Frank Dekova was an Italian-American character actor

Character actor

A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...

.

Biography

Dekova was born in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and taught at a school in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 before joining a Shakespeare repertory

Repertory

Repertory or rep, also called stock in the United States, is a term used in Western theatre and opera.A repertory theatre can be a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation...

 group. He made his Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 debut in Detective Story, and was discovered by director Elia Kazan

Elia Kazan

Elia Kazan was an American director and actor, described by the New York Times as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history". Born in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, to Greek parents originally from Kayseri in Anatolia, the family emigrated...

.

Moving to Hollywood, he appeared in Viva Zapata!

Viva Zapata!

Viva Zapata! is a 1952 fictional-biographical film directed by Elia Kazan. The screenplay was written by John Steinbeck, using as a guide Edgcomb Pinchon's book, 'Zapata the Unconquerable', a fact that is not credited in the titles of the film...

(1952) as the Mexican Colonel, and The Big Sky

The Big Sky (film)

The Big Sky is a 1952 Western film directed by Howard Hawks, based on the novel of the same name. The cast includes Kirk Douglas, Arthur Hunnicutt, Dewey Martin and Elizabeth Threatt....

(1952) with Kirk Douglas

Kirk Douglas

Kirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...

. He played Abiram in The Ten Commandments, appeared in Cowboy (1958) with Glenn Ford

Glenn Ford

Glenn Ford was a Canadian-born American actor from Hollywood's Golden Era with a career that spanned seven decades...

 and Jack Lemmon

Jack Lemmon

John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III was an American actor and musician. He starred in more than 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts , Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple, Save the Tiger John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III (February 8, 1925June...

, and in The Mechanic (1972) with Charles Bronson

Charles Bronson

Charles Bronson , born Charles Dennis Buchinsky was an American actor, best-known for such films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the popular Death Wish series...

 and Jan-Michael Vincent

Jan-Michael Vincent

Jan-Michael Vincent is an American actor best known for his role as helicopter pilot Stringfellow Hawke on the 1980s U.S. television series Airwolf .-Early life:...

.

He did a lot of television work, including a role as Mafia hitman Jimmy Napoli in The Untouchables

The Untouchables (1959 TV series)

The Untouchables is an American crime drama that ran from 1959 to 1963 on ABC. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it fictionalized the experiences of Eliot Ness, a real-life Prohibition agent, as he fought crime in Chicago during the 1930s with the help of a...

, and an occasional recurring role in Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....

as "Tobeel", a Kiawah Indian who is a friend of Marshall Matt Dillon. Probably his best-known television role was as "Chief Wild Eagle", chief of the Hekawi tribe, on the Western comedy F Troop

F Troop

F Troop is a satirical American television sitcom that originally aired for two seasons on ABC-TV. It debuted in the United States on September 14, 1965 and concluded its run on April 6, 1967 with a total of 65 episodes. The first season of 34 episodes was filmed in black-and-white, but the show...

(1965–1967).

In 1981, Dekova died of heart failure in his sleep at his home in Sepulveda

North Hills, Los Angeles, California

North Hills is a district in the San Fernando Valley region of the city of Los Angeles, California.North Hills is one of the oldest communities in the San Fernando Valley. Formerly known as Sepulveda, the community was renamed North Hills in 1992. Northridge is to the west, Panorama City is to the...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. He is buried in Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery

Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)

Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery is part of the Forest Lawn chain of Southern California cemeteries. It is at 6300 Forest Lawn Drive in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California, on the lower north slope at the far east end of the Santa Monica...

