Fay Tincher

• Name — Fay Tincher • Born — 17 April 1884 • Birthplace — Topeka, Kansas, U.S. • Died — 11 October 1983 • Place of death — Brooklyn, New York, U.S. • Occupation — Actress • Years Active — 1908–1930 • Era — Silent era

Tincher was born in Topeka, Kansas, and was the daughter of George Tincher and Elizabeth Tincher. She had three sisters, Mary, Ruth, and Julia. Her father was mayor of Topeka and the state printer. As a child, she studied dance, elocution, and music. During her teenage years, she went to a dramatic school in Chicago and participated in light opera performances.

Although Tincher planned to perform in dramas, she ended up in comedy and later went into vaudeville, performing in Europe and in the United States. Tincher began her career on stage. In 1908, she was touring in California with The Merry Go Round Company. In August of that year she may have married fellow actor, Ned Buckley, on a dare. He was a Yale graduate and a resident of Bridgeport, Connecticut. She visited her lawyer at the New York Life Insurance Building at 112-114 Broadway (Manhattan). She asked him to obtain a divorce if he learned that she was truly wed. While performing on the Keith-Albee-Orpheum vaudeville circuit, Tincher was approached by a man who commented about her resemblance to actress Mabel Normand. She did not know Normand because she had never seen a movie in 1913. The agent gave her his card and said he wanted the director D.W. Griffith to see her. The following day she came calling at Biograph Studios. In her first role, Griffith cast her in the role of a vamp. Within three weeks she began to play comedy, at first slapstick, and later comedy drama.

Tincher inherited $25,000 from the bequest of the will of Mrs. Julian Dick, who died from inhaling illuminating gas on December 22, 1930. Dick's residence was at 116 East 36th Street in New York City. Her husband, Captain Dick, was a member of the New York Cotton Exchange. He had been accidentally shot to death by a friend in 1922.

In May 1915, Tincher won a bathing suit contest at Venice Beach, California, winning a first prize of $50. She wore a costume that resembled her famous "typewriter dress", which she wore in movies. A crowd of approximately 75,000 attended the procession. In 1918, she roomed with scenario writer, Maie B. Havey, in a small bungalow. Tincher liked working in the fine art of vitreous enamel. On October 11, 1983, Fay Tincher died in Brooklyn, New York at the age of 99. She is buried in an unmarked grave at Silver Mount Cemetery on Staten Island.

• The Battle of the Sexes (1914) • The Quicksands (1914) • Home, Sweet Home (1914) • Nell's Eugenic Wedding (1914) • The Escape (1914) • Sunshine Dad (1916) • Rowdy Ann (1919) • Excitement (1924) • The Reckless Age (1924)