Albert Dekker was an accomplished film, television and stage actor. From the 1930s through the 1960s he performed in nearly one hundred films, acting alongside notables like Clark Gable, Joan Crawford and John Wayne.
He earned plaudits in 1940 for his leading role as the sinister Dr. Cyclops in the science fiction horror film of the same name. The movie was the first American horror film to be made in Technicolor. This sound clip features him threatening his on-screen captives:
As you and your fellows develop towards normal size you will again interfere with my work, and that is something which I cannot permit.
Dekker appeared in more than fifteen television series, including Mission Impossible, Bonanza and I Spy. On stage he was perhaps best known for playing Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. His versatile acting earned him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Learn more by reading the Albert Dekker papers at UW’s American Heritage Center.
For more information, visit the American Heritage Center site.