Frank De Kova
Acting • Born 1910-03-17 – Died 1981-10-15
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
141 credits
The Greatest Story Ever Told
Movie • 1965
The tormentor
Kiss of Death
Movie • 1947
Con Library (uncredited)
Heavy Traffic
Movie • 1973
Angelo "Angie" Corleone (voice)
The Jayhawkers!
Movie • 1959
Evans
The Ten Commandments
Movie • 1956
Abiram
Hey Good Lookin'
Movie • 1982
Old Vinnie (voice)
Split Second
Movie • 1953
Dummy
Holiday for Sinners
Movie • 1952
The Wiry Man
Atlantis: The Lost Continent
Movie • 1961
Sonoy the Astrologer
American Pop
Movie • 1981
Crisco (voice)
The Slams
Movie • 1973
Capiello
Crossfire
Movie • 1975
Albert Ambrose
Those Calloways
Movie • 1964
Nigosh
The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond
Movie • 1960
Syndicate Chairman
Shack Out on 101
Movie • 1955
Prof. Claude Dillon
Machine-Gun Kelly
Movie • 1958
Harry
The Brothers Karamazov
Movie • 1958
Capt. Vrublevski
Arrowhead
Movie • 1953
Chief Chattez
Day of the Outlaw
Movie • 1959
Denver, Bruhn's Gang
Appointment with a Shadow
Movie • 1957
Dutch Hayden
The Sword of Ali Baba
Movie • 1965
Old Baba
King of the Khyber Rifles
Movie • 1953
Ali Nur
The Man from Laramie
Movie • 1955
Padre
Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes
Movie • 1974
Big Tony (as Frank deKova)
Johnny Firecloud
Movie • 1975
White Eagle
The Don Is Dead
Movie • 1973
Giunta
Raiders of the Seven Seas
Movie • 1953
Captain Romero
Teenage Cave Man
Movie • 1958
The Black-Bearded One
The Lone Ranger
Movie • 1956
Chief Red Hawk
Pillars of the Sky
Movie • 1956
Zachariah
Drum Beat
Movie • 1954
Modoc Jim
The White Squaw
Movie • 1956
Yellow Elk
Johnny Moccasin
Movie • 1956
Brave Scout
The Big Sky
Movie • 1952
Moleface (uncredited)
Reprisal!
Movie • 1956
Charlie Washackle
Santiago
Movie • 1956
Jingo
Fighter Attack
Movie • 1953
Benedetto
The Desert Song
Movie • 1953
Mindar
All the Brothers Were Valiant
Movie • 1953
Stevenson
Hold Back Tomorrow
Movie • 1955
Priest
Cowboy
Movie • 1958
Alcaide
Cat in the Cage
Movie • 1978
Rachid Khan
Strange Lady in Town
Movie • 1955
Anse Hatlo
Follow That Dream
Movie • 1962
Jack (as Frank de Kova)
They Rode West
Movie • 1954
Isatai
Passion
Movie • 1954
Martinez (as Frank de Kova)
Run of the Arrow
Movie • 1957
Red Cloud (as Frank De Kova)
Ride Out for Revenge
Movie • 1957
Chief Yellow Wolf
Apache Territory
Movie • 1958
Lugo (as Frank deKova)
The Wild Country
Movie • 1970
Two Dog
Mafia on the Bounty
Movie • 1980
Rupolo
The Mechanic
Movie • 1972
The Man
The Legend of the Boy and the Eagle
Movie • 1967
Narrator (voice)
Coonskin
Movie • 1975
Managan (voice) / Ruby (voice) (uncredited)
Not One Shall Die
Movie • 1957
Egyptian Official
Valley of the Kings
Movie • 1954
Akmed Salah (uncredited)
Frasier, the Sensuous Lion
Movie • 1973
The Man
The Gallant Men
TV • 1962
Cheyenne
TV • 1955
The Incredible Hulk
TV • 1977
F Troop
TV • 1965
Chief Wild Eagle
Little House on the Prairie
TV • 1974
Kraft Suspense Theatre
TV • 1963
Edward
The F.B.I.
