Edward Van Sloan was an American film character actor best remembered for his roles in Universal Studios horror films.

Career

Van Sloan's roles date from the 1930s, including Dracula

Dracula (1931 film)

Dracula is a 1931 vampire-horror film directed by Tod Browning and starring Bela Lugosi as the title character. The film was produced by Universal and is based on the stage play of the same name by Hamilton Deane and John L...

(1931), Frankenstein

Frankenstein (1931 film)

Frankenstein is a 1931 Pre-Code Horror Monster film from Universal Pictures directed by James Whale and adapted from the play by Peggy Webling which in turn is based on the novel of the same name by Mary Shelley. The film stars Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, John Boles and Boris Karloff, and features...

(1931) and The Mummy

The Mummy (1932 film)

The Mummy is a 1932 horror film from Universal Studios directed by Karl Freund and starring Boris Karloff as a revived ancient Egyptian priest. The movie also features Zita Johann, David Manners and Edward Van Sloan...

(1932). In the first of these, he played Abraham Van Helsing

Abraham Van Helsing

Professor Abraham van Helsing is a protagonist from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula.Van Helsing is a Dutch doctor with a wide range of interests and accomplishments, partly attested by the string of letters that follows his name: "M.D., D.Ph., D.Litt., etc." The character is best known as a...

, the famous vampire

Vampire

Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...

-hunter, a role he had first taken in the successful touring production of Dracula

Dracula (play)

Dracula is a 1924 stage play adapted by Hamilton Deane from the novel of the same name by Bram Stoker, and substantially revised by John L. Balderston in 1927...

by Hamilton Deane

Hamilton Deane

Hamilton Deane was an Irish actor, playwright and director. He played a key role in popularising Bram Stoker's Dracula as a stage play and, later, a film.-Life:Deane was born in Clontarf, a suburb of Dublin...

 and John L. Balderston

John L. Balderston

John L. Balderston was an American playwright and screenwriter best known for his horror and fantasy scripts....

. He played essentially the same role, this time as Dr. Muller, in The Mummy. He again played Van Helsing (inexplicably renamed 'Von Helsing') in the 1936 film Dracula's Daughter

Dracula's Daughter

Dracula's Daughter is a 1936 American vampire horror film produced by Universal Studios, a sequel to the 1931 film Dracula. Directed by Lambert Hillyer from a screenplay by Garrett Fort, the film stars Otto Kruger, Gloria Holden, Marguerite Churchill and, as the only cast member to return from the...

. In Frankenstein, he stepped in front of a curtain before the film's opening credits

Opening credits

In a motion picture, television program, or video game, the opening credits are shown at the very beginning and list the most important members of the production. They are now usually shown as text superimposed on a blank screen or static pictures, or sometimes on top of action in the show. There...

 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 had a style of playing horror roles that was unmistakably his, speaking his lines in a slow, exaggerated style of elocution with rolling r 's. His grave is located in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania

Blue Bell, Pennsylvania

Blue Bell is a census-designated place in Whitpain Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, its population was 6,067....

's Boehm Cemetery.

External links