Years active 1944-68 Name Luis Rooten | Role Film actor Books Mots d'Heures | |
 | ||
Full Name Luis d'Antin van Rooten Born November 29, 1906 ( 1906-11-29 ) Mexico City, Mexico Alma mater University of Pennsylvania Occupation actor, author, translator Died June 17, 1973, Chatham, Massachusetts, United States Education University of Pennsylvania TV shows The Joe Palooka Story, Major Dell Conway of the Flying Tigers, One Man's Family Movies Cinderella, Curse of the Faceless, Champion, The Sea Chase, My Favorite Spy Similar People Don Barclay, Wilfred Jackson, Clyde Geronimi, Winston Hibler, Hamilton Luske | ||
Four Star Playhouse S02E12 The Room... with Raymond Burr
Luis van Rooten, (November 29, 1906 – June 17, 1973) was a Mexican-born, American film actor. He was christened Luis d'Antin van Rooten.
Contents
- Four Star Playhouse S02E12 The Room with Raymond Burr
- The Most Incredible Challenge
- Film work
- Radio broadway and television
- Books
- Mots DHeures Gousses Rmes
- Filmography
- References
Van Rooten earned his BA at the University of Pennsylvania and worked as an architect before deciding to pursue film work in Hollywood during World War II. His facility with languages made van Rooten an in-demand military radio announcer during the war, and he conducted a variety of broadcasts in Italian, Spanish, and French. This led into film work, often in roles requiring an accent or skill with dialects.
The Most Incredible Challenge
Film work
Known for his villainous roles, he played Nazi ringleader Heinrich Himmler in The Hitler Gang (1944) and Operation Eichmann (1961). He played supporting roles with a number of film stars, including Alan Ladd in Two Years Before the Mast (1946) and Beyond Glory (1948), Charles Laughton in The Big Clock (1948), Veronica Lake in Saigon (1948), Edward G. Robinson in Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948), and Kirk Douglas in Detective Story (1951). He provided the voices for both the King and the Grand Duke in Disney's animated Cinderella.
Radio, broadway and television
Van Rooten found steady work doing narration in addition to acting in live television and radio dramas, such as The Affairs of Peter Salem, The Mysterious Traveler and I Love a Mystery, particularly as "The Maestro" in the 1949 story "Bury Your Dead, Arizona" and as ranch foreman "Jasper" in the 1950 story "The Battle of the Century". He portrayed the evil Roxor in the late 1940s revival of the radio serial Chandu the Magician and portrayed the title character's sidekick, Denny, in Bulldog Drummond. Van Rooten played Emilio in the radio soap opera Valiant Lady. He also performed on Broadway in Eugene O'Neill's A Touch of the Poet (1958) and John Osborne's Luther (1963). In 1958 he guest-starred as murderer Samuel D. Carlin in the Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the One-Eyed Witness."
Books
He is best known for his character work in films, but van Rooten was also a skilled artist and designer and the author of several sophisticated books of humor. These include Van Rooten's Book of Improbable Saints and The Floriculturist's Vade Mecum of Exotic and Recondite Plants, Shrubs and Grasses, and One Malignant Parasite
Van Rooten died June 17, 1973, in Chatham, Massachusetts, where he and his family had a vacation home.
Mots D'Heures: Gousses, Râmes
Van Rooten is well known in particular for his book Mots D'Heures: Gousses, Râmes (1967), ostensibly a collection of poems by an obscure and unsung Frenchman (with translations and commentary). Van Rooten used French words and phrases which, when spoken aloud with a French accent, produce English Mother Goose rhymes, a work of homophonic translation. The following example, when spoken aloud, sounds like the opening lines to "Humpty Dumpty":
Un petit d'un petitS'étonne aux HallesUn petit d'un petitAh! Degrés te fallentA free translation might read:
Child of a childAstonished by Les HallesChild of a childAh, you lack degrees