Ed Dahlen

Born Jakob Edvard Mossestad in Sogn og Fjordane, Norway, Edward Dahlen was the youngest son of Andrew Ollson Mossestad and his first wife Olina. The family emigrated to the United States in 1891 when Edward was two years old, settling in Forest City, Iowa where his father worked as a veterinary surgeon. When Edward's mother died in 1894, he was adopted by Ole and Jane Dahlen, an older couple in Mount Valley, Iowa. In 1908, Edward attended Waldorf College in Forest City, Iowa, where he went by the name of Ed Mosestad, but by 1910 he took his adopted family's surname and from that time on was known as Edward Dahlen. After college Dahlen took a job as a cook on the Northern Pacific Railway, then moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota where he worked as a collector. By 1920 Ed Dahlen had settled in Los Angeles where pursued an acting career. Dahlen made a living as an extra in motion pictures, and may have been a more colorful character off camera than on. On February 18, 1932 (which happened to