Edward Van Sloan Movies and Career Information

Edward Van Sloan (November 1, 1882, Minnesota – March 6, 1964, California) was an American film character actor best remembered for his roles in Universal Studios horror films. 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 as Professor Muller in the The Mummy. He again played Van Helsing (inexplicably renamed 'Von Helsing') in the 1936 film Dracula's Daughter. In Frankenstein he stepped out in front of a curtain before the film's opening credits to warn the audience that they now had a chance to escape the theatre if they were too squeamish. 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's Boehm Cemetery.