{{short description|American actor}} {{More citations needed |date=January 2022}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2019}} {{Infobox person | name = Wally Van | image = Wally Van, silent film actor (SAYRE 10515).jpg | birth_name = Charles Wallace Van Nostrand | birth_date = {{birth date|1880|9|27}} | birth_place = New Hyde Park, New York | death_date = {{death date and age|1974|5|9|1880|9|27}} | death_place = Englewood, New Jersey | occupation = Actor<br>Film director | yearsactive = 1913–25 | spouse = Anitra MacTavish }}
'''Wally Van''' (born '''Charles Wallace Van Nostrand'''; September 27, 1880 – May 9, 1974) was an American actor and film director of the silent era.
== Early years == Van was born Charles Wallace Van Nostrand on September 27, 1880, in New Hyde Park, New York.<ref name=p/> His Dutch ancestors settled in New York in 1638.<ref name="mh" /> His father, Charles A. Van Nostrand, worked in the United States Customs Office, Van had two sisters and a brother.<ref>{{cite news |title=Obituary: Charles A. Van Nostrand |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91869414/times-union/ |access-date=January 5, 2022 |work=Times Union |date=August 18, 1909 |location=New York, Brooklyn |page=10|via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> After being educated in Brooklyn's public schools, he graduated from the School of Sciences in New York City.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Real 'Wally Van' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91868299/wally-van/ |access-date=January 5, 2022 |work=Arkansas Democrat |date=May 2, 1914 |location=Arkansas, Little Rock |page=4|via = Newspapers.com}}</ref>
Friends in college began calling him Wally Van.<ref name="mpm">{{cite journal |title=Wally Van |journal=Motion Picture Magazine |date=August 1915 |volume=X |issue=7 |page=110 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JBIXAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA110e |access-date=January 4, 2022}}</ref> He graduated from a technical school as a civil engineer, but later he sold leather goods, then worked as an electrical engineer.<ref name="p" /> As an engineer, he worked for the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company.<ref name="mpm" /> A job maintaining engines of speedboats owned by the president of Vitagraph Studios provided an opening for him to get into films.<ref name="p">{{cite journal |title=Wally Van |journal=Photoplay Magazine |date=November 1914 |url=https://archive.org/details/PhotoplayMagazineNov.1914/page/n20/mode/1up?view=theater |access-date=January 4, 2022}}</ref> His engineering background also helped him to design improvements for cameras at Vitagraph.<ref name="mh">{{cite news |last1=Muir |first1=Helen |title=Very Truly Yours |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91866633/the-miami-herald/ |access-date=January 4, 2022 |work=The Miami Herald |date=May 1, 1941 |page=11|via = Newspapers.com}}</ref>
== Film career == J. Stuart Blackton, founder of Vitagraph, saw Van as a natural comedian and put him in a starring role in his film debut in 1910. For 14 years thereafter, Van directed and starred in films and often wrote for them. For five years, Van was director general for the Hallmark Company, "a producing firm with 26 exchanges throughout the country".<ref name="mh" />
Van appeared in 75 films between 1913 and 1925. He also directed 42 films between 1914 and 1925.
In April 1941, Van announced establishment of Royal Palms Productions in Miami, Florida, with himself as president. The company had plans to build a studio but began production in the existing duPont Building.<ref>{{cite news |title=New Movie Studio Is Announced Here |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91868751/wally-van/ |access-date=January 5, 2022 |work=The Miami Herald |date=April 23, 1941 |page=18|via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> By September 1941 he had completed the comedy ''Important Business'', described as "a Wally-Van 'Featurette'".<ref name="mn">{{cite news |last1=Manning |first1=Maybelle |title=Talk Of The Tower |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91870293/wally-van/ |access-date=January 5, 2022 |work=The Miami News |date=September 15, 1941 |page=7|via = Newspapers.com}}</ref>
== Personal life and death == Van was married to Anitra MacTavish, an actress in musical comedies.<ref name="mh" /> He died in Englewood, New Jersey.
==Selected filmography== * ''Our Wives'' (1913) * ''The Scarlet Runner'' (1916) * ''The Evil Eye'' (1920) * ''East Side - West Side'' (1923) * ''The Common Law'' (1923) * ''Slave of Desire'' (1923) * ''The Drivin' Fool'' (1923) * ''Rough Going'' (1925) * ''Barriers Burned Away'' (1925)
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{commons category|Wally Van}} *{{IMDb name|0888428|Wally Van}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van, Wally}} Category:1880 births Category:1974 deaths Category:American male film actors Category:American male silent film actors Category:Film directors from New York (state) Category:People from New Hyde Park, New York Category:20th-century American male actors