Mexican-born American screen and stage actor known for his villainous roles, having played Nazi ringleader Heinrich Himmler in the films 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. 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. He also performed on Broadway in Eugene O’Neill’s A Touch of the Poet (1958) and John Osborne’s Luther (1963).
While 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 humour. These include Van Rooten’s Book of Improbable Saints (1975) and The Floriculturist’s Vade Mecum of Exotic and Recondite Plants, Shrubs and Grasses, and One Malignant Parasite (1973).
Van Rooten died on 17 June 1973, aged 68, in Chatham, Massachusetts, where he and his family had a vacation home.
Link to Wikipedia biography