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