Stacy Keach, from Hamlet to TV's Mike Hammer, dies at 85
Stacy Keach, the Shakespearean stage actor who became television's Mike Hammer, died Tuesday at his family home in Magdalenka, Poland. He was 85.
Malgosia Tomassi Keach, his wife, said heart failure and a serious heart condition had followed a long battle before his death on Nov. 10. "It is with profound sadness and a broken heart that I announce the passing of my darling husband, Stacy Keach," she said.
New York Times critic Clive Barnes wrote earlier that Keach was among the great Hamlets of his time and "the finest American classic actor since John Barrymore."
Born Walter Stacy Keach Jr. on June 2, 1941, in Savannah, Georgia, Keach grew up with a father who taught drama at Armstrong Junior College. Stacy Keach Sr. was a veteran character actor who played Carlson, head of the CONTROL lab, on "Get Smart."
Keach studied theater at the University of California, Berkeley, before winning a scholarship to the Yale School of Drama, followed by a Fulbright Scholarship to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
His stage work drew praise. For the New York Shakespeare Festival, he played Hamlet for Joseph Papp in Central Park. Keach won an Obie Award for "MacBird," the 1967 political satire in which his title character combined Lyndon B. Johnson and Macbeth. His portrayal of Buffalo Bill in "Indians" brought him a Tony nomination in 1970.
A boxing role and a lost part
Keach played aging boxer Billy Tully in John Huston's "Fat City" (1972), mentoring a younger fighter portrayed by Jeff Bridges. During a scene, he was knocked cold, and Huston kept the footage in the film. Keach said a voting technicality denied him an Oscar nomination for the role, leaving him bitterly disappointed.
Alongside George C. Scott, Keach portrayed a rookie police officer in "The New Centurions."
Keach had been hired as the young priest in "The Exorcist," but director William Friedkin gave the role to Jason Miller. In his 2013 memoir, Keach wrote, "My career as a movie star shuddered to a stop, just as it was getting started."
He later starred as Martin Luther in "Luther" (1974). His narcotics officer Sgt. Stedenko in the Cheech & Chong films "Up in Smoke" and "Nice Dreams" takes up marijuana and becomes a lizard. Keach and his brother James Keach portrayed Frank and Jesse James in "The Long Riders" (1980), which they co-wrote and co-produced.
Mike Hammer and his fedora
Keach joined producer Jay Bernstein to bring back Mickey Spillane's private eye in the 1983 CBS TV movie "Murder Me, Murder You." The series "Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer" followed in 1984, earning Keach a Golden Globe nomination. Spillane insisted on one detail: Keach always had to wear Hammer's fedora.
In his 2013 memoir, Keach wrote that his mother dismissed Spillane's paperbacks as trash. "I fantasized about being part of the world Mickey Spillane had created. It only took me 30 years to finally get that chance," he wrote.
The Hammer run was interrupted in 1984. On April 4, 1984, Keach was arrested at London's Heathrow Airport with 1.3 ounces of cocaine concealed in a fake shaving cream can, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
The Hollywood Reporter said he served six months in England's Reading Jail and was released for good behavior. TVLine said he received a nine-month sentence for drug smuggling.
"I thought my career was over, I really did," Keach told Vulture in 2012. He said he appreciated CBS taking him back and that Nancy Reagan took him under her wing. After his release, CBS brought Hammer back in a 1986 television movie and "The New Mike Hammer" series.
In 1986, Keach married Malgosia Tomassi, a Polish-born model and actress who frequently visited him in jail.
Keach won a Golden Globe and earned an Emmy nomination in 1989 for his portrayal of Ernest Hemingway in a syndicated miniseries. He later appeared as Ken, the title character's hard-drinking father, in the Fox sitcom "Titus."
He drew on his experience in England for "Prison Break," saying that the compassionate warden he knew there inspired his recurring character, Henry Pope. On CBS's "Blue Bloods," he had another recurring role as Archbishop, later Cardinal, Kevin Kearns.
On the June 2017 opening night of "Pamplona," a one-man play at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, Keach struggled to recall his lines. According to The Hollywood Reporter, a mild heart attack had struck Keach, prompting cancellation of the remaining performances. In 2017, Keach described "an unfulfilled obligation to the play, to the city and to myself" and returned to perform it in 2018.
Family
Among Keach's survivors are his wife; James Keach, his younger brother, an actor and director of "Walk the Line"; his children Karolina and Shannon; and grandchildren.
"Stacy was not only a legendary actor, admired and loved by audiences the world over, but also my beloved husband, my companion and the heart of our family," his wife said.
