Frank De Kova

Frank De Kova

Birthday: 1910-03-17

Deathday: 1981-10-15

Place of birth: New York City, New York, USA

Also known as: Frank DeKova

imdb_id: nm0215308

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.

Played in movies:

The Ten Commandments

Score: 7.8

Reprisal!

Score: 7.2

The Man from Laramie

Score: 7.2

Kiss of Death

Score: 7.0

American Pop

Score: 6.9

Day of the Outlaw

Score: 6.8

The Mechanic

Score: 6.7

The White Squaw

Score: 6.6

The Brothers Karamazov

Score: 6.6

The Desert Song

Score: 6.5

The Big Sky

Score: 6.5

Apache Territory

Score: 6.4

The Slams

Score: 6.4

The Greatest Story Ever Told

Score: 6.4

Cowboy

Score: 6.4

They Rode West

Score: 6.4

Heavy Traffic

Score: 6.3

Hold Back Tomorrow

Score: 6.3

Those Calloways

Score: 6.3

Run of the Arrow

Score: 6.2

Follow That Dream

Score: 6.2

Split Second

Score: 6.2

The Lone Ranger

Score: 6.1

The Jayhawkers!

Score: 6.0

Coonskin

Score: 6.0

The Wild Country

Score: 6.0

Drum Beat

Score: 6.0

The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond

Score: 6.0

The Don Is Dead

Score: 5.9

All the Brothers Were Valiant

Score: 5.9

Arrowhead

Score: 5.9

Shack Out on 101

Score: 5.9

The Sword of Ali Baba

Score: 5.8

Raiders of the Seven Seas

Score: 5.7

Frasier, the Sensuous Lion

Score: 5.7

King of the Khyber Rifles

Score: 5.7

Machine-Gun Kelly

Score: 5.7

Hey Good Lookin'

Score: 5.6

Ride Out for Revenge

Score: 5.5

Pillars of the Sky

Score: 5.5

Holiday for Sinners

Score: 5.5

Johnny Firecloud

Score: 5.4

Appointment with a Shadow

Score: 5.4

Santiago

Score: 5.3

Passion

Score: 5.2

Atlantis: The Lost Continent

Score: 5.2

Valley of the Kings

Score: 4.8

Strange Lady in Town

Score: 4.5

Fighter Attack

Score: 4.5

Teenage Cave Man

Score: 3.9

Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes

Score: 3.9

Cat in the Cage

Score: 2.8

Mafia on the Bounty

Score: 1.0

Not One Shall Die

Score: 0.0

The Legend of the Boy and the Eagle

Score: 0.0

Johnny Moccasin

Score: 0.0

Crossfire

Score: 0.0

Played in tv shows:

The Islanders

Score: 8.0

Little House on the Prairie

Score: 7.9

The Untouchables

Score: 7.8

The Untouchables

Score: 7.8

The Untouchables

Score: 7.8

The Untouchables

Score: 7.8

The Untouchables

Score: 7.8

The Untouchables

Score: 7.8

Toma

Score: 7.8

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Score: 7.7

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Score: 7.7

The Rockford Files

Score: 7.6

The Incredible Hulk

Score: 7.2

The Third Man

Score: 7.1

The Third Man

Score: 7.1

Rawhide

Score: 7.1

Hawaii Five-O

Score: 7.1

The Rifleman

Score: 7.0

The Rifleman

Score: 7.0

The Lawless Years

Score: 7.0

The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin

Score: 6.9

Police Story

Score: 6.9

Daniel Boone

Score: 6.9

Daniel Boone

Score: 6.9

Maverick

Score: 6.8

77 Sunset Strip

Score: 6.7

77 Sunset Strip

Score: 6.7

77 Sunset Strip

Score: 6.7

Gunsmoke

Score: 6.6

Gunsmoke

Score: 6.6

Gunsmoke

Score: 6.6

Peter Gunn

Score: 6.5

The High Chaparral

Score: 6.5

Cannon

Score: 6.5

Baretta

Score: 6.4

Thriller

Score: 6.4

Laramie

Score: 6.4

Laramie

Score: 6.4

Wagon Train

Score: 6.3

Wagon Train

Score: 6.3

Wagon Train

Score: 6.3

Wagon Train

Score: 6.3

The Tall Man

Score: 6.3

Run, Joe, Run

Score: 6.3

Route 66

Score: 6.3

Police Woman

Score: 6.3

Police Woman

Score: 6.3

The Deputy

Score: 6.2

Outlaws

Score: 6.2

F Troop

Score: 6.2

F Troop

Score: 6.2

The Swiss Family Robinson

Score: 6.2

Love, American Style

Score: 6.1

Martin Kane, Private Eye

Score: 6.0

Black Saddle

Score: 6.0

The Gallant Men

Score: 6.0

Cheyenne

Score: 5.8

Cheyenne

Score: 5.8

Cheyenne

Score: 5.8

Cheyenne

Score: 5.8

Cheyenne

Score: 5.8

Cheyenne

Score: 5.8

The Dakotas

Score: 5.7

Lawman

Score: 5.6

The Detectives

Score: 5.6

Ben Casey

Score: 5.6

Johnny Staccato

Score: 5.6

The Alaskans

Score: 5.5

The F.B.I.

Score: 5.5

The F.B.I.

Score: 5.5

Kraft Suspense Theatre

Score: 5.3

Hawaiian Eye

Score: 5.2

The Rebel

Score: 5.1

The Greatest Show on Earth

Score: 5.0

The Walter Winchell File

Score: 5.0

Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers

Score: 5.0

Surfside 6

Score: 5.0

Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans

Score: 4.8

The Troubleshooters

Score: 0.0

The Roaring 20's

Score: 0.0