Tom Terriss’ life seems to have been much more passionate than his work. Son of two famous actors, he was born in London on September 28th, 1872. He studied at Oxford and then took to the sea as a marine. He became a gold prospector in Colorado and then an animal breeder in Australia. Only on his return to London did he become an actor. He arrived in the United States with a theater company that performed Dickens adaptations. In 1914, Herbert Blaché hired him to act in a film version of The Chimes. In that same year he was leading actor as well as script writer for The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which he produced together with Blaché. In 1915 he became his own producer and opened a studio in Yonkers, nearby New York. In 1917 he was hired by Vitagraph to direct Alice Joyce’s films. After a stint with Paramount and one film for Metro Goldwyn, he worked only with small companies. In 1928 he ended his career as a director with two films for Tiffany-Stahl: Clothes Make the Woman and The Naughty Duchess.

Jean-Marie Buchet