Education and early work He was born to Colonel Henry Torrence Thayson and Jessie (née Bryce) 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 (1901),
Little Hans Andersen (1903) and
The Talk of the Town (1905) 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. He also created the role of the painter Andrew McMurray in
Victor Herbert's
The Only Girl (1914).
Film career '' (1923) Torrence played the despicable adversary Luke Hatburn in ''
Tol'able David (1921) opposite Richard Barthelmess and immediately settled into films for the rest of his career and life. He played a veteran pioneer in the acclaimed classic western The Covered Wagon (1923), and gained attention from his roles in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) as Clopin, king of the beggars, and with Betty Bronson in Peter Pan (1924) 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'' (1924). In an offbeat bit of casting he paired up with
Clara Bow in
Mantrap (1926), 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 (1927) (as Peter) and
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) 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 (1931) with
Gary Cooper and
Lili Damita. He was able to play a notable nemesis,
Dr. Moriarty, to
Clive Brook's Sherlock in
Sherlock Holmes (1932) in one of his last roles. Filming for
I Cover the Waterfront (1933), 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. ==Partial filmography==