Person
Frank De Kova
New York City, New York, USA
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 M…
IMDbKnown for
Popular titles
Biography
A closer look
Read full 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.
Filmography
Movies and shows, newest first
-
1982
Hey Good Lookin'
Movie Old Vinnie (voice)
-
1981
American Pop
Movie Crisco (voice)
-
1980
Mafia on the Bounty
Movie Rupolo
-
1978
Cat in the Cage
Movie Rachid Khan
-
1977
The Incredible Hulk
TV show
-
1975
The Swiss Family Robinson
TV show
-
1975
Coonskin
Movie Managan (voice) / Ruby (voice) (uncredited)
-
1975
Johnny Firecloud
Movie White Eagle
-
1975
Crossfire
Movie Albert Ambrose
-
1975
Baretta
TV show
-
1974
Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes
Movie Big Tony (as Frank deKova)
-
1974
The Rockford Files
TV show Nova
-
1974
Police Woman
TV show Vito Angelo
-
1974
Little House on the Prairie
TV show Chief Kilowatt
-
1974
Run, Joe, Run
TV show
-
1973
The Don Is Dead
Movie Giunta
More credits
-
1973
Toma
TV show
-
1973
The Slams
Movie Capiello
-
1973
Heavy Traffic
Movie Angelo "Angie" Corleone (voice)
-
1973
Frasier, the Sensuous Lion
Movie The Man
-
1973
Police Story
TV show
-
1972
The Mechanic
Movie The Man
-
1971
Cannon
TV show
-
1970
The Wild Country
Movie Two Dog
-
1969
Love, American Style
TV show
-
1969
Hawaii Five-O
TV show Phil Kalama
-
1968
It Takes a Thief
TV show Gen. Tashkov
-
1967
The High Chaparral
TV show Aguirre
-
1967
The Legend of the Boy and the Eagle
Movie Narrator (voice)
-
1965
The F.B.I.
TV show Faber
-
1965
F Troop
TV show Chief Wild Eagle
-
1965
The Greatest Story Ever Told
Movie The tormentor
-
1965
The Sword of Ali Baba
Movie Old Baba
-
1964
Those Calloways
Movie Nigosh
-
1964
Daniel Boone
TV show Talakum
-
1963
Kraft Suspense Theatre
TV show Edward
-
1963
The Greatest Show on Earth
TV show Joseph
-
1963
The Dakotas
TV show
-
1962
The Gallant Men
TV show
-
1962
Follow That Dream
Movie Jack (as Frank de Kova)
