Frank DeKova parlayed a sinister scowl piercing eyes and an allaround menacing attitude into a long career of playing coldblooded triggermen 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 wasof all thingsa 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 Zapatas assassination For the next several years he played an assortment of gangsters killers gunfighters and Indianswith time out to play a prehistoric patriarch in Roger Cormans campy Teenage Cave Man 1958and did much television work including a standout job as a Mafia hitman 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 Tuckers Sgt ORourke in ORourkes 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
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