Photo of Frank De Kova
Acting

Frank De Kova

Profession
Acting
Born
March 17, 1910 · New York City, New York, USA
Died
October 15, 1981

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.

Known for

The Ten Commandments poster
The Ten Commandments
Film · 1956 · ★ 7.8
Little House on the Prairie poster
Little House on the Prairie
Series · 1974 · ★ 8.0
The Incredible Hulk poster
The Incredible Hulk
Series · 1977 · ★ 7.2
The Mechanic poster
The Mechanic
Film · 1972 · ★ 6.7
The Man from Laramie poster
The Man from Laramie
Film · 1955 · ★ 7.1
Alfred Hitchcock Presents poster
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Series · 1955 · ★ 7.8
The Greatest Story Ever Told poster
The Greatest Story Ever Told
Film · 1965 · ★ 6.4
Kiss of Death poster
Kiss of Death
Film · 1947 · ★ 7.1
Hawaii Five-O poster
Hawaii Five-O
Series · 1969 · ★ 7.2
Coonskin poster
Coonskin
Film · 1975 · ★ 6.1
The Untouchables poster
The Untouchables
Series · 1959 · ★ 8.0
The Rockford Files poster
The Rockford Files
Series · 1974 · ★ 7.6

Filmography