Albert Dekker

Albert Dekker (born Thomas Albert Ecke Van 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.

Albert Dekker
Dekker in In Old Oklahoma (1943)
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	Thomas Albert Ecke Van Dekker (1905-12-20)December 20, 1905 Brooklyn, New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	May 5, 1968(1968-05-05) (aged 62) Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of death	autoerotic asphyxiation
Nationality	American
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Esther Guerini ​ ( m. 1929; div. 1964)
Children	3
Alma mater	Bowdoin College
Occupation	Actor, politician

Early life and career

Dekker was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the only child of Thomas and Grace Ecke Van Dekker. He attended Richmond Hill High School, where he appeared in stage productions. He then attended Bowdoin College, where he majored in pre-med with plans to become a doctor. On the advice of a friend, he decided to pursue acting as a career instead. He 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]

Dekker as Dr. 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.[2] 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 the 1960s, but his four most famous screen roles were as a mad scientist in the 1940 horror film Dr. Cyclops, as a criminal mastermind 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 was an often memorable guest star - usually a villain - in numerous TV series from the 50s through to 1968, such as Rawhide, The Man From UNCLE, Mission: Impossible, Climax!, Bonanza and I Spy. Dekker's role as Pat Harrigan in The Wild Bunch was his last screen appearance; he died over a year before it was released.

Personal life

On April 4, 1929, Dekker married former actress Esther Guerini. The couple had two sons, John and Benjamin, and a daughter, Jan, before divorcing in 1964.[3][4]

In April 1957, Dekker's 16-year-old son, John, shot himself with a .22 rifle at the family's home in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. He had reportedly been working on a silencer for the rifle for a year. His death was ruled accidental.[4]

In his book-length account of the production of The Wild Bunch, writer W.K. Stratton describes Dekker as "completely nuts," and possibly the most troubled person on a set filled with eccentrics.[5] According to actor R.G. Armstrong, Dekker showed up to the remote Mexican shooting location of that film in 1968 with a thirteen-year-old girl he described as his wife, telling people (falsely) that he was a medical doctor, and that after filming he would retire from acting to help impoverished Africans.[6]

Politics

Dekker's off-screen interest in 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.[7]

During the McCarthy era he was an outspoken critic of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy's tactics. As a result, Dekker was blacklisted in Hollywood and spent most of the blacklist period working on Broadway rather than Hollywood.[8]

Death

On May 5, 1968, Dekker was found dead in his Hollywood home by his fiancée, fashion model and future Love Boat creator Jeraldine Saunders. He was naked, kneeling in the bathtub, with a noose tightly wrapped around his neck and looped around the shower curtain rod. He was blindfolded, his wrists were handcuffed, there was a ball gag in his mouth, and two hypodermic needles were inserted in one arm. His body was covered in explicit words and drawings in red lipstick.[9]

Money and camera equipment were missing, but there was no sign of forced entry. Police originally said it was suicide but the deputy coroner found no evidence of foul play nor any indication that he planned to take his life and ruled his death accidental, the result of autoerotic asphyxiation.[8][10][11] Dekker was cremated, and his remains interred at the Garden State Crematory in North Bergen, New Jersey.[12]

