Luis van Rooten

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Luis van Rooten
Luisvanrootenmysterioustraveler).jpg
Luis Van Rooten on The Mysterious Traveler
Born
Luis d'Antin van Rooten

(1906-11-29)November 29, 1906
Mexico City, Mexico
DiedJune 17, 1973(1973-06-17) (aged 66)
Chatham, Massachusetts, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Pennsylvania
OccupationActor, author, translator
Years active1944–1968
Spouse(s)Catherine Gaylord Kelly
Children2[1]

Luis d'Antin van Rooten (November 29, 1906 – June 17, 1973) was a Mexican-born American actor. He was sometimes credited as Louis Van Rooten.[2]

Van Rooten was born in Mexico City, Mexico, and emigrated to the United States with his parents when he was eight, growing up in Pennsylvania. He 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.

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 Walt Disney's animated film Cinderella (1950).

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,[3] 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.[4] Van Rooten played Emilio in the radio soap opera Valiant Lady.[5] 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". Van Rooten also appeared in an uncredited role on The Honeymooners as Mr. Johnson, the landlord.

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[6] and The Floriculturist's Vade Mecum of Exotic and Recondite Plants, Shrubs and Grasses, and One Malignant Parasite [7]

Van Rooten died June 17, 1973, in Chatham, Massachusetts, where he and his family had a vacation home.

Mots D'Heures: Gousses, Rames[]

Main article: Mots D'Heures

Van Rooten is well known in particular for his book Mots D'Heures: Gousses, Rames (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":[8]

Un petit d'un petit
S'étonne aux Halles
Un petit d'un petit
Ah! Degrés te fallent

A free translation might read:

Child of a child
Astonished by Les Halles
Child of a child
Ah, you lack degrees

Filmography[]

Year Title Role Notes
1944 The Hitler Gang Heinrich Himmler
1946 Two Years Before the Mast 2nd Mate Foster
1948 To the Ends of the Earth Commissioner Alberto Berado
1948 The Big Clock Edwin Orlin
1948 Saigon Simon
1948 To the Victor Geran
1948 Beyond Glory Dr. White
1948 Night Has a Thousand Eyes Mr. Myers
1948 The Gentleman from Nowhere F.B. Barton
1949 Boston Blackie's Chinese Venture Bill Craddock
1949 City Across the River Joe Cusack
1949 Champion Harris
1949 The Secret of St. Ives Clausel
1950 Cinderella King / Grand Duke Voice
1951 Detective Story Joe Feinson
1951 My Favorite Spy Rudolf Hoenig
1952 Lydia Bailey General Charles LeClerc
1953 The Great Adventure Narrator (Anders as an adult) (U.S. version), Voice
1955 The Sea Chase Matz
1957 The Unholy Wife Ezra Benton
1958 Fräulein Fritz Graubach
1958 Curse of the Faceless Man Dr. Carlo Fiorillo
1961 Operation Eichmann Heinrich Himmler
1968 What's So Bad About Feeling Good? Dr. Fowler Uncredited, (final film role)

References[]

  1. ^ "Luis Van Rooter Actor, 66, Is Dead". Jun 20, 1973. Retrieved Aug 28, 2020 – via NYTimes.com.
  2. ^ Luis van Rooten at IMDb
  3. ^ Sies, Luther F. (2014). Encyclopedia of American Radio, 1920-1960, 2nd Edition, Volume 1. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-5149-4. P. 14.
  4. ^ Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio (Revised ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 123. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3. Retrieved 2019-10-02. Bulldog Drummond, crime drama.
  5. ^ "What Do You Want to Know?" (PDF). Radio and Television Mirror. 14 (5): 63. September 1940. Retrieved 9 March 2015.
  6. ^ van Rooten, luis; Schuman, Jacqueline (1975). Van Rooten's Book of Improbable Saints. Viking. ISBN 9780670742820. OCLC 251457174.
  7. ^ The Floriculturist's Vade Mecum of Exotic and Recondite Plants, Shrubs and Grasses, and One Malignant Parasite. Doubleday. 1973. ISBN 9780385009003. OCLC 623430.
  8. ^ (27 November 2009). "A French excursion for classic nursery rhymes" (Guardian Books Podcast). The Guardian. Retrieved 27 November 2009.

External links[]

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