He was the man you loved to hiss. This towering (6' 4"), highly imposing  character star with cold, hollow, beady eyes and a huge, protruding  snout would go on to become one of the silent screen's finest arch  villains. Born Ernest Thayson Torrence-Thompson on June 26, 1878, in  Edinburgh, Scotland, he was, unlikely enough, an exceptional pianist and  operatic baritone. A graduate of 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) and "The Talk of the Town" (1905) before  serious vocal problems set in. Both Ernest and his actor brother David Torrence  came to America directly from Scotland prior to WWI. Focusing instead  on a purely acting career, both brothers developed into seasoned players  on the New York stage. Ernest made his Broadway bow with "Modest  Suzanne" in 1912 and a standout role in "The Night Boat" in 1920 brought  him to the attention of Hollywood filmmakers.

He earned superb marks playing the despicable adversary Luke Hatburn in Tol'able David (1921) opposite Richard Barthelmess,  and immediately settled into films for the rest of his career. Adept at  both comedy and drama, Ernest avoided what could have been a damaging  stereotype with his sympathetic portrayal of a grizzled old codger in  the classic western The Covered Wagon (1923). He further bolstered his celebrity with plum, lip-smacking roles alongside Lon Chaney in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) as Clopin, king of the beggars, and Betty Bronson in Peter Pan (1924) as the dastardly Captain Hook. In an offbeat bit of casting he paired up with Clara Bow in Mantrap (1926) as a gentle, bear-like backwoodsman in search of a wife, and participated in other silent classics such as The King of Kings (1927) (as Peter) and Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) as Buster Keaton's steamboat captain Dad.

Despite  his celluloid villainy, Ernest was known as a courtly and cultivated  gentleman in private. He made the transition into talking films intact  and was able to play a marvelous nemesis, Dr. Moriarty, to Clive Brooks ' Sherlock Holmes (1932) before his untimely death. Ernest died following his filming as a smuggler in I Cover the Waterfront (1933) starring Claudette Colbert  in New York on May 15,1933, at the relatively young age of 54. It seems  that while en route to Europe by ship, Torrence suffered an acute  attack of gall stones and was rushed back to a New York hospital. He  died of complications following surgery. Looking and usually playing  much older than he was, Hollywood lost a marvelously talented and robust  character player who had dozens of films ahead of him.