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