ALBERT DEKKER
INFORMATION FROM IMDb
Date of birth
20 December 1905
Brooklyn, New York, USA
Date of death
5 May 1968
Hollywood, California, USA. (asphyxia)
Sometimes Credited As:
Albert Decker / Albert Van Dekker / Albert van Dekker
Spouse
Esther Guirini (4 April 1929 - ?) (divorced)
Trivia
Served in California legislature 1944 to 1946 as the Democratic Assemblyman from the 57th District.
Stage and television actor.
Accidentally hanged himself.
Was of Dutch ancestry.
Personal Quotes
"The theater is a horrible place in which to make a living. They sit you on the shelf for years. They take you off and brush you off and later you have to find your way back to that shelf."
Mini Biography
A stage actor from 1927, Albert Dekker was an established Broadway star when he made his film debut ten years later. Tall and with rugged good looks, Dekker often played aggressive character roles, and was memorable as the double-crossing gang leader in the classic The Killers (1946). From 1945 to 1946 he served a term in the California legislature representing the Hollywood district. As he got older, Dekker, unlike many actors, turned to the stage rather than television, and achieved great success there and on the college lecture circuit. Dekker's last role, in The Wild Bunch (1969), was one of his most memorable: the tough railroad detective Harrigan, who hires a murderous group of bounty hunters to track down and kill a gang of outlaws who've been robbing his company's trains.
IMDb mini-biography by frankfob
Mini Biography-2
from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:
As the sinister Dr. Cyclops (1940), tall, hulking, and (for this role, anyway) bald and bespectacled, this dependable character actor scared the bejesus out of many theatergoers-so much so, according to contemporary sources, that it's amazing he wasn't permanently typed as a horror-movie menace. That would have been an injustice: the stagetrained Dekker, a Broadway regular throughout the 1930s before making his Hollywood debut in The Great Garrick (1937), could play any kind of part. He was a convincing Louis XIII in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939), a shifty legionnaire in Beau Geste (1939), a madman and his saintly twin brother in Among the Living (1941), Western lawman Bat Masterson in The Woman of the Town (1943), and reluctant detective Johnny Fletcher in The French Key (1946, one of his personal favorites), among others. His death by strangulation was declared accidental, although many believed it to be a suicide.
Copyright © 1994 Leonard Maltin, used by arrangement with Signet, a division of Penguin Putnam, Inc.
Filmography
Actor
1. The Wild Bunch (1969) .... Pat Harrigan
2. "Bonanza"
... aka Ponderosa (USA: rerun title)
- The Bottle Fighter (1968) TV Episode .... Barney Sturgess
3. "I Spy"
- Shana (1968) TV Episode .... Indris
4. "Judd for the Defense"
- The Grand Old Man (1968) TV Episode .... George Stuka
5. "Run for Your Life"
- A Dangerous Proposal (1968) TV Episode .... Sir Harry Hiller
6. "The Man from U.N.C.L.E."
- The Summit Five Affair (1967) TV Episode .... Harry Beldon
7. Come Spy with Me (1967) .... Walter Ludeker
8. "Mission: Impossible"
- The Short Tail Spy (1966) TV Episode .... Colonel Shtemenko
9. Gammera the Invincible (1966) .... Secretary of Defense
10. Ten Blocks on the Camino Real (1966) (TV) .... Mr. Gutman
11. Death of a Salesman (1966) (TV) .... Ben
12. "Rawhide"
- Crossing at White Feather (1965) TV Episode .... Jonas Bolt
- Josh (1965) TV Episode .... Josh
13. "The Trials of O'Brien"
- Bargain Day on the Street of Regret (1965) TV Episode .... George Brewer
14. "Seaway"
- The 34th Man (1965) TV Episode .... Captain Marland
15. "The Defenders"
- King of the Hill (1964) TV Episode .... Mark Vronis
16. "Kraft Suspense Theatre"
- The World I Want (1964) TV Episode .... Karl Hesse
17. "Naked City"
- Bridge Party (1961) TV Episode .... Warick
- A Kettle of Precious Fish (1961) TV Episode .... Samuel Grafton
18. Westinghouse Presents: The Dispossessed (1961) (TV) .... Judge Dundy
19. "Route 66"
- The Newborn (1961) TV Episode .... Frank Ivy
20. "Play of the Week"
- Emmanuel (1960) TV Episode
21. "The Witness"
- Jimmy Hines (1960) TV Episode .... Jimmy Hines
22. Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) .... Dr. Lawrence J. Hockstader
23. The Wonderful Country (1959) .... Texas Ranger Capt. Rucker
24. Middle of the Night (1959) .... Walter Lockman
25. "Decoy"
... aka Policewoman Decoy (USA: rerun title)
- High Swing (1959) TV Episode .... Otto Flagler
26. These Thousand Hills (1959) .... Marshal Conrad
27. The Sound and the Fury (1959) .... Earl Snopes
28. Machete (1958) .... Don Luis Montoya
29. She Devil (1957) .... Dr. Richard Bach
30. "Climax!"
