Albert Dekker

Albert Dekker
From the trailer for Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
Member of the California State Assembly from the 57th district
In office 1945–1947
Preceded by	Franklin J. Potter
Succeeded by	Charles J. Conrad
Personal details
Born	Albert Van Ecke December 20, 1905(1905-12-20) Brooklyn, New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	May 5, 1968(1968-05-05) (aged 62) Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Esther Guirini (1929 – ?) (divorced)

Albert Dekker (December 20, 1905 – May 5, 1968) was an American character actor and politician best known for his roles in Dr. Cyclops, The Killers, Kiss Me Deadly, and The Wild Bunch. He is sometimes credited as Albert Van Dekker or Albert van Dekker. He was a member of the Democratic Party.

Early life and career

Born as Albert Van Ecke in Brooklyn, New York, he adopted his mother's maiden name of Dekker as his stage name. Dekker attended Bowdoin College and made his professional acting debut with a Cincinnati stock company in 1927. Within a few months, Dekker was featured in the Broadway production of Eugene O'Neill's play Marco Millions.

Dekker as Dr. Alexander Thorkel in the 1940 film Dr. Cyclops

After a decade of theatrical appearances, Dekker transferred to Hollywood in 1937, and made his first film, 1937's The Great Garrick. He spent most of the rest of his acting career in the cinema, but also returned to the stage from time to time.

He replaced Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman in the original production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, and during a five-year stint back on Broadway in the early 1960s, he played the Duke of Norfolk in Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons.

Dekker appeared in some seventy films from the 1930s to 1960s, but his four most famous screen roles were as a mad scientist in the 1940 horror film Dr. Cyclops, as a vicious hitman in The Killers, as a dangerous dealer in atomic fuel in the 1955 film noir Kiss Me Deadly, and as an unscrupulous railroad detective in Sam Peckinpah's western The Wild Bunch. In 1959 he played a convincing Texas Ranger Captain Rucker in The Wonderful Country. He was rarely cast in romantic roles, but in the film Seven Sinners, featuring a romance between Marlene Dietrich and John Wayne, Dietrich sails off with Dekker's character at the end of the film. Dekker's role as Pat Harrigan in The Wild Bunch would be his last screen appearance.

Personal life

On April 4, 1929, Dekker married actress Esther Guernini. The couple had two sons and a daughter before divorcing.

Politics

Dekker's off-screen preoccupation with politics led to his winning a seat in the California State Assembly for the 57th Assembly District in 1944. Dekker served as a Democratic member for the Assembly until 1946.

During the McCarthy era he was an outspoken critic of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy's tactics; to avoid being blacklisted he spent most of the blacklist period working on Broadway rather than Hollywood.

Death

On May 5, 1968, Dekker was found dead in his Hollywood home after failing to answer numerous phone calls for two days. Although money and camera equipment were missing, there were no signs of forced entry. He was found naked, kneeling in his bathtub with a noose wrapped around his neck that was looped around the shower's curtain rod. He was also handcuffed, blindfolded, gagged and had sexually explicit words scrawled on his body in red lipstick. The coroner's ruling was accidental death by autoerotic asphyxiation. Dekker was 62 years old.

He was interred at Garden State Crematory in North Bergen, New Jersey.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Albert Dekker has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6620 Hollywood Boulevard.

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1937	The Great Garrick	M. LeBrun	Credited as Albert Van Dekker
1938	Marie Antoinette	Comte de Provence	Credited as Albert Van Dekker
1939	Beau Geste	Legionnaire Schwartz
1939	The Great Commandment	Longinus
1940	Rangers of Fortune	George Bird
1940	Strange Cargo	Moll
1940	Seven Sinners	Dr. Martin	Alternative title: Cafe of the Seven Sinners
1941	Among the Living	John Raden/Paul Raden
1942	In Old California	Britt Dawson
1942	Wake Island	Shad McClosky
1942	Once Upon a Honeymoon	Gaston Le Blanc
1943	In Old Oklahoma	Jim "Hunk" Gardner	Alternative title: War of the Wildcats
1945	Incendiary Blonde	Joe Cadden
1946	The Killers	Big Jim Colfax	Alternative title: A Man Alone
1947	Cass Timberlane	Boone Havock
1947	Gentleman's Agreement	John Minify
1948	Lulu Belle	Mark Brady
1949	Bride of Vengeance	Vanetti
1950	Destination Murder	Armitage
1951	Pulitzer Prize Playhouse	George Washington	Episode: "Valley Forge"
1952	Studio One	Billy Bones	Episode: "Treasure Island"
1954	The Silver Chalice	Kester
1955	East of Eden	Will Hamilton
1955	Kiss Me Deadly	Dr. G.E. Soberin
1956	Climax!	Brewster	Episode: "Fear Is the Hunter"
1959 [(The Wonderful Country (film) Capt Rucker, Texas Rangers)] 1959	Suddenly, Last Summer	Dr. Lawrence J. Hockstader
1959	These Thousand Hills	Marshal Conrad
1959	Decoy	Otto Flagler	Episode: "High Swing"
1961	Route 66	Frank Ivy	Episode: "The Newborn"
1964	Kraft Suspense Theatre	Karl Hesse	Episode: "The World I Want"
1965	Seaway	Captain Marland	Episode: "The 34th Man"
1965	The Trials of O'Brien	George Brewer	Episode: "Bargain Day on the Street of Regret"
1966	Gamera	Secretary of Defense	Alternative title: Gammera the Invincible
1966	Mission: Impossible	Colonel Shtemenko	Episode: "The Short Tail Spy"
1967	The Man from U.N.C.L.E.	Harry Beldon	Episode: "The Summit-Five Affair"
1968	Run for Your Life	Sir Harry Hiller	Episode: "A Dangerous Proposal"
1968	Bonanza	Barney Sturgess	Episode: "The Bottle Fighter"
1969	The Wild Bunch	Pat Harrigan

External links

• Albert Dekker at the Internet Movie Database
• Albert Dekker at the Internet Broadway Database
• Albert Dekker at TV Guide
• "Albert Dekker". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6942. Retrieved September 3, 2010. 

California Assembly
Preceded by Franklin J. Potter	California State Assemblyman, 57th District 1945 – 1947	Succeeded by Charles J. Conrad