Stacy Keach, the acclaimed stage actor who became widely known to television audiences as private investigator Mike Hammer, died at his home in Magdalenka, Poland, on Nov. 10. He was 85. His wife, Malgosia Tomassi Keach, said he died after a long battle with a serious heart condition and heart failure, according to The Associated Press.
Keach built a career across classical theater, television and film, though his portrayal of the tough, fedora-wearing Hammer remained one of his signature roles. The character, created by crime novelist Mickey Spillane, appeared in the series “Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer,” later retitled “The New Mike Hammer.”
His stage work included Broadway roles in “Indians,” “King Lear,” “The Kentucky Cycle” and “Other Desert Cities.” He also toured as President Richard Nixon in “Frost/Nixon” and played Ernest Hemingway in a television miniseries, a performance that earned him a Golden Globe. Keach returned to Hemingway in the one-man show “Pamplona,” where he collapsed during a 2017 performance in Chicago; the run was canceled.
On screen, Keach appeared in films including “Fat City,” “The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean,” “American History X” and “Nebraska.” His television credits included “Titus,” “Prison Break” and “Blue Bloods.” In a 2012 interview with New York magazine, he said he had sought a wide variety of roles, even if the choices came at a cost to his career.
Arrest interrupted his Mike Hammer run
In 1984, Keach was arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport after authorities found cocaine concealed in a shaving cream can and elsewhere in his luggage. He was sentenced to nine months in prison and served six. In his 2013 memoir, “All in All: An Actor’s Life On and Off the Stage,” he called the episode the lowest moment of his life.
After his release, Keach resumed acting and returned to the Mike Hammer role. He later spoke to college audiences and rehabilitation centers about drug dependence, and testified before a House panel about his own cocaine use.
Born in Savannah, Georgia, Keach studied at the University of California, Berkeley, Yale School of Drama and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He is survived by his wife and their children, Shannon and Karolina.
Reid Bentley