About
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...
Known for
Hawaii Five-OSeries • 1969
Wagon TrainSeries • 1957
Little House on the PrairieSeries • 1974
Love, American StyleSeries • 1969
The Rockford FilesSeries • 1974
MaverickSeries • 1957
The RiflemanSeries • 1958
CannonSeries • 1971
Daniel BooneSeries • 1964
CheyenneSeries • 1955
The F.B.I.Series • 1965
The Incredible HulkSeries • 1977
RawhideSeries • 1959
Ben CaseySeries • 1961
Police WomanSeries • 1974
Route 66Series • 1960
Kraft Suspense TheatreSeries • 1963
The UntouchablesSeries • 1959
The High ChaparralSeries • 1967
LawmanSeries • 1958
77 Sunset StripSeries • 1958
Hawaiian EyeSeries • 1959
Alfred Hitchcock PresentsSeries • 1955
BarettaSeries • 1975