Rex Ingram

• Name — Rex Ingram • Birth Name — Reginald Ingram Montgomery Hitchcock • Born — 15 January 1893 • Birthplace — Dublin, Ireland • Died — 21 July 1950 • Place of death — North Hollywood, California, U.S. • Other Names — Rex Hitchcock • Years Active — 1913–1933 • Known for — Broken Fetters (1916) The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) Scaramouche (1923) The Magician (1926) The Three Passions (1929) • Education — Yale University • Employer — Edison Studios Fox Film Corporation Vitagraph Studios MGM Metro Pictures Gaumont British • Occupation — Film director, producer, writer and actor • Relatives — Francis Clere Hitchcock (brother) • Honors — Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1651 Vine Street

Born 15 January 1893 in 58 Grosvenor Square, Rathmines, Dublin, Ireland, (where a plaque commemorates his birth), Ingram was educated at Saint Columba's College, near Rathfarnham, County Dublin. He spent much of his adolescence living in the Old Rectory, Kinnitty, Birr, County Offaly, where his father, Reverend Francis Hitchcock, was the Church of Ireland rector. Ingram emigrated to the United States in 1911. His brother Francis joined the British Army and fought during World War I, during which he was awarded the Military Cross.

Ingram studied sculpture at the Yale University School of Art, where he contributed to campus humour magazine The Yale Record. He soon moved into film, first taking acting work in 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 Studios, Fox Film Corporation, Vitagraph Studios, and then MGM, directing mainly action or supernatural films. He moved to Metro in 1920, where he was under the supervision of executive June Mathis. Mathis and Ingram would go on to make four films together: Hearts Are Trumps, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Conquering Power, and Turn to the Right. It is believed the two were romantically involved. Ingram and Mathis had begun to grow distant when her new find, Rudolph Valentino, began to overshadow Ingram's own fame. Their relationship ended when Ingram eloped with Alice Terry in 1921. • Illustration — Ingram at work with Ralph Lewis, Rudolph Valentino, and his wife, Alice Terry, on the set of The Conquering Power Ingram married twice, first to actress Doris Pawn in 1917; this ended in divorce in 1920. He then married Alice Terry in 1921, with whom he remained for the rest of his life. Both marriages were childless. He and Terry relocated to the French Riviera in 1923. They formed a small studio in Nice and made several films on location in North Africa, Spain, and Italy, for MGM and others. Among those who worked for Ingram at MGM on the Riviera during this period was the young Michael Powell, who later directed (with Emeric Pressburger) The Red Shoes and other classics, and technician Leonti Planskoy. By Powell's own account, Ingram was a major influence on him, especially in regard to the themes of illusion, dreaming, magic and the surreal. David Lean said he was indebted to Ingram. MGM studio chief Dore Schary listed the top creative people in Hollywood as D. W. Griffith, Ingram, Cecil B. DeMille and Erich von Stroheim (in declining order of importance). • Illustration — Ingram working on the set of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Carlos Clarens writes: "As Rex Ingram's films became more esoteric, his career declined. The coming of sound forced him to relinquish his studios in Nice. Rather than equip them for talking pictures, he chose instead to travel and pursue a writing career." Ingram made only one sound film: Baroud, filmed for Gaumont British Pictures in Morocco. The film was not a commercial success; he then left the movie business, returning to Los Angeles to work as a sculptor and writer. Ingram converted to Islam in 1933, having been interested in the religion since as early as 1927. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1651 Vine Street.

Ingram died of a cerebral hemorrhage in North Hollywood on 21 July 1950, aged 58. He was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

• Year — Films — Credit — Notes • 1914 — The Symphony of Souls — Director — Survival status unknown, one-reel Short film • 1915 — The Song of Hate — Scenario — Lost Film • 1916 — The Great Problem — Director, Scenario — Extant at MoMA • 1916 — Broken Fetters — Director, Scenario — Lost Film • 1916 — The Chalice of Sorrow — Director, Scenario — Extant at UCLA and Filmarchiv Austria • 1917 — Black Orchids — Director, Scenario — Lost Film • 1917 — The Little Terror — Director, Scenario — Lost Film • 1917 — The Reward of the Faithless — Director, Scenario (with E. Magnus Ingleton) — Survival status unknown • 1917 — The Pulse of Life — Director, Scenario (with E. Magnus Ingleton) — Lost Film • 1917 — The Flower of Doom — Director, Scenario — Extant at UCLA and Eastman House • 1918 — His Robe of Honor — Director — Lost Film • 1918 — Humdrum Brown — Director — Extant in part (more than one reel) at Eastman House • 1919 — The Day She Paid — Director — Lost Film • 1920 — Shore Acres — Director — Lost Film • 1920 — Under Crimson Skies — Director — Lost Film • 1920 — Hearts Are Trumps — Director — Lost Film • 1921 — The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse — Director, Producer — Extant, preserved by the Library of Congress • 1921 — The Conquering Power — Director, Producer — Extant • 1922 — The Prisoner of Zenda — Director, Producer — Extant • 1922 — Trifling Women — Director, Scenario, Producer — Lost Film • 1922 — Turn to the Right — Director — Extant at Eastman House • 1923 — Scaramouche — Director, Producer — Extant • 1923 — Where the Pavement Ends — Director, Scenario — Lost Film • 1924 — The Arab — Director, Scenario — Extant at Gosfilmofond and at Cinematek • 1926 — Mare Nostrum — Director, Producer — Extant • 1926 — The Magician — Director, Scenario, Producer — Extant • 1927 — The Garden of Allah — Director, Producer — Extant in part • 1928 — The Three Passions — Director, Screenwriter, Producer — Extant, First Sound Film • 1932 — Baroud — Director, Screenwriter (with Peter Spencer,Benno Vigny, and André Jaeger-Schmidt, Producer, Actor — Extant, Final Film