Roger De Koven

A native of Chicago, Illinois, DeKoven was one of seven children born to Bernard DeKoven and Clara Turner. 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, Northwestern, and Columbia. He made his Broadway debut in 1926 in Franz Werfel's Juarez and Maximilian. That same year, De Koven performed with Moscow's Habima Theatre troupe during their tour of the US.

In 1940, De Koven appeared at The New School for Social Research in Shakespeare's King Lear (the first American production staged by the school's founder, Erwin Piscator), playing Edmund to Sam Jaffe's Lear.

Variety's Tom Morse, at the conclusion of his article assessing Off Broadway's 1965–1966 season, includes de Koven's performance in Deadly Game—an adaptation of Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt'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'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'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."