Edward Van Sloan

Van Sloan was of Dutch and German descent and was born in New Trier, Minnesota, on November 1, 1882 the son of Martinus Van Sloun and Theresa (née Breher) Van Sloun. He was living in San Francisco by 1900 with his aunt Mary (née Breher) Baumann and her daughter Alma. His mother settled in San Francisco, where young Edward resided with his siblings (the artist Frank J., Mary D., Leonora M., Alma K., Josephine) and mother as he launched his acting career in theaters. In 1910, he acted in Pinero, in Montreal, Canada, where he married the leading lady Myra Jackson, with whom he had one child, Paul (born February 21, 1911, in 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 (at age 48) for a part in the acclaimed Tod Browning-directed screen production of Dracula. He died in 1964 at age 81.

Van Sloan's roles in Universal's films date from the 1930s, including Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), and The Mummy (1932). In the first of these, he played Professor 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, and 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.