Twilight Edward Cullen played by Robert Pattison.  Edward Cullen was born 20 June 1901 in  Chicago, Illinois.  How did his 'vampire status' happen?  He contracted the Spanish flu in  1918, at only 17 years old (and as he says in the film to Bella, he has been 17 'for some  time') thus is literally at death's door, the only alternative to death is to be transformed into a vampire, this is done by Carlisle Cullen, his adoptive father. 

Edward's family  in the Twilight series is Carlisle and Esme Cullen along with several adopted siblings.  Could Carlisle have been following Edward's mother direction as before she died (also of the Spanish flu, as did Edward's father) she asked her physician - Dr Carlisle Cullen - to do 'everything in his power to save her son'?  The story goes that Carlisle acted on this direction, thus when Edward was near death he took Edward from the hospital to his home and changed him into a vampire.

Edward was very rebellious at the beginning of his vampire life and decided against 
'vegetarianism' and felt justified using his mind reading abilities to attack the worst 
people of society.  However, he later reformed and turned this around to adopt Carlisle's  lifestyle who used animals' blood, not humans' as their source of food.

Edward was literally the only member of his family without a mate and was known to his  family as being quite sullen, maybe even slightly depressed.  However, this all changed when he met Bella..... 

so the saga continues in New Moon - release date

20th November 2009!