Biography
Frank DeKova parlayed a sinister scowl, piercing eyes and an all-around menacing attitude into a long career of playing cold-blooded trigger-men, rampaging Indian chiefs, brutal Mexican army officers and the like. So it would probably come as a shock to those who know his work to discover that, before he became an actor, he was--of all things--a schoolteacher.
Born in New York in 1910, DeKova gave up teaching for the stage, and played in many Shakespearean productions before getting work on Broadway. One of his first starring roles was in the classic detective play "Detective Story", which got him noticed and brought to Hollywood. He debuted in Viva Zapata! (1952) as the devious Mexican colonel who sets up Zapata's assassination. For the next several years he played an assortment of gangsters, killers, gunfighters and Indians--with time out to play a prehistoric patriarch in Roger Corman's campy Teenage Cave Man (1958)--and did much television work, including a standout job as a Mafia hit-man assigned to kill Elliot Ness in Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse: The Untouchables: Part 1 (1959). The role for which he will be most remembered, however, is probably the one that was his most atypical: the scheming, somewhat untrustworthy but very funny Hekawi Chief Wild Eagle, the partner to Forrest Tucker's Sgt. O'Rourke in O'Rourke's various schemes to make money, in the western comedy series F Troop (1965). He showed a previously unknown talent for comedy and managed to steal most of the scenes he was in from such veterans as Tucker and Larry Storch. He died in his sleep in 1981.
Filmography
all 106
Movies 56
TV Shows 50
self 4
Voice 3
Narrator 1
Hey Good Lookin' (1982)
American Pop (1981)
Mafia on the Bounty (1980)
Cat in the Cage (1978)
The Incredible Hulk (1977)
The Swiss Family Robinson (1975)
Coonskin (1975)
Johnny Firecloud (1975)
Crossfire (1975)
Baretta (1975)
Jive Turkey (1974)
The Rockford Files (1974)
Police Woman (1974)
Little House on the Prairie (1974)
Run, Joe, Run (1974)
The Don Is Dead (1973)
The Slams (1973)
Heavy Traffic (1973)
Toma (1973)
Police Story (1973)
The Mechanic (1972)
Cannon (1971)
The Wild Country (1970)
Hawaii Five-O (1968)
The High Chaparral (1967)
The Legend of the Boy and the Eagle (1967)
The F.B.I. (1965)
F Troop (1965)
The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
The Sword of Ali Baba (1965)
Those Calloways (1965)
Daniel Boone (1964)
Kraft Suspense Theatre (1963)
The Greatest Show on Earth (1963)
The Dakotas (1963)
The Gallant Men (1962)
Follow That Dream (1962)
Ben Casey (1961)
Atlantis: The Lost Continent (1961)
The Roaring 20's (1960)
Route 66 (1960)
Surfside 6 (1960)
The Islanders (1960)
Outlaws (1960)
Thriller (1960)
The Tall Man (1960)
The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960)
The Detectives (1959)
The Untouchables (1959)
The Jayhawkers! (1959)
Hawaiian Eye (1959)
The Alaskans (1959)
The Rebel (1959)
The Third Man (1959)
Laramie (1959)
Johnny Staccato (1959)
Day of the Outlaw (1959)
The Lawless Years (1959)
Black Saddle (1959)
Rawhide (1959)
77 Sunset Strip (1958)
The Rifleman (1958)
Peter Gunn (1958)
Apache Territory (1958)
Teenage Cave Man (1958)
Machine-Gun Kelly (1958)
The Brothers Karamazov (1958)
Cowboy (1958)
Ride Out for Revenge (1957)
The Walter Winchell File (1957)
Maverick (1957)
Wagon Train (1957)
Run of the Arrow (1957)
Appointment with a Shadow (1957)
Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans (1957)
Not One Shall Die (1957)
Reprisal! (1956)
The White Squaw (1956)
Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers (1956)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Pillars of the Sky (1956)
Santiago (1956)
Johnny Moccasin (1956)
The Lone Ranger (1956)
Shack Out on 101 (1955)
Hold Back Tomorrow (1955)
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955)
Cheyenne (1955)
Gunsmoke (1955)
The Man from Laramie (1955)
Strange Lady in Town (1955)
They Rode West (1954)
Drum Beat (1954)
The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (1954)
Passion (1954)
King of the Khyber Rifles (1953)
Fighter Attack (1953)
All the Brothers Were Valiant (1953)
Arrowhead (1953)
The Desert Song (1953)
Raiders of the Seven Seas (1953)
Split Second (1953)
The Big Sky (1952)
Holiday for Sinners (1952)
Viva Zapata! (1952)
Kiss of Death (1947)
Ratings
Information
Known ForActing
GenderMale
Birthday1910-03-17
Deathday1981-10-15 (71 years old)
Birth PlaceNew York City, United States of America
CitizenshipsUnited States of America
Also Known AsFrank DeKova
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