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