Roger De Koven (born Roger Bemet DeKoven; October 22, 1907 – January 28, 1988)"Illinois, Cook County Birth Registers, 1871-1915", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N7CM-2LN : Sat Mar 09 19:26:23 UTC 2024), Entry for Roger Bemet Dekoven and Bernard Dekoven, 1906."Roger DeKoven, 81, Stage Actor; Career Hurt by McCarthy-Era Newsletter "
''The Los Angeles Times''. February 4, 1988. pt. 1, p. 28. was an American actor on stage, radio, television and film, known for his versatility,"Narrates and Plays Role in WQBC Program; Roger DeKoven Shows Versatility in Famous Jury Trials"
''The Vicksburg Post''. October 26, 1945. p. 2. and, in particular, for his portrayals of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. in the Broadway musical, '' Funny Girl'',New York Times News Service (January 30, 1988)
"Stage Actor Once Placed on Blacklist"
''Chicago Tribune''. Sec. 1, p. 6. and of Professor Jason Allen in the landmark anti-war—and anti-

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

—radio drama '' Against the Storm''.Dunning, John (1976).
Tune in Yesterday : The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, 1925-1976
'. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. pp. 19, 169, 667. . H appeared frequently on '' Grand Central Station'', '' Dimension X'', and ''

Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar ''Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar'' is a radio drama that aired on CBS Radio from February 18, 1949 to September 30, 1962. The first several seasons imagined protagonist Johnny Dollar as a private investigator drama, with Charles Russell, Edmond O ...

'', and—while employed as leading man/director of a stock company in the mid-1930s—directed the young

Danny Kaye Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kaminsky; ; January 18, 1911 – March 3, 1987) was an American actor, comedian, singer, and dancer. His performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and rapid-fire novelty songs. Kaye starred ...

Early life and career

A native of

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, DeKoven was one of seven children born to Bernard DeKoven and Clara Turner."Obituaries: Dr. Bernard DeKoven"
''Chicago Tribune''. August 12, 1940. p. 24. His father was a Russian-born Jew known for his active participation in Zionist affairs and Jewish charitable work. Following his graduation from John Marshall High School, DeKoven attended the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

, Northwestern, and Columbia. He made his Broadway debut in 1926 in

Franz Werfel Franz Viktor Werfel (; 10 September 1890 – 26 August 1945) was an Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet whose career spanned World War I, the Interwar period, and World War II. He is primarily known as the author of '' The Forty ...

's '' Juarez and Maximilian''. That same year, De Koven performed with

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Habima Theatre The Habima Theatre ( ''Te'atron HaBima'', lit. "The Stage Theatre") is the List of national theatres, national theatre of Israel and one of the first Hebrew language theatres. It is located in Habima Square in the center of Tel Aviv. History ...

troupe during their tour of the US. In 1940, De Koven appeared at

The New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR), previously known as The University in Exile and The New School University, is a graduate-level educational division of The New School in New York City, United States. NSSR enrolls more than 1,000 stud ...

in Shakespeare's ''

King Lear ''The Tragedy of King Lear'', often shortened to ''King Lear'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It is loosely based on the mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear, in preparation for his old age, divides his ...

'' (the first American production staged by the school's founder,

Erwin Piscator Erwin Friedrich Maximilian Piscator (17 December 1893 – 30 March 1966) was a German theatre director and Theatrical producer, producer. Along with Bertolt Brecht, he was the foremost exponent of epic theatre, a form that emphasizes the socio- ...

), playing

Edmund Edmund is a masculine given name in the English language. The name is derived from the Old English elements ''ēad'', meaning "prosperity" or "riches", and ''mund'', meaning "protector". Persons named Edmund include: People Kings and nobles *Ed ...

Sam Jaffe Shalom "Sam" Jaffe (March 10, 1891 – March 24, 1984) was an American actor, teacher, musician, and engineer. In 1951, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in '' The Asphalt Jungle'' (1950). He al ...

's Lear. ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

's'' Tom Morse, at the conclusion of his article assessing

Off Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

's 1965–1966 season, includes de Koven's performance in ''Deadly Game''—an adaptation of Swiss writer

Friedrich Dürrenmatt Friedrich Dürrenmatt (; 5 January 1921 – 14 December 1990) was a Swiss author and dramatist. He was a proponent of epic theatre whose plays reflected the recent experiences of World War II. The politically active author's work included avant- ...

's '' A Dangerous Game''—in his list of the year's outstanding performances. Of his performance as Paul Hirsch in the touring company of

Leonard Spigelgass Leonard Spigelgass (November 26, 1908 – February 15, 1985) was an American playwright, film producer and screenwriter. During his career, Spigelgass wrote the scripts for 11 Academy Award-winning films. He himself was nominated in 1950 for the s ...

's ''Dear Me, the Sky is Falling'', reviewed at the Tappan Zee Playhouse, ''Nyack Journal-News'' critic Mariruth Campbell writes, "DeKoven ..gives the role wondrous value by impressing the audience with Paul's basic solidity while seemingly the too-easily led marriage partner. He clearly shows Paul admires as well as adores his fix-it mama." Regarding De Koven's portrayal of Justice Lawrence Walgrave in a 1969 production of

Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English people, English author known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving ...

's '' 10 Little Indians'', '' Home News'' drama critic Ernest Albrecht notes, "DeKoven is particularly good at making an enormous change in character go down without our gagging on it."

Personal life and death

From June 6, 1927, DeKoven was married to the former Mina Meltz."New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1938", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:24WC-MRR : Tue Feb 20 20:41:59 UTC 2024), Entry for Roger De Koven and Mina Meltz, 6 Jun 1927. They had two children. On January 28, 1988, DeKoven died of cancer at his home in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

Acting credits

Stage

Radio

Film

Television

References

External links

Roger De Koven
at the

Internet Broadway Database The Internet Broadway Database (IBDB) is an online database of Broadway theatre productions and their personnel. It was conceived and created by Karen Hauser in 1996 and is operated by the Research Department of The Broadway League, a trade asso ...

*
Roger DeKoven
at Old Time Radio Researchers
Against the Storm 18 Eps
at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:De Koven, Roger 1906 births 1988 deaths American male film actors American male stage actors American male television actors American people of Russian-Jewish descent Deaths from cancer Hollywood blacklist Male actors from Chicago 20th-century American male actors American male radio actors