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Frank DeKova
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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.
Info
- wc Gender: Male
- calendar_month Birth Date: 1910-03-17
- event Death Date 1981-10-15
- school Known for: Acting
- star Popularity: 5.3
- info Birth Place New York City, New York, USA
- visibility Views: 4 views
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star User Ratings:
image Images
smart_display Movies and TV shows by Frank De Kova
6.4
The Greatest Story Ever Told
1965-04-09
7
Kiss of Death
1947-08-27
6.4
Heavy Traffic
1973-08-08
5.9
The Jayhawkers!
1959-10-15
7.8
The Ten Commandments
1956-10-05
5.7
Hey Good Lookin'
1982-10-01
6.2
Split Second
1953-05-02
5.5
Holiday for Sinners
1952-07-25
5.2
Atlantis: The Lost Continent
1961-05-03
6.8
American Pop
1981-02-13
6.2
The Slams
1973-09-26
0
Crossfire
1975-03-24
6.2
Those Calloways
1965-01-28
5.9
The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond
1960-02-03
5.9
Shack Out on 101
1955-12-04
5.7
Machine-Gun Kelly
1958-05-01
6.6
The Brothers Karamazov
1958-02-20
5.9
Arrowhead
1953-08-03
6.9
Day of the Outlaw
1959-07-01
5.4
Appointment with a Shadow
1957-09-01
5.8
The Sword of Ali Baba
1965-04-01
5.7
King of the Khyber Rifles
1953-12-23
7.2
The Man from Laramie
1955-08-19
3.9
Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes
1974-11-01
5.4
Johnny Firecloud
1975-08-01
5.9
The Don Is Dead
1973-11-14
5.7
Raiders of the Seven Seas
1953-05-27
3.9
Teenage Cave Man
1958-07-01
6.1
The Lone Ranger
1956-02-25
5.5
Pillars of the Sky
1956-09-14
6.1
Drum Beat
1954-11-10
6.4
The White Squaw
1956-11-01
0
Johnny Moccasin
1956-06-06
6.5
The Big Sky
1952-08-19
7.2
Reprisal!
1956-11-02
5.1
Santiago
1956-07-13
4.5
Fighter Attack
1953-11-29
6.5
The Desert Song
1953-05-30
5.9
All the Brothers Were Valiant
1953-11-13
6.3
Hold Back Tomorrow
1955-11-01
6.4
Cowboy
1958-01-23
2.5
Cat in the Cage
1978-08-02
4.5
Strange Lady in Town
1955-04-12
6.2
Follow That Dream
1962-04-11
6.3
They Rode West
1954-12-04
5.2
Passion
1954-10-06
5.5
Ride Out for Revenge
1957-10-31
6.2
Run of the Arrow
1957-09-05
6.4
Apache Territory
1958-09-01
6
The Wild Country
1970-12-16
1
Mafia on the Bounty
1980-03-07
6.7
The Mechanic
1972-10-06
0
The Legend of the Boy and the Eagle
1967-06-21
6
Coonskin
1975-08-20
0
Not One Shall Die
1957-01-01
4.8
Valley of the Kings
1954-07-21
6
The Gallant Men
1962-10-05
6.7
77 Sunset Strip
1958-10-10
5.8
Cheyenne
1955-09-20
7.2
The Incredible Hulk
1977-11-04
6.1
F Troop
1965-09-14
8
Little House on the Prairie
1974-09-11
5.3
Kraft Suspense Theatre
1963-10-10
5.6
The F.B.I.
1965-09-19
7.1
Hawaii Five-O
1968-09-20
6.4
Route 66
1960-10-07
6.3
Baretta
1975-01-17
5
Surfside 6
1960-10-06
6.6
Gunsmoke
1955-09-10
6.5
Cannon
1971-09-14
8
The Islanders
1960-10-02
5.6
Johnny Staccato
1959-09-10
6.2
Run, Joe, Run
1974-09-07
6.3
The Tall Man
1960-09-10
6.4
The Swiss Family Robinson
1975-09-14
7.8
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
1955-10-02
5
The Greatest Show on Earth
1963-09-17
6.2
Outlaws
1960-09-26
7
The Lawless Years
1959-04-16
7.2
Rawhide
1959-01-09
6.3
Police Woman
1974-09-13
6.9
Daniel Boone
1964-09-24
7.1
Police Story
1973-03-20
6.5
The High Chaparral
1967-09-10
6.4
Thriller
1960-09-13
6.5
Peter Gunn
1958-09-22
6.9
The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin
1954-10-15
5.5
The Alaskans
1959-10-04
4.8
Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans
1957-04-03
6
Black Saddle
1959-01-10
5.3
The Rebel
1959-10-04
5.7
The Dakotas
1963-01-07
7.1
The Rifleman
1958-09-30
5.7
Ben Casey
1961-10-02
6.4
Laramie
1959-09-15
7.8
Toma
1973-03-21
5
Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers
1956-10-21
5.6
The Detectives
1959-10-16
0
The Roaring 20's
1960-10-15
6.8
Maverick
1957-09-22
5.8
Cheyenne
1955-09-20
6.4
Wagon Train
1957-09-18
7.9
The Untouchables
1959-10-15
5.2
Hawaiian Eye
1959-10-07
7.9
The Untouchables
1959-10-15
7.9
The Untouchables
1959-10-15
6.1
F Troop
1965-09-14
5.6
The F.B.I.
1965-09-19
6.6
Gunsmoke
1955-09-10
5.8
Cheyenne
1955-09-20
6.6
Gunsmoke
1955-09-10
5
The Walter Winchell File
1957-10-02
6.9
Daniel Boone
1964-09-24
6.7
The Third Man
1959-10-02
7.8
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
1955-10-02
7.9
The Untouchables
1959-10-15
7.5
The Rockford Files
1974-09-13
6.4
Wagon Train
1957-09-18
6.4
Wagon Train
1957-09-18
6.7
77 Sunset Strip
1958-10-10
6.7
77 Sunset Strip
1958-10-10
5
Martin Kane, Private Eye
1949-09-01
7.1
The Rifleman
1958-09-30
6.2
The Deputy
1959-09-12
7.9
The Untouchables
1959-10-15
5.8
Cheyenne
1955-09-20
7.9
The Untouchables
1959-10-15
6.3
Police Woman
1974-09-13
6
Love, American Style
1969-09-29