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Albert Dekker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Albert Dekker | |
|---|---|
 From the trailer for the 1947 film Gentleman's Agreement. |
|
| Birth name | Albert Ecke |
| Born | December 20, 1905 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Died | May 5, 1968 (aged 62) Hollywood, California, U.S. |
Albert Dekker (December 20, 1905 – May 5, 1968) was an American character actor best known for his roles in Dr. Cyclops, The Killers, and The Wild Bunch. He is sometimes credited as Albert Van Dekker or Albert van Dekker.
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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.[1]
After a decade's worth 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 three most famous screen roles were as a mad scientist in the 1940 horror film, Dr. Cyclops, as a vicious hitman in the The Killers, and as an unscrupulous railroad detective in Sam Peckinpah's western, The Wild Bunch.[1]
Dekker's role as Pat Harrigan in The Wild Bunch would be the actor's last screen appearance.[2]
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 during the McCarthy era, and became an outspoken critic of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy's tactics. Dekker served as an Assemblyman until 1946.[1]
On April 4, 1929, Dekker married actress Esther Guernini. The couple had two sons and a daughter before divorcing.
In 1967, the couple's 16-year-old son, Jan, died of an accidental but self-inflicted gunshot wound.[3]
At the time of his death, Dekker was engaged to actress Geraldine Saunders.[4]
On May 5, 1968, after attempting to reach Dekker for three days, his fiancé, Geraldine Saunders went to the actor's home. There were numerous messages and notes attached to his door from other concerned friends. Saunders got the apartment manager to open the door, and discovered the Dekker's body in the bathtub. Dekker was kneeling nude in the bathtub, a noose around his neck and a scarf was tied over his eyes. A horse’s bit was in his mouth, fashioned from a rubber ball and metal wire, two leather straps were stretched between the leather belts that girded his neck and chest. A third belt, around his waist, was tied with a rope that stretched to his ankles. The end of the rope was found wrapped around his wrist several times and was held in Dekker’s hand. Handcuffs clamped both wrists with a key attached. Dekker also had sexually explicit writings and drawings, written in red lipstick, on various parts of his body. Dekker had been dead for several days.[4]
Reports surfaced that Dekker was the victim of a robbery gone wrong due to a great deal of cash and electronic equipment was found to be missing from his apartment, but there was no evidence to support this. Police also theorized that Dekker was a closet homosexual who practiced his eccentricities discreetly with anonymous male prostitutes. Police attempted to attribute Dekker's death to a mishap with a hustler who left the actor dying or dead after something went wrong. Police made inquiries, but Dekker had no reputation among male hustlers and Dekker's friends denied the accusations.[3] Other theories of a murder made to look like a suicide arose but were never proven.[1]
Albert Dekker's death was eventually ruled accidental. The coroner determined that Dekker accidentally asphyxiated himself while attempting autoerotic asphyxia.[1] Dekker was cremated in East Los Angeles, California, and his remains were shipped to the Garden State Crematory in New Jersey.[5]
- The Great Garrick (1937)
- The Lone Wolf in Paris (1938)
- She Married an Artist (1938)
- Marie Antoinette (1938)
- Extortion (1938)
- The Last Warning (1938)
- Never Say Die (1939)
- The Man In the Iron Mask (1939)
- Hotel Imperial (1939)
- Beau Geste (1939)
- Rangers of Fortune (1940)
- Dr. Cyclops (1940)
- Seven Sinners (1940)
- Strange Cargo (1940)
- Reaching for the Sun (1941)
- You're the One (1941)
- The Great Commandment (1941)
- Honky Tonk (1941)
- Blonde Inspiration (1941)
- Among the Living (1941)
- Buy Me That Town (1941)
- Star Spangled Rhythm (1942)
- A Night in New Orleans (1942)
- Yokel Boy (1942)
- In Old California (1942)
- Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942)
- Wake Island (1942)
- The Forest Rangers (1942)
- The Lady Has Plans (1942)
- The Kansan (1943)
- In Old Oklahoma (1943)
- Buckskin Frontier (1943)
- The Woman of the Town (1943)
- Experiment Perilous (1945)
- Salome, Where She Danced (1945)
- Hold That Blonde (1945)
- Incendiary Blonde (1945)
- The Killers (1946)
- Suspense (1946)
- Two Years Before the Mast (1946)
- The French Key (1946)
- California (1946)
- Slave Girl (1947)
- Wyoming (1947)
- The Pretender (1947)
- Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
- The Fabulous Texan
- Cass Timberlane (1947)
- Lulu Belle (1948)
- Tarzan's Magic Fountain ((1949)
- Search for Danger (1949)
- Bride of Vengeance (1949)
- The Furies (1949)
- Destination Murder (1950)
- The Kid From Texas (1950)
- As Young As You Feel (1951)
- Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie (1952)
- Leonardo da Vinci (1952)
- The Silver Chalice (1954)
- East of Eden (1955)
- Illegal (1955)
- Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
- She Devil (1957)
- Machete (1958)
- Middle Of the Night (1959)
- The Sound and the Fury (1959)
- These Thousand Hills (1959)
- The Wonderful Country (1959)
- Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
- Gammera the Invincible (1965)
- Ten Blocks On the Camino Real (1966)
- Come Spy with Me (1967)
- The Wild Bunch (1969)
- ^ a b c d e http://www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/archive/oldnews/albertdekker.htm
- ^ Dekker's bio - at IMDb
- ^ a b http://www.lauriejacobson.com/hollywood_heartbreak_ex.php
- ^ a b http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/d/dekker/albert_dekker.htm
- ^ http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6942
