Edward Van Sloan

Career

Van Sloan's roles date from the 1930s, including Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931) and The Mummy (1932). In the first of these, he played Abraham Van Helsing, the famous vampire-hunter, a role he had first taken in the successful touring production of Dracula by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston. He played essentially the same role, this time as Dr. Muller, an occultist, in The Mummy. He again played Van Helsing in the 1936 film Dracula's Daughter. In Frankenstein, he played the character of Dr. Waldman, but he also stepped in front of a curtain before the film's opening credits to warn audience members that they now had a chance to escape the theatre if they were too squeamish to endure the film.

Personal life

Van Sloan (father: Martin Van Sloun) was born of German stock in New Trier, Minnesota, on November 1, 1882. His widowed mother, Mrs. Theresa (Breher) Van Sloun, settled in San Francisco where young Edward resided with his siblings (artist Frank J., Mary D., Leonora M., Alma K.,Josephine) and mother as he launched his acting career in theaters. In 1911, while employed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he married Myra Jackson, with whom he had one child, Paul (born Feb 21, 1911, Pennsylvania). During the 1920s, Van Sloan appeared in several plays at the 48th Street Theater in Broadway including the 1924 stage adaptation of Dracula before accepting an offer in late 1930 for a part in the acclaimed Tod Browning-directed screen production. Van Sloan had a style of playing horror roles that was unmistakably his, speaking his lines in a slow, exaggerated style of elocution with rolling Rs.