Dekker has a star, in the motion picture category, on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6620 Hollywood Boulevard.[13]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1937	The Great Garrick	M. LeBrun	Credited as Albert Van Dekker
1937	She Married an Artist	Whitney Holton
1938	Extortion	Jeffrey Thompson	Credited as Albert Van Dekker
1938	The Lone Wolf in Paris	Marquis Louis de Meyerson
1938	Marie Antoinette	Comte de Provence	Credited as Albert Van Dekker
1938	The Last Warning	Higgs the Butler
1939	Paris Honeymoon	Amorous Drunk	Uncredited
1939	Hotel Imperial	Sergeant	Uncredited
1939	Never Say Die	Kidley's Second	Uncredited
1939	The Man in the Iron Mask	Louis XIII
1939	Beau Geste	Legionnaire Schwartz
1939	The Great Commandment	Longinus
1940	Strange Cargo	Moll	With Clark Gable and Joan Crawford
1940	Dr. Cyclops	Dr. Thorkel
1940	Rangers of Fortune	George Bird
1940	Seven Sinners	Dr. Martin	With John Wayne. Alternative title: Cafe of the Seven Sinners
1941	Blonde Inspiration	Phil Hendricks
1941	You're the One	Luke Laramie
1941	Reaching for the Sun	Herman
1941	Honky Tonk	Brazos Hearn	With Clark Gable and Lana Turner
1941	Buy Me That Town	Louie Lanzer
1941	Among the Living	John Raden / Paul Raden
1942	The Lady Has Plans	Baron Von Kemp
1942	Star Spangled Rhythm	Himself	Uncredited
1942	Yokel Boy	'Buggsy' Malone
1942	In Old California	Britt Dawson	With John Wayne
1942	Night in New Orleans	Police Lieutenant William Richards
1942	Wake Island	Shad McClosky
1942	The Forest Rangers	Twig Dawson
1942	Once Upon a Honeymoon	Gaston Le Blanc
1943	Buckskin Frontier	Gideon Skene
1943	The Kansan	Steve Barat
1943	In Old Oklahoma	Jim "Hunk" Gardner	With John Wayne. Alternative title: War of the Wildcats
1943	The Woman of the Town	Bat Masterson	With Claire Trevor as Dora Hand
1944	The Hitler Gang	Narrator	Uncredited
1944	Experiment Perilous	'Clag' Claghorne
1945	Salome Where She Danced	Von Bohlen
1945	Incendiary Blonde	Joe Cadden
1945	Hold That Blonde	Police Inspector Callahan
1946	The French Key	Johnny Fletcher
1946	Suspense	Frank Leonard
1946	The Killers	Big Jim Colfax	Alternative title: A Man Alone
1946	Two Years Before the Mast	Brown
1947	California	Mr. Pike
1947	Slave Girl	Pasha
1947	Wyoming	Duke Lassiter
1947	The Pretender	Kenneth Holden
1947	Cass Timberlane	Boone Havock
1947	The Fabulous Texan	Gibson Hart
1947	Gentleman's Agreement	John Minify	with Gregory Peck and Celeste Holm
1948	Fury at Furnace Creek	Edward Leverett
1948	Lulu Belle	Mark Brady
1949	Tarzan's Magic Fountain	Mr. Trask
1949	Bride of Vengeance	Vanetti
1949	Search for Danger	Kirk
1950	The Kid from Texas	Alexander Kain
1950	Destination Murder	Armitage
1950	The Furies	Mr. Reynolds
1951	As Young as You Feel	Louis McKinley
1952	Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie	Lloyd Slocum
1954	The Silver Chalice	Kester
1955	East of Eden	Will Hamilton	with James Dean
1955	Kiss Me Deadly	Dr. G.E. Soberin
1955	Illegal	Frank Garland
1957	She Devil	Dr. Richard Bach
1958	Machete	Don Luis Montoya
1959	The Sound and the Fury	Earl Snopes
1959	These Thousand Hills	Marshal Conrad
1959	Middle of the Night	Walter Lockman	with Fredric March and Kim Novak
1959	The Wonderful Country	Texas Ranger Capt. Rucker
1959	Suddenly, Last Summer	Dr. Lawrence J. Hockstader
1965	Once Upon a Tractor	Colonel	Short
1966	Gammera: The Invincible	Secretary of Defense
1967	Come Spy with Me	Walter Ludeker
1969	The Wild Bunch	Pat Harrigan	(final film role)

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1951	Pulitzer Prize Playhouse	George Washington	Episode: "Valley Forge"
1952	Studio One	Billy Bones	Episode: "Treasure Island"
1955	Goodyear Television Playhouse		Episode: "The Chivington Raid"
1956	Climax!	Brewster	Episode: "Fear Is the Hunter"
1959	Decoy	Otto Flagler	Episode: "High Swing"
1960	The Witness	Jimmy Hines	Episode: "Jimmy Hines"
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	Rawhide	Josh Breeden & Jonas Bolt	Episodes: Josh & Crossing at White Feather
1965	The Trials of O'Brien	George Brewer	Episode: "Bargain Day on the Street of Regret"
1966	Mission: Impossible	Colonel Shtemenko	Episode: "The Short Tail Spy"
1966	Death of a Salesman	Uncle Ben	CBS-TV production
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"
1968	I Spy	Indris	Episode: "Shana"

References

1. Burroughs Hannsberry, Karen (2003). Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir. McFarland & Company. p. 192. ISBN 0-786-41484-7.
2. Monush, Barry (2003). Screen World Presents the Encyclopedia of Hollywood Film Actors: From the Silent Era to 1965. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 187. ISBN 1-55783-551-9.
3. "Actor Divorced". Reading Eagle. February 19, 1964. p. 42. Retrieved January 13, 2013.
4. "Actor's Son Shot Dead; John Dekker, 16, Found Slain in Westchester Home". The New York Times. April 19, 1957. p. 15.
5. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-wild-bunch-9781632862129/ p.196
6. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0466922/
7. "Autopsy Performed on Actor Albert Dekker". The Los Angeles Times. May 7, 1968. p. 19.
8. Hare, William (2008). L.A. Noir: Nine Dark Visions of the City of Angels. McFarland. p. 143. ISBN 0-786-43740-5.
9. Rutledge, Leigh W. (1989). The Gay Fireside Companion. Alyson Publications, Inc. p. 110.
10. Parish, James Robert (2002). The Hollywood Book of Death: The Bizarre, Often Sordid, Passings of More Than 125 American Movie and TV Idols. Contemporary Books. p. 260. ISBN 0-8092-2227-2.
11. "Rule Albert Dekker's Death As Accidental". Variety. May 15, 1968. p. 2.
12. "Dekker's Death Accidental, Tentative Ruling Declares". The New York Times. May 9, 1968. p. 20.
13. "Hollywood Star Walk: Albert Dekker". latimes.com. Retrieved January 13, 2013.

External links

• Albert Dekker on IMDb
• Albert Dekker at the TCM Movie Database
• Albert Dekker at the Internet Broadway Database
• Albert Dekker at TV Guide
• Albert Dekker at Find a Grave

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