He did perform with his brother Joseph at church and social functions and briefly one summer made an appearance on a vaudeville stage in a child act.

His parents had hoped he would pursue a career in medicine, but instead as a young man, Tinney found work as a chief lifeguard at Atlantic City, fire engine driver and undertaker’s assistant.

Tinney played himself as the central character in Tickle Me, a popular musical comedy that had a long run on Broadway and in subsequent tours between August 1919 and April 1922.

He later appeared in the 1933 Cecil B. DeMille film This Day and Age, along with the namesake sons of actors Eric von Stroheim, Wallace Reid, Bryant Washburn, Carlyle Blackwell, Neal Hart and Fred Kohler.

[17][18] On the night of May 29, 1924, Tinney was arrested at his home in Baldwin, Long Island and later transferred to Manhattan to face charges of brutally assaulting Ziegfeld Follies dancer Imogene Wilson.

Earlier, Wilson had appeared before New York City Magistrate Thomas McAndrews covered in bruises, claiming Tinney had attacked her after discovering her alone in her apartment with a newspaper reporter.

Despite the physical evidence, a month later a grand jury refused to indict Tinney, apparently agreeing with his lawyer’s assessment that the incident was nothing more than a publicity stunt by Wilson.

[19] She eventually followed Tinney to London, where the two resumed their abusive affair until Wilson was lured away with an offer to perform in German motion pictures.

Tinney had served as a captain with the Army Quartermaster Corps during World War I and was accorded a military funeral at Holy Cross Cemetery, Yeadon, Pennsylvania.