can be detected, especially in its themes in illusion, dreaming, magic and the surreal.
David LeanSir David Lean was an English filmmaker, producer, screenwriter and editor, best remembered for big-screen epics such as Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai,Doctor Zhivago,...
also admitted he was deeply indebted to Ingram, and MGM studio chief
Dore ScharyIsidore 'Dore' Schary was an American motion picture director, writer, and producer, and playwright.Graduate of Central High School, Newark, New Jersey, Class of 1923....
once listed the top creative people in Hollywood as
D. W. GriffithDavid Llewelyn Wark Griffith was a premier pioneering Academy Award-winning American film director. He is best known as the director of the controversial and groundbreaking 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the subsequent film Intolerance .-Early life:Griffith was born in La Grange, Kentucky to...
, Rex Ingram,
Cecil B. DeMilleCecil Blount DeMille was a legendary American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies.-Early life:...
, and Erich von Stroheim (in declining order of importance).
Unimpressed with sound, Rex Ingram made only one talkie,
Baroud, filmed for
Gaumont British PicturesGaumont Film Company is a French film production company founded in 1895 by the engineer-turned-inventor, Léon Gaumont . It is the oldest running film company in the world. Originally dealing in photographic apparatuses, the company began producing short films in 1897 to promote its make of...
in
MoroccoMorocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 32 million and an area just under . Its capital is Rabat, and its largest city is Casablanca. Morocco has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the...
. The film was a not a commercial success and Ingram left the film business, returning to
Los AngelesLos Angeles is the largest city in the state of California and the second largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California...
to work as a sculptor and writer. Interested in
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
as early as 1927, he converted to the faith in 1933.
Rex Ingram's films were considered by many contemporary directors to be artistic and skillful, with an imaginative and bold visual style. In 1949, the
Directors Guild of AmericaDirectors Guild of America is the labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry...
bestowed an Honorary Life Membership on him. For his contribution to the motion picture industry he has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of FameThe Hollywood Walk of Fame is a sidewalk along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA, that serves as an entertainment museum...
at 1651 Vine Street.
He also wrote two novels,
Mars in the House of Death and
The Legion Advances.
Rex Ingram died in 1950 and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in
Glendale, CaliforniaGlendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It lies at the eastern end of the San Fernando Valley, is bisected by the Verdugo Mountains, and is a suburb in the Greater Los Angeles Area...
.
Filmography
- The Great Problem (1916)
- Broken Fetters
Broken Fetters was a 1916 American silent short comedy written and directed by Rex Ingram. Violet Mersereau played the lead role-Cast:*Kittens Reichert as Mignon, as a child*Violet Mersereau as Mignon, grown up*Charles Francis as Kong Hee...
(1916)
- Chalice of Sorrow (1916)
- Black Orchids (1917)
- The Reward of Life (1917)
- The Flower of Doom (1917)
- His Robe of Honour (1917)
- Humdrum Brown (1917)
- The Day She Paid (1919)
- Shore Acres (1920)
- Under Crimson Skies (1920)
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921)
- The Conquering Power (1921)
- Hearts are Trumps (1921)
- The Prisoner of Zenda
The Prisoner of Zenda is a 1922 silent adventure film, one of the many adaptations of Anthony Hope's popular 1894 novel of the same name and the subsequent 1896 play by Hope and Edward Rose.-Plot:...
(1922)
- Trifling Women (1922)
- Turn to the Right (1922)
- Scaramouche
Scaramouche is a 1923 film based on the novel Scaramouche. Metro Film Production.It was directed by Rex Ingram and stars Ramón Novarro along with Alice Terry, Lewis Stone, and Lloyd Ingraham....
(1923)
- Where the Pavement Ends (1923)
- The Arab
The Arab is a 1924 film starring Ramon Novarro and Alice Terry, written and directed by Rex Ingram, based on a Edgar Selwyn play. The movie was filmed in North Africa just before the MGM merger, and edited under the new regime. Ingram reacted the supervision of studio bosses Mayer and Thalberg...
(1924)
- Mare Nostrum
Mare Nostrum is a silent film set during World War I. It was the first production made in voluntary exile by Rex Ingram.-Production:...
(1926)
- The Magician
The Magician is a 1926 horror film directed by Rex Ingram about a magician's efforts to acquire the blood of a virgin for his experiments to create life.It was adapted by Ingram from the novel The Magician by W. Somerset Maugham...
(1926)
- The Garden of Allah
The Garden of Allah is a 1927 film directed by Rex Ingram and starring his wife, actress Alice Terry. It was the second version of the Robert Hichens novel, that had been filmed in 1916 and would be filmed again in 1936 with Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer...
(1927)
- The Three Passions (1929)
- Baroud (1932)