Thomas Ince
Wikimedia Commons
After making more than 800 films, filmmaker Thomas Ince was known as the “Father of the Western.” He was reported to have died from heart failure in 1924 at the age of 44, but many suspect that’s not the whole story.
The initially reported story is that Ince was aboard media tycoon William Randolph Hearst’s yacht when he became gravely ill. Ince’s wife, son, and doctor all confirmed that heart disease was the culprit.
Even so, rumors began to spread. Many suggested that Hearst had shot Ince in the head — mistaking him for Charlie Chaplin, who was also on the ship and had supposedly engaged in some scandalous activities with Hearst’s mistress — and then covered it all up in the newspapers that he owned.
There was no physical evidence to back up the murder claims, but the story remains a hotly debated piece of old Hollywood lore to this day.
