Abraham Van Helsing - Film Adaptations

Film Adaptations

Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror was the first film version of Dracula. Although it followed the same basic plot as the novel, names were changed: Van Helsing is Professor Bulwer and appears only in a few scenes. Unlike the book, he is a friend of Thomas Hutter (the film's version of Jonathan Harker) before he meets Count Orlok (a renamed Count Dracula) and never meets the vampire face to face.

Peter Cushing's character in the Hammer movies may not have had the first name "Abraham" as his case reads J. Van Helsing, as seen in The Brides of Dracula. In the series of Hammer Dracula films set in the 1970s, the character of Van Helsing is named Lawrence Van Helsing and is seen in the prologue (set in 1872) of Dracula AD 1972. These movies had Dracula being resurrected in the 1970s only to meet Lawrence's grandson, Lorrimar Van Helsing, a different vampire hunter also played by Cushing. In The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires Cushing plays the original Van Helsing from the Hammer series.

Christopher Plummer portrayed Professor Abraham Van Helsing in Dracula 2000 (he had previously appeared as a rather ineffective vampire hunter, Professor Paris Catalano, in Vampire in Venice). After defeating Count Dracula (Gerard Butler), Van Helsing finds that the vampire lord cannot die in the conventional means of destroying a vampire and he only succeeded in paralysing him in a deathlike state. Knowing that Dracula would inevitably rise again, Van Helsing imprisoned the vampire beneath his Carfax Abbey estate, using leeches to dilute Dracula's blood and transfuse it into himself as a means of preserving his own life until he can find a means of destroying Dracula. This has the unintentional side-effect of creating a link between Dracula and Van Helsing's daughter, but when Dracula escapes after his coffin is stolen, Van Helsing's daughter and assistant are able to use this connection to deduce Dracula's true nature as Judas Iscariot and defeat him after Van Helsing's death.

Hugh Jackman played Gabriel Van Helsing, the eponymous hero of Van Helsing (2004), loosely based on Bram Stoker's character. Gabriel hunts monsters for a secret organization made up of the world's religions (known as the Knights of the Holy Order) to rid the world of evil "that the rest of mankind has no idea exists", although he is the most wanted man in Europe for his conspicuous actions. In the movie he is sent to Transylvania to kill Count Dracula. When he arrives, Dracula tells Gabriel that they have already met and have quite a history together. It is implied that Gabriel is actually the angel Gabriel, with vague references referring to Dracula's murderer as the "Left Hand of God".

Notable actors to have portrayed Van Helsing in film adaptations of Dracula include:

• John Gottowt (as Professor Bulwer) in Nosferatu (1922)
• Edward Van Sloan in Dracula (1931) and Dracula's Daughter (1936) (where the character was renamed "Von Helsing" without explanation)
• Eduardo Arozamena in Dracula (1931, Spanish version)
• Peter Cushing in the Hammer Films Dracula series (1958–1974)
• Herbert Lom in Count Dracula (1969)
• Ota Sklencka in Hrabe Drakula (1971)
• Nigel Davenport in Dracula (1973)
• Jack Palance in Bram Stoker's Dracula, Dracula (original title) (1974)
• Frank Finlay in the BBC adaptation Count Dracula (1977)
• Laurence Olivier in Dracula (1979)
• Walter Ladengast in Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
• Richard Benjamin in Love at First Bite (1979)
• Jack Gwillim in The Monster Squad (1987)
• Anthony Hopkins in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
• Peter Fonda in Nadja (1994)
• Mel Brooks in the parody Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)
• Christopher Plummer in Dracula 2000 (2000)
• Giancarlo Giannini (as Enrico Valenzi) in Dracula (2002)
• David Moroni in Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary (2002)
• Hugh Jackman (as Gabriel Van Helsing) in Van Helsing (2004)
• Casper Van Dien in Dracula 3000 (2004)
• David Suchet in Dracula (2006)
• David Carradine in The Last Sect (2006)