Frank de Kova

Biography

De Kova was born in New York City and taught at a school in New York before joining a Shakespeare repertory group. He made his Broadway debut in Detective Story, and was discovered by director Elia Kazan.

Moving to Hollywood, he appeared in Viva Zapata! (1952) as the Mexican Colonel, and The Big Sky (1952) with Kirk Douglas. He played Abiram in The Ten Commandments, appeared in Cowboy (1958) with Glenn Ford and Jack Lemmon, and in The Mechanic (1972) with Charles Bronson and Jan-Michael Vincent and the Ralph Bakshi film American Pop.

He did much television work, including a role as Mafia hitman Jimmy Napoli in the ABC crime drama, The Untouchables, and an occasional recurring role in Gunsmoke as "Tobeel", a Kiawah Indian who is a friend of Marshal Matt Dillon. His best-known television role was as "Chief Wild Eagle", chief of the Hekawi tribe, on the western comedy F Troop (1965–1967). He also guest-starred in the ABC/Warner Brothers drama, The Roaring 20s. He appeared as Phil Kalama in "Along Came Joey" on Hawaii Five-O in 1968.

In 1981, de Kova died of heart failure in his sleep at his home in Sepulveda, California. He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California.