Tarryk wrote:If you mean the character "Van Helsing"... He is the "original" Vampire Hunter from the old tales. I can't remember his exact place of origin, but I think it may have been in the first edition of the original "Dracula" story.
Yep. Van Helsing first appeared Bram Stoker's Dracula (the 1897 novel, not the 1992 movie), Chapter 9.
From the book (when Dr. Seward writes about calling on Van Helsing to help "cure" Lucy Westerna, which is futile since the big D himself lunched on her a few nights before):
"I am in doubt, and so have done the best thing I know of. I have written to my old friend and master, Professor Van Helsing, of Amsterdam, who knows as much about obscure diseases as any one in the world. I have asked him to come over, and as you told me that all things were to be at your charge, I have mentioned to him who you are and your relations to Miss Westenra. This, my dear fellow, is in obedience to your wishes, for I am only too proud and happy to do anything I can for her.
"Van Helsing would, I know, do anything for me for a personal reason, so no matter on what ground he comes, we must accept his wishes. He is a seemingly arbitrary man, this is because he knows what he is talking about better than any one else. He is a philosopher and a metaphysician, and one of the most advanced scientists of his day, and he has, I believe, an absolutely open mind. This, with an iron nerve, a temper of the ice-brook, and indomitable resolution, self-command, and toleration exalted from virtues to blessings, and the kindliest and truest heart that beats, these form his equipment for the noble work that he is doing for mankind, work both in theory and practice, for his views are as wide as his all-embracing sympathy. I tell you these facts that you may know why I have such confidence in him. I have asked him to come at once. I shall see Miss Westenra tomorrow again. She is to meet me at the Stores, so that I may not alarm her mother by too early a repetition of my call.
He wasn't a vampire hunter at all in the book, but was a physician and scientist who, by circumstance, became a vampire hunter along with everyone else that was trying to snuff Drac. Hollywood sort of made him into
the vampire hunter over the years.
And now we have Hugh Jackman looking an awful lot like
Vampire Hunter D... hmm...