Luis van Rooten

• Name — Luis d'Antin van Rooten • Birth Name — Luis d'Antin van Rooten • Born — 29 November 1906 • Birthplace — Mexico City, Mexico • Died — 17 June 1973 • Place of death — Chatham, Massachusetts, U.S. • Education — University of Pennsylvania • Occupation — Actor, author, architect, painter, translator • Years Active — 1938–1968 • Spouse — Catherine Gaylord Kelly • Children — 2

Van Rooten was born on November 29, 1906 in Mexico City, Mexico. His father worked as a translator and clerk at the American Embassy. Some sources say his father was killed during the Mexican Revolution. In 1914, when he was 8, Van Rooten emigrated to the United States with his Belgian grandmother. Because he had no papers, his grandmother claimed van Rooten was her son, which resulted in the elongation of his name to Luis Ricardo Carlos Fernand d’Antin y Zuloaga van Rooten.

Van Rooten attended a boarding school in Pennsylvania and earned his BA in architecture at the University of Pennsylvania in 1927. He enjoyed a successful career as an architect in Cleveland, Ohio before his love for acting led to a career as one of radio and television's most prolific character actors and narrators.

Van Rooten found steady work doing the narration in addition to acting in films, live television and radio dramas. One of his first film narration jobs was Industrial Ohio, a 1938 film in the SOHIO Let's Explore Ohio series. He acted in The Mysterious Traveler and, during the New York run of I Love a Mystery, played "The Maestro" in the 1949 story "Bury Your Dead, Arizona" and 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. In "Joey Was Different," the August 22, 1949 edition of Radio City Playhouse, he played sixteen different characters in addition to writing the script. Van Rooten performed on Broadway in Eugene O'Neill's A Touch of the Poet (1958) and John Osborne's Luther (1963). He worked on television, playing the fictional French detective Maigret in a 1952 episode of the anthology series Suspense. 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.

Van Rooten is well known for his book Mots d'Heures: Gousses, Rames: The d'Antin Manuscript (1967), a collection of poems, ostensibly written 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": Un petit d'un petit S'étonne aux Halles Un petit d'un petit Ah! Degrés te fallent The above lines translated into English: Child of a child Astonished by Les Halles Child of a child Ah, you lack degrees

Van Rooten died June 17, 1973, in Chatham, Massachusetts in the retirement home he had designed himself.

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1938 — Industrial Ohio #1 — Narrator — A copy of the film is online in the Hagley Library Cinécraft Productions collection • 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 • The Big Clock — Edwin Orlin • Saigon — Simon • To the Victor — Geran • Beyond Glory — Dr. White • Night Has a Thousand Eyes — Mr. Myers • The Gentleman from Nowhere — F.B. Barton • 1949 — Boston Blackie's Chinese Venture — Bill Craddock • Heavenly Puss — Gatekeeper Cooper — Voice • City Across the River — Joe Cusack • Champion — Harris • The Secret of St. Ives — Clausel • 1950 — Cinderella — King / Grand Duke — Voices • 1951 — Detective Story — Joe Feinson • 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 • Studio One — Lutz — Season 8 Episode 9: "The Judge and His Hangman" • 1957 — The Unholy Wife — Ezra Benton • 1958 — Alfred Hitchcock Presents — Leon — Season 3 Episode 22: "The Return of the Hero" • Fräulein — Fritz Graubach • 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)