S. Henry Pincus

S. Henry Pincus was an American stage actor, theatre manager, impresario, and inventor, born into a Jewish family in Philadelphia. He died on February 25, 1915, in Houston, Texas, and was subsequently interred in Philadelphia.

Pincus built his early performing career as a touring member of Edward Askew Sothern's theatre troupe, traveling across the United States. His Broadway debut came in 1885, when he took on the role of Henry Clay Rustler in Leander Richardson's Anselma at the Madison Square Theatre.

Beyond performing, Pincus became a significant figure in American theatrical management and development. In Philadelphia, he commissioned the construction of the Winter Circus at the corner of Broad and Cherry Streets. Working alongside William J. Thompson, he established two theatres in Wilmington, Delaware, and over the course of his career he managed multiple additional theatrical venues in Philadelphia.

Pincus also pursued work as an inventor outside the theatre. His most notable invention was a pumping mechanism for gas, for which he received a patent on March 23, 1880. The reach of this device proved substantial: a report issued by the American Gas Light Association in 1898 documented that 236,622 homes were utilizing it at that time.