A native of
Chicago, Illinois, DeKoven was one of seven children born to Bernard DeKoven and Clara Turner. 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. 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." ==Personal life and death==