After performing in his first silent motion picture in 1920, he appeared in a handful of "talkies" in the 1930s, playing mainly character roles such as doctors, judges and a police commissioner.
William Ingersoll was born in Lafayette, Indiana to a physician father, in a family that had never produced any actors; most of his relatives were shocked when, as a boy, he considered acting as a career, on the suggestion of his elder brother.
[3] In the beginning, he divided his time between acting and supporting the company as a backstage hand and general utility man, eventually making his first professional appearance as a fully fledged actor in 1885.
[1] He performed with Marie Wainwright in Twelfth Night at Palmer's Theatre in New York and went on tour with her for three seasons; she rated Ingersoll as "the best leading man on the American stage.
He acted in many roles as a visiting star in Columbus, Cincinnati,[3] at the Elitch Theatre in Denver, Colorado,[8] and in Washington, D.C., Providence, Rhode Island, Richmond, Virginia, Salt Lake City,[2] and on Broadway, among many others.