Roger De Koven

Roger De Koven, born Roger Bemet DeKoven on October 22, 1907, in Chicago, Illinois, was an American actor whose career spanned stage, radio, television, and film. He died on January 28, 1988, of cancer at his Manhattan home. One of seven children born to Bernard DeKoven and Clara Turner, he grew up in a household shaped by his Russian-born father's involvement in Zionist affairs and Jewish charitable work. After graduating from John Marshall High School, De Koven pursued higher education at the University of Chicago, Northwestern, and Columbia.

De Koven's professional stage career began in 1926 with Franz Werfel's Juarez and Maximilian, his Broadway debut. That same year he performed alongside Moscow's Habima Theatre troupe during their American tour. His Broadway career extended from 1927 to 1979 and encompassed a wide range of productions, including Saint Joan, Tiger at the Gates, Cyrano de Bergerac, Herzl, and Strider. Among his most prominent Broadway roles was his portrayal of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. in the musical Funny Girl. During the mid-1930s, while serving as leading man and director of a stock company, he directed a young Danny Kaye.

In 1940, De Koven appeared at The New School for Social Research in a production of King Lear, directed by the school's founder Erwin Piscator in what was the institution's first American staging of Shakespeare. He played Edmund opposite Sam Jaffe's Lear. His off-Broadway work also drew critical attention, with Variety's Tom Morse citing his performance in Deadly Game — an adaptation of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's A Dangerous Game — among the outstanding performances of the 1965–1966 off-Broadway season. A touring production of Leonard Spigelgass's Dear Me, the Sky is Falling, in which De Koven played Paul Hirsch, earned him praise from Nyack Journal-News critic Mariruth Campbell for conveying the character's underlying solidity. A 1969 production of Agatha Christie's 10 Little Indians, in which he portrayed Justice Lawrence Walgrave, drew notice from Home News critic Ernest Albrecht for De Koven's handling of a significant shift in character.

Beyond the stage, De Koven maintained an active presence in radio, appearing frequently on Grand Central Station, Dimension X, and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. He is particularly associated with the radio drama Against the Storm, in which he played Professor Jason Allen in a series recognized for its anti-war and anti-Nazi themes. De Koven married the former Mina Meltz on June 6, 1927, and the couple had two children.