Frank De Kova

Frank De Kova

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: Acting
Birthday: 1910-03-17
Place of Birth: New York City, New York, USA
Also Known As: Frank DeKova

Movies List of Frank De Kova

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Kiss of Death

1947 Movie
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Heavy Traffic

1973 Movie
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The Jayhawkers!

1959 Movie
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The Ten Commandments

1956 Movie
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Hey Good Lookin'

1982 Movie
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Split Second

1953 Movie
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Holiday for Sinners

1952 Movie
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American Pop

1981 Movie
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The Slams

1973 Movie
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Crossfire

1975 Movie
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Those Calloways

1965 Movie
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Shack Out on 101

1955 Movie
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Machine-Gun Kelly

1958 Movie
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Arrowhead

1953 Movie
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Day of the Outlaw

1959 Movie
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The Sword of Ali Baba

1965 Movie
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The Man from Laramie

1955 Movie
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Johnny Firecloud

1975 Movie
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The Don Is Dead

1973 Movie
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Teenage Cave Man

1958 Movie
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The Lone Ranger

1956 Movie
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Pillars of the Sky

1956 Movie
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Drum Beat

1954 Movie
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The White Squaw

1956 Movie
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Johnny Moccasin

1956 Movie
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The Big Sky

1952 Movie
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Reprisal!

1956 Movie
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Santiago

1956 Movie
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Fighter Attack

1953 Movie
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The Desert Song

1953 Movie
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Hold Back Tomorrow

1955 Movie
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Cowboy

1958 Movie
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Cat in the Cage

1978 Movie
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Strange Lady in Town

1955 Movie
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Follow That Dream

1962 Movie
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They Rode West

1954 Movie
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Passion

1954 Movie
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Run of the Arrow

1957 Movie
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Ride Out for Revenge

1957 Movie
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Apache Territory

1958 Movie
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The Wild Country

1970 Movie
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Mafia on the Bounty

1980 Movie
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The Mechanic

1972 Movie
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Coonskin

1975 Movie
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Not One Shall Die

1957 Movie
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Valley of the Kings

1954 Movie