‘Mike Hammer’ star Stacy Keach dies at 85

Stacy Keach, the prolific stage actor best known for his television role as Mike Hammer, died on Tuesday. He was 85. 

Big picture view:

Keach’s death was confirmed in a statement from his wife, Malgossia Tomassi Keach, who said her husband died at home in Magdalenka, Poland, "after a long and difficult battle with a serious heart condition and heart failure." In 2017, Keach had suffered a heart attack while onstage in Chicago.

The backstory:

Keach, who played the scruffy private detective Mike Hammer in multiple TV movies and a series based on Mickey Spillane’s character throughout the 1980s, was also considered one of the premier interpreters of Shakespeare. Keach played a wide variety of roles on stage and screen. His IMDb page alone contains more than 200 credits.

What they're saying:

"My objective was to have as varied a selection of roles as possible. It probably did hurt my career," he told New York magazine in 2012. "My choices have had a cost attached to it. But I’ve gotten to play Hamlet, and Richard III, and King Lear, and I would not give that up for anything."

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Keach’s arrest

Keach’s acting career was nearly derailed in 1984 when he was arrested for trying to smuggle into Britain more than an ounce of cocaine that was hidden in an aerosol shaving cream can. The arrest came while Keach was still making the series "Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer," later renamed "The New Mike Hammer." He was later sentenced to nine months in prison for the crime.  

Dig deeper:

Keach, whose parents were actors as well, was born in Savannah, Georgia, and went on to earn degrees in English and dramatic art from the University of California, Berkeley. He went on to attend the Yale School of Drama and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He portrayed Henry V, Mercutio, and Lord Berowne in the 1963 Oregon Shakespeare Festival, multiple roles in the New York Public Theater’s "Hamlet," which also featured Julie Harris, and performed other roles on the New York stage.

On the silver screen, Keach played Sergeant Stedenko in the Cheech and Chong movies. He was in two John Huston movies, "Fat City" and "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean." He also appeared in "American History X" with Edward Norton and "The Bourne Legacy."

 

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