... aka Climax Mystery Theater (USA)
- Fear Is the Hunter (1956) TV Episode .... Brewster
31. "Playwrights '56"
... aka The Playwright Hour
- Flight (1956) TV Episode .... Mr. Anderson
- The Answer (1955) TV Episode .... Major Tobey
32. Illegal (1955) .... Frank Garland
33. Kiss Me Deadly (1955) .... Dr. G.E. Soberin
... aka Mickey Spillane's Kiss Me Deadly (USA)
34. "Goodyear Television Playhouse"
... aka Goodyear Playhouse (new title)
- The Chivington Raid (1955) TV Episode
35. East of Eden (1955) .... Will Hamilton
... aka John Steinbeck's East of Eden (USA: complete title)
36. All My Sons (1955) (TV) .... Joe Keller
37. The Silver Chalice (1954) .... Kester
38. Wait 'Til the Sun Shines, Nellie (1952) .... Lloyd Slocum
39. "Studio One"
... aka Studio One Summer Theatre (summer title)
... aka Studio One in Hollywood (new title)
... aka Summer Theatre (summer title)
... aka Westinghouse Studio One
... aka Westinghouse Summer Theatre (summer title)
- Treasure Island (1952) TV Episode
40. "CBS Television Workshop"
- My Eyes Have a Cold Nose (1952) TV Episode
41. "Lights Out"
- The Perfect Servant (1952) TV Episode
42. "Celanese Theatre"
- Susan and God (1951) TV Episode
43. As Young as You Feel (1951) .... Louis McKinley
44. "Pulitzer Prize Playhouse"
- Valley Forge (1951) TV Episode .... George Washington
45. The Furies (1950) .... Mr. Reynolds
46. Destination Murder (1950) .... Armitage
47. The Kid from Texas (1950) .... Alexander Kain
... aka Texas Kid, Outlaw (UK)
48. Search for Danger (1949) .... Kirk
49. Bride of Vengeance (1949) .... Vanetti
... aka A Mask for Lucretia (USA)
50. Tarzan's Magic Fountain (1949) .... Mr. Trask
... aka Tarzan and the Arrow of Death (USA)
51. Lulu Belle (1948) .... Mark Brady
52. Fury at Furnace Creek (1948) .... Leverett
53. Gentleman's Agreement (1947) .... John Minify
... aka Laura Z. Hobson's Gentleman's Agreement (USA: complete title)
54. The Fabulous Texan (1947) .... Gibson Hart
... aka The Texas Uprising (USA: reissue title)
55. Cass Timberlane (1947) .... Boone Havock
56. The Pretender (1947) .... Kenneth Holden
57. Wyoming (1947) .... Duke Lassiter
58. Slave Girl (1947) .... Pasha
59. California (1946) .... Mr. Pike
60. The Killers (1946) .... Big Jim Colfax
... aka A Man Alone
... aka Ernest Hemingway's The Killers (USA: complete title)
61. Suspense (1946) .... Frank Leonard
62. The French Key (1946) .... Johnny Fletcher
63. Two Years Before the Mast (1946) .... Brown
64. Hold That Blonde (1945) .... Insp. Callahan
65. Incendiary Blonde (1945) .... Joe Cadden
66. Salome, Where She Danced (1945) .... Count Erik Von Bohlen
67. Experiment Perilous (1944) .... Clag
68. The Hitler Gang (1944) (uncredited) .... Narrator
69. The Woman of the Town (1943) .... Bat Masterson
70. In Old Oklahoma (1943) .... Jim 'Hunk' Gardner (president, Gardner Oil Co.)
... aka War of the Wildcats (USA: reissue title)
71. The Kansan (1943) .... Steve Barat
... aka Wagon Wheels (UK)
72. Buckskin Frontier (1943) .... Gideon Skene
... aka The Iron Road (UK)
73. Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942) .... Gaston Le Blanc
74. The Forest Rangers (1942) .... Twig Dawson
75. Wake Island (1942) .... Shad McClosky
76. Night in New Orleans (1942) .... Police Lieutenant William Richards
77. In Old California (1942) .... Britt Dawson
78. Yokel Boy (1942) .... Bussie Malone
... aka Hitting the Headlines (UK)
79. The Lady Has Plans (1942) .... Baron Von Kemp
80. Among the Living (1941) .... John Raden/Paul Raden
81. Buy Me That Town (1941) .... Louie Lanzer
82. Honky Tonk (1941) .... Brazos Hearn
83. Reaching for the Sun (1941) .... Herman
84. You're the One (1941) .... Luke Laramie
85. Blonde Inspiration (1941) .... Phil Hendricks
86. Seven Sinners (1940) .... Dr. Martin
... aka Cafe of the Seven Sinners
87. Rangers of Fortune (1940) .... George Bird
88. Dr. Cyclops (1940) .... Dr. Alexander Thorkel
... aka Doctor Cyclops (USA: poster title)
89. Strange Cargo (1940) .... Moll
90. Beau Geste (1939) .... Legionnaire Schwartz
91. The Man in the Iron Mask (1939) .... King Louis XIII
92. Hotel Imperial (1939) .... Sergeant
93. Never Say Die (1939) (uncredited) .... Kidley's second
94. Paris Honeymoon (1939) (uncredited) .... Amorous Drunk
95. The Great Commandment (1939) .... Longinus
96. The Last Warning (1938) .... Higgs
97. Marie Antoinette (1938) (as Albert Van Dekker) .... Comte de Provence
98. The Lone Wolf in Paris (1938) .... Marquis Louis de Meyerson
99. Extortion (1938) (as Albert Van Dekker) .... Jeffrey Thompson
100. She Married an Artist (1937) (as Albert van Dekker) .... Whitney Holton
101. The Great Garrick (1937) (as Albert Van Dekker) .... M. LeBrun