Films

Year	Films	Character	Info
1951	The Mob aka: Remember That Face	Culio
1952	Viva Zapata! Viva Zapata! Viva Zapata! is a 1952 fictional-biographical film directed by Elia Kazan. The screenplay was written by John Steinbeck, using as a guide Edgcomb Pinchon's book, 'Zapata the Unconquerable', a fact that is not credited in the titles of the film...	Colonel Guajardo	uncredited
1952	Holiday for Sinner	The Wiry Man
1952	The Big Sky The Big Sky (film) The Big Sky is a 1952 Western film directed by Howard Hawks, based on the novel of the same name. The cast includes Kirk Douglas, Arthur Hunnicutt, Dewey Martin and Elizabeth Threatt....	Moleface	uncredited
1952	Pony Soldier Pony Soldier Pony Soldier is a 1952 Technicolor Northern Western set in Canada but filmed in Sedona, Arizona. It is based on a 1951 Saturday Evening Post story Mounted Patrol by Garnett Weston... aka: MacDonald of the Canadian Mounties	Custin	uncredited
1953	Split Second	Dummy
1953	The Desert Song	Mindar
1953	Raiders of the Seven Seas	Capt.Romero
1953	Arrowhead Arrowhead (film) Arrowhead is a 1953 western film directed by Charles Marquis Warren and starring Charlton Heston and Jack Palance. The film is based on the novel Adobe Walls by W.R.Burnett. The screenplay was also by Charles Marquis Warren.-Plot synopsis:...	Chief Chattez	|
1953	The Robe The Robe (film) The Robe is a 1953 American Biblical epic film that tells the story of a Roman military tribune who commands the unit that crucifies Jesus. The film was made by 20th Century Fox and is notable for being the first film released in the widescreen process CinemaScope.It was directed by Henry Koster...	Slave Dealer	uncredited
1953	All the Brothers were Valiant	Stevenson
1953	Fighter Attack	Benedetto
1953	King of the Khyber Rifles King of the Khyber Rifles (film) King of the Khyber Rifles is a 1953 adventure film directed by Henry King and starring Tyrone Power and Terry Moore. The film is based on the novel King of the Khyber Rifles by Talbot Mundy. It is a remake of John Ford's The Black Watch . The Khyber Pass scenes were shot in Alabama Hills, Lone...	Ali Nur
1954	They Rode West	Isatai
1954	Valley of the Kings Valley of the Kings (film) Valley of the Kings is a 1954 Eastmancolor adventure film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was written and directed by Robert Pirosh from a screenplay by Robert Pirosh and Karl Tunberg, "suggested by historical data" in the book Gods, Graves, and Scholars by C. W. Ceram...	Akmed Sala, Nomad Guide	uncredited
1954	Drum Beat aka: Delmer Daves' Drum Beat	Modoc Jim
1954	Passion	Martinez
1955	Strange Lady in Town	Anse Hatlo
1955	The Man from Laramie The Man from Laramie The Man from Laramie is an American Technicolor Western film directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart in the fifth and final of their Western collaborations, and their seventh collaboration overall. It was adapted from a story of the same title by Thomas T...	Padre
1955	Hold Back Tomorrow aka: No Tomorrow	Priest
1955	Shack Out On 101	Prof.Claude Dillon
1956	The Lone Ranger The Lone Ranger (1956 film) The Lone Ranger is a Western film based on the TV show The Lone Ranger, starring Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels.-Plot:Set in the American Southwest, the territorial governor enlists the help of the Lone Ranger to investigate mysterious raids on white settlers. Native Americans who ride with...	Chief Red Hawk
1956	Santiago aka: The Gun Runner	Jingo
1956	Pillars of the Sky aka: The Tomahawk and the Cross	Zachariah
1956	The Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (1956 film) The Ten Commandments is a 1956 American epic film that dramatized the biblical story of the Exodus, in which the Hebrew-born Moses, an adopted Egyptian prince, becomes the deliverer of the Hebrew slaves. The film, released by Paramount Pictures in VistaVision on October 5, 1956, was directed by...	Abiram
1956	The White Squaw	Yellow Elk
1956	Reprisal!	Charlie Washackle
1957	Appointment with a Shadow aka: If I Should Die	Dutch Hayden
1957	Run of the Arrow Run of the Arrow Run of the Arrow is a 1957 western film starring Rod Steiger, Brian Keith, Ralph Meeker, Jay C. Flippen and a young Charles Bronson. Set at the end of the American Civil War, the movie was directed by Samuel Fuller and filmed in Technicolor.-Plot:... aka: Hot Lead	Red Cloud
1957	Rideout for Revenge	Chief Yellow Wolf
1958	Cowboy	Alcaide
1958	The Brothers Karamazov aka: The Murderer Dmitri Karamazov	Capt. Vrubleuski
1958	Machine-Gun Kelly Machine-Gun Kelly (film) Machine-Gun Kelly is a film directed by Roger Corman, chronicling the criminal activities of the real-life George "Machine Gun" Kelly. The film was considered low budget, but received good critical reviews...	Harry
1958	Teenage Cave Man aka: Out of Darkness aka: Prehistoric World	The Black-Bearded One
1958	Apache Territory Apache Territory Apache Territory is a 1958 Western film released by Columbia Pictures, directed by Ray Nazarro and produced by and starring Rory Calhoun. The story is based on the novel Last Stand at Papago Wells by Louis L'Amour.-Plot:...	Lugo
1965	Those Calloways Those Calloways Those Calloways is a 1965 American film adaption of a book by Paul Annixter. Annixter and his wife Jane were writers of books for young readers. The film was produced by Disney and directed by Norman Tokar...	Nigosh
1970	The Wild Country Also known as "Wonderful World of Dinsney". Released as a film and a two part TV series.	Two Dog