TV • 1965
Faber
Hawaii Five-O
TV • 1968
Phil Kalama
Route 66
TV • 1960
Baretta
TV • 1975
Surfside 6
TV • 1960
Stinger
Gunsmoke
TV • 1955
Tobeel
Cannon
TV • 1971
The Islanders
TV • 1960
Carlos Roca
Johnny Staccato
TV • 1959
Run, Joe, Run
TV • 1974
The Tall Man
TV • 1960
The Swiss Family Robinson
TV • 1975
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
TV • 1955
Pedro
Outlaws
TV • 1960
The Lawless Years
TV • 1959
Rawhide
TV • 1959
Chief Tawyawp
Police Woman
TV • 1974
Daniel Boone
TV • 1964
Talakum
Police Story
TV • 1973
The High Chaparral
TV • 1967
Aguirre
Thriller
TV • 1960
Lieutenant Vincoli
Peter Gunn
TV • 1958
The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin
TV • 1954
Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans
TV • 1957
Ottawa Chief
The Alaskans
TV • 1959
Black Saddle
TV • 1959
Calderon
The Rebel
TV • 1959
Richard Aloysius Sturgis
The Rifleman
TV • 1958
The Dakotas
TV • 1963
Ben Casey
TV • 1961
Laramie
TV • 1959
Toma
TV • 1973
Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers
TV • 1956
The Detectives
TV • 1959
Nordoff
The Roaring 20's
TV • 1960
Maverick
TV • 1957
Cheyenne
TV • 1955
Spotted Bull
Wagon Train
TV • 1957
Obuki
The Untouchables
TV • 1959
Louis 'Little New York' Campagna
Hawaiian Eye
TV • 1959
Pete Dailey
The Untouchables
TV • 1959
Anthony 'Tough Tony' Lamberto
The Untouchables
TV • 1959
Louis Campagne
F Troop
TV • 1965
Wild Eagle
The F.B.I.
TV • 1965
Dracus
Gunsmoke
TV • 1955
Mulligan Rives
Cheyenne
TV • 1955
Sitting Bull
Gunsmoke
TV • 1955
Leader
The Walter Winchell File
TV • 1957
Stefan
Daniel Boone
TV • 1964
Saugus
The Third Man
TV • 1959
Arlatti
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
TV • 1955
Senor Vargas
The Rockford Files
TV • 1974
Nova (as Frank De Kova)
Wagon Train
TV • 1957
Isaiah Quickfox
Wagon Train
TV • 1957
Ocheo
77 Sunset Strip
TV • 1958
Jack Bent
77 Sunset Strip
TV • 1958
Jerry Gordon
Martin Kane, Private Eye
TV • 1949
Thomas Randall
The Rifleman
TV • 1958
Chief Hostay
The Deputy
TV • 1959
Cowan
The Untouchables
TV • 1959
Louie Campagna
Cheyenne
TV • 1955
Dull Knife
The Untouchables
TV • 1959
The Man
Police Woman
TV • 1974
Vito Angelo
Love, American Style
TV • 1969
The Third Man
TV • 1959
Juan Rodriguez
77 Sunset Strip
TV • 1958
Dino Malatesta
The Troubleshooters
TV • 1959
Nadi
Cheyenne
TV • 1955
Chief Johnny Cake
Cheyenne
TV • 1955
War Cloud
Laramie
TV • 1959
Tah-Za
Lawman
TV • 1958
Jed Barker
The Greatest Show on Earth
TV • 1963
Joseph
The Untouchables
TV • 1959
Bugs Donovan
Wagon Train
TV • 1957
True Oak
Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse
TV • 1958
Jimmy Napoli
Wagon Train
TV • 1957
Indian Chief
Gunslinger
TV • 1961
Don Ignacio Alesandro
Rawhide
TV • 1959
Villegro