Albert Dekker

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Albert Dekker
From the trailer for Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
Born	Albert Van Ecke December 20, 1905(1905-12-20) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	May 5, 1968 (aged 62) Hollywood, California, U.S.
Other name(s)	Albert Van Dekker Albert van Dekker

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.

Life

Born 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.

On April 4, 1929, Dekker married actress Esther Guernini. The couple had two sons and a daughter before divorcing. At the time of his death, Dekker was engaged to actress Geraldine Saunders.

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

After a decade's worth of theatrical appearances, Dekker transferred to Hollywood in 1937, and made his first film, 1937's The Great Garrick.^[1] 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 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.

Dekker was not typically cast in romantic roles. However, in the film Seven Sinners, featuring a romance between Marlene Dietrich and John Wayne, Dietrich eventually abandons the macho Wayne to sail off with Dekker's character. Dekker's role as Pat Harrigan in The Wild Bunch would be his last screen appearance.

On May 5, 1968, Dekker was found dead in his Hollywood home by his fiancée Geraldine Saunders after failing to answer numerous phone calls for two days. There were no signs of forced entry, but money and camera equipment were missing from Dekker's home.^[2] 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.

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 working on Broadway rather than Hollywood.

Selected filmography

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Albert Dekker

• Albert Dekker at the Internet Movie Database
• Albert Dekker at the Internet Broadway Database
• Albert Dekker at TVGuide.com
• Albert Dekker at Find a Grave