‏Ed Dahlen‏
Ed dahlen

Edward Dahlen was born as Jakob Edvard Mossestad in Indre Holmedal, (Gaular), Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. He was the son of Andrew Ollson Mossestad and his first wife Olina Andrina Stevald. He emigrated to the United States with his parents and four older siblings in 1891 and the family settled in Forest City, Iowa. In 1894, Edward's mother died, and his father gave all of the children that he had with his first wife up for adoption, each going to a different family. Edward went to the family of an older couple, Ole Larson Dahlen and his wife Jane. In 1908, Edward attended Waldorf College in Forest City where he went by the name of Ed Mosestad, but by 1910 he took his adopted family's surname and went by J. Edward Dahlen. After college Edward took a job as a cook on the Northern Pacific Railway, then moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota where he worked as a collector before settling in Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.