Television

Year	Television	Character	Episode
1956	The Ford Television Theatre aka: Ford Theatre	Delwin Slater	Double Trouble
1956	Crusader Crusader (TV series) Crusader is a half-hour black-and-white American adventure/drama series that aired on CBS for two seasons from October 7, 1955 to December 28, 1956.-Synopsis:...	Juan Perez	The Ballot Box
1956	Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers is a television series broadcast in the United States by NBC during its 1956-57 season.In a period in which much of the programming on U.S. television consisted of Westerns, Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers could best be described as an "Eastern"... aka: The 77th Bengal Lancers		The Hostage
1957	Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans is a 1957 Western television series made for syndication by ITC Entertainment and Normandie Productions. It ran for one season of 39 half-hour monochrome episodes... aka: Hawkeye aka: Last of the Mohicans	Ottawa Chief	Hawkeye's Homecoming
1957	Crossroads	Black Hawk	Jhonakehunkga called Jim
1957	The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin is an American children's television program which originally aired in 166 episodes on ABC from October 1954 until August 1959. It starred child actor Lee Aaker as Rusty, a boy orphaned in an Indian raid, who was being raised by the soldiers at a US Cavalry post known...	Okoma	Return to Fort Apache
1957	The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin is an American children's television program which originally aired in 166 episodes on ABC from October 1954 until August 1959. It starred child actor Lee Aaker as Rusty, a boy orphaned in an Indian raid, who was being raised by the soldiers at a US Cavalry post known...	Culebra	Major Swansons' Choice
1958	The Restless Gun The Restless Gun The Restless Gun is a western television series that appeared on NBC between 1957 and 1959, with John Payne in the role of Vint Bonner, a wandering cowboy in the era after the American Civil War. A skilled gunfighter, Bonner is an idealistic person who prefers peaceful resolutions of conflict...	Lupo Lazaro	Dragon for a Day
1959	Buckskin Buckskin (TV series) Buckskin is an American Western television series starring Tom Nolan, Sally Brophy, and Mike Road. The series aired on the NBC from July 3, 1958 until May 25, 1959, followed by summer reruns in 1959 and again in 1965.-Synopsis:...	Potato Man	Coup Stick
1959	The Lawless Years The Lawless Years The Lawless Years is the first television crime drama set during the Roaring 20s, having predated ABC's far more successful The Untouchables with Robert Stack by six months. The 47-episode half-hour series aired nonconsecutively on NBC from April 16 to August 27, 1959, from October 1, 1959, to...	Harry the Horse	The Poison Ivy Story
1959	Black Saddle Black Saddle Black Saddle is an American Western series that ran for forty-four episodes on ABC from January 10, 1959 to May 6, 1960. The series was produced by Dick Powell's Four Star Television, and the original pilot was an episode of Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater, with Chris Alcaide playing Culhane.For... aka: The Westerners	Rubio Calderone	Client Martinez
1959	Peter Gunn Peter Gunn Peter Gunn is an American private eye television series which aired on the NBC and later ABC television networks from 1958 to 1961. The show's creator was Blake Edwards...	Joe Taber	Breakout
1959	Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse is an American television anthology series produced by Desilu Productions. The show ran on CBS television between 1958 and 1960... aka: Desilu Playhouse	Jimmy Napoli	The Untouchables (1959 TV series) The Untouchables (1959 TV series) The Untouchables is an American crime drama that ran from 1959 to 1963 on ABC. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it fictionalized the experiences of Eliot Ness, a real-life Prohibition agent, as he fought crime in Chicago during the 1930s with the help of a...   The Untouchables: Part 1 The Untouchables: Part 2
1959	The Californians The Californians (TV series) The Californians is a 54-episode half-hour Western television series, set in the San Francisco gold rush of the 1850s, which aired on NBC from September 24, 1957, to May 26, 1959...	Up-A-Mug	An Act of Faith (1959) The Painless Extractionist (1958)
1959	The Rifleman The Rifleman The Rifleman is an American Western television program that starred Chuck Connors as homesteader Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son, Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show, filmed in black-and-white with a half hour running time, ran...	Chief Hostay	The Indian
1960	The Rifleman The Rifleman The Rifleman is an American Western television program that starred Chuck Connors as homesteader Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son, Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show, filmed in black-and-white with a half hour running time, ran...	Carl Miller	Meeting at Midnight
1960	Johnny Staccato Johnny Staccato Johnny Staccato is an American private detective series which ran for 27 episodes on NBC from September 10, 1959 through March 24, 1960.-Synopsis:...	Eddie Wayneright	Night of Jeopardy
1960	Overland Trail Overland Trail (TV series) Overland Trail is a short-lived American Western series which aired on NBC from February 7 to June 6, 1960. The series starred William Bendix and Doug McClure,-Synopsis:...	Shoshone Chief	West of Boston
1960	Five Fingers Five Fingers (TV series) For other uses see 5 Fingers Five Fingers is an NBC adventure/drama series set in Europe during the Cold War loosely based on the 1952 film 5 Fingers, starring James Mason and Danielle Darrieux...	Landau	The Judas Goat
1960	Lawman Lawman (tv series) Lawman is an American Western television series originally telecast from 1958 to 1962 starring John Russell as Marshal Dan Troop and featuring Peter Brown as Deputy Marshal Johnny McKay on the ABC Television Network. The series was set in Laramie, Wyoming during the mid to late 1870s. Warner Bros....	Jed Barker	Cornered
1962	Cheyenne Cheyenne Cheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...	White Cloud	Indian Gold
1964	Daniel Boone Daniel Boone (TV series) Daniel Boone is an American action/adventure television series starring Fess Parker as Daniel Boone that aired from September 24, 1964 to September 10, 1970 on NBC for 165 episodes, and was made by 20th Century Fox Television. Ed Ames co-starred as Mingo, Boone's Native American friend, for the...	Chief Talakum	The Sound of Wings
1965, 1966, 1967	F Troop	Chief Wild Eagle	F Troop series

External links

• Frank Dekova at findagave