Frank De Kova
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Roles are weighted by involvement: director 1.0, screenwriter 0.7, lead 0.8, supporting 0.4, crew 0.1.
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
Credits
The Ten Commandments (1956)
as Abiram
The Mechanic (1972)
as The Man
The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
as The tormentor
The Man from Laramie (1955)
as Padre
Day of the Outlaw (1959)
as Denver, Bruhn's Gang
The Lone Ranger (1956)
as Chief Red Hawk
Run of the Arrow (1957)
as Red Cloud (as Frank De Kova)
The Brothers Karamazov (1958)
as Capt. Vrublevski
The Don Is Dead (1973)
as Giunta
Atlantis: The Lost Continent (1961)
as Sonoy the Astrologer
Kiss of Death (1947)
as Con Library (uncredited)
Heavy Traffic (1973)
as Angelo "Angie" Corleone (voice)
Not One Shall Die (1957)
as Egyptian Official
Passion (1954)
as Martinez (as Frank de Kova)
Those Calloways (1964)
as Nigosh
Valley of the Kings (1954)
as Akmed Salah (uncredited)
Follow That Dream (1962)
as Jack (as Frank de Kova)
American Pop (1981)
as Crisco (voice)
Machine-Gun Kelly (1958)
as Harry
The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960)
as Syndicate Chairman
Pillars of the Sky (1956)
as Zachariah
Drum Beat (1954)
as Modoc Jim
King of the Khyber Rifles (1953)
as Ali Nur
Cowboy (1958)
as Alcaide
All the Brothers Were Valiant (1953)
as Stevenson
Santiago (1956)
as Jingo
Coonskin (1975)
as Managan (voice) / Ruby (voice) (uncredited)
Strange Lady in Town (1955)
as Anse Hatlo
Raiders of the Seven Seas (1953)
as Captain Romero
The Big Sky (1952)
as Moleface (uncredited)
Ride Out for Revenge (1957)
as Chief Yellow Wolf
Shack Out on 101 (1955)
as Prof. Claude Dillon
Frasier, the Sensuous Lion (1973)
as The Man
The Wild Country (1970)
as Two Dog
Hey Good Lookin' (1982)
as Old Vinnie (voice)
The Jayhawkers! (1959)
as Evans
Cat in the Cage (1978)
as Rachid Khan
The Sword of Ali Baba (1965)
as Old Baba
Johnny Moccasin (1956)
as Brave Scout
Arrowhead (1953)
as Chief Chattez
Teenage Cave Man (1958)
as The Black-Bearded One
Appointment with a Shadow (1957)
as Dutch Hayden
Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes (1974)
as Big Tony (as Frank deKova)
They Rode West (1954)
as Isatai
Mafia on the Bounty (1980)
as Rupolo
The Desert Song (1953)
as Mindar
Holiday for Sinners (1952)
as The Wiry Man
Apache Territory (1958)
as Lugo (as Frank deKova)
Split Second (1953)
as Dummy
Reprisal! (1956)
as Charlie Washackle
The Slams (1973)
as Capiello
Hold Back Tomorrow (1955)
as Priest
Fighter Attack (1953)
as Benedetto
The White Squaw (1956)
as Yellow Elk
Crossfire (1975)
as Albert Ambrose
Johnny Firecloud (1975)
as White Eagle
The Legend of the Boy and the Eagle (1967)
as Narrator (voice)