Luis van Rooten
| Luis van Rooten | |
|---|---|
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Luis Van Rooten on The Mysterious Traveler
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| Born |
Luis d'Antin van Rooten November 29, 1906 Mexico City, Mexico |
| Died | June 17, 1973 (aged 66) Chatham, Massachusetts, United States |
| Alma mater | University of Pennsylvania |
| Occupation | Actor, author, translator |
| Years active | 1944–1968 |
Luis van Rooten, (November 29, 1906 – June 17, 1973) was a Mexican-born, American film actor. He was christened Luis d'Antin van Rooten.
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.
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.
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."
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