Stacy Keach, the stage-trained actor who gave television one of its most memorable private eyes, has died at his home in Magdalenka, Poland, at 85, after a long struggle with heart disease. His life traced an unlikely arc: a gifted interpreter of Shakespeare who wanted roles as varied as possible, a television star whose career was briefly broken by a drug arrest, and then a man who rebuilt his work and turned his hard lesson into a warning for others. His death closes a long chapter of American and international performance, and leaves behind a body of work that asked audiences to look past t
Stacy Keach, Star of 'Mike Hammer' and 'Prison Break,' Dies at 85
There is no greater imprisonment than being dependent on a chemical substance
Mark
Why does the arrest loom so large in how people remember him?
Mimi
Because it hit at the peak of his Hammer fame. He was arrested at Heathrow in 1984 with 1.3 ounces of cocaine, sentenced to nine months, and served six at Reading Prison.
Luke
Worth noting the prison details, the bucket and the closet-sized cell, come from his own 2013 memoir. That's his account.
Mark
And the career damage? It seems he came back quickly.
Mimi
Within about two years. His first TV movie afterward was the third-highest rated of its season, and the shelved Hammer series got a CBS slot for 1986-87.
Luke
He did say, though, that his varied choices cost him, in a 2012 interview. That's about role choices generally, not the arrest.
Mark
What did he do with the experience?
Mimi
He testified to a House panel, narrated a documentary, and spoke on campuses and at rehab centers. Later he played a warden modeled on his own.
Luke
The modeling claim is also his. The reporting doesn't independently confirm it.
Mark
Anything about his death still unclear?
Luke
His wife's statement gives the cause as a serious heart condition and heart failure. Nothing beyond that has been reported.
Le Pouls
- A heart condition that had weighed on him for years finally ended the life of a performer who kept working until the stage itself gave way in 2017.
- His 1984 arrest at Heathrow threw his famous Mike Hammer career into a crisis of public shame and a six-month stay in a prison cell.
- He fought his way back through a sympathetic CBS audience, new television movies, and a role that let him play a warden with compassion.
- His later years turned toward speaking out against cocaine dependence, and his final performance in Jay Kelly leaves his legacy still in motion.
Stacy Keach, the stage-trained actor who gave television one of its most memorable private eyes, has died at his home in Magdalenka, Poland, at 85, after a long struggle with heart disease. His life traced an unlikely arc: a gifted interpreter of Shakespeare who wanted roles as varied as possible, a television star whose career was briefly broken by a drug arrest, and then a man who rebuilt his work and turned his hard lesson into a warning for others. His death closes a long chapter of American and international performance, and leaves behind a body of work that asked audiences to look past the tilted fedora to the person beneath it.
Stacy Keach died Tuesday at his home in Magdalenka, Poland, at the age of 85. His wife, Malgosia Tomassi Keach, said he had fought a serious heart condition and heart failure for a long time. The collapse onstage in Chicago in 2017, during a one-man Hemingway show, had been an early warning of how hard that fight would be.
To many, Keach was Mike Hammer, the crime novelist Mickey Spillane's scruffy private eye, whom he played as a dapper, chivalrous champion of the underdog. Yet he was also one of the finest stage actors of his generation, a respected Shakespearean who had played Lear, Hamlet and Richard III, and who refused to be typecast. He moved from a stoner cop and a deranged colonel to Alexander Payne's Nebraska and, last year, George Clooney's bitter father in Jay Kelly.
In 1984, while still making the Hammer series, he was arrested at London's Heathrow Airport with cocaine hidden in a shaving cream can. He called it the lowest moment of his life, and he spent six months in Reading Prison, where he found loneliness and a long stretch of self-examination. Letters from friends, including Gregory Peck and Al Pacino, helped carry him through.
His career recovered. A CBS movie and a revived Hammer series brought him back, and later he played a compassionate warden in Prison Break. After release he spoke at colleges and rehab centers about the imprisonment of addiction. His legacy now rests on both his performances and that hard-won honesty.
Stacy Keach died Tuesday at his home in Magdalenka, Poland. He was 85. His wife, Malgosia Tomassi Keach, said in a statement that he died after a long and difficult battle with a serious heart condition and heart failure. He had suffered a heart attack onstage in Chicago in June 2017.
Keach was regarded as one of America's finest stage actors, a preeminent interpreter of Shakespeare and a favorite of directors such as John Huston. Yet he was most closely tied to television's Mike Hammer, the scruffy private eye created by crime novelist Mickey Spillane. He played Hammer as a modern-day knight and a champion of the underdog. In 1983, Fred Rothenberg of The Associated Press wrote that Keach made a dashing, dapper Hammer, jaunty in a tilted gray fedora, who knew how to speak lust with his eyes and talk dirty with his fists.
He resisted repeating himself. He played a stoner cop on film, King Lear onstage, and narrated "World's Most Amazing Videos" on TV. He was a deranged colonel in "The Ninth Configuration," led the series "Titus," and appeared in Alexander Payne's Oscar-nominated "Nebraska." Last year he played George Clooney's bitter father in "Jay Kelly." He told New York magazine in 2012 that he wanted as varied a selection of roles as possible, that it probably hurt his career, and that he would not give up having played Hamlet, Richard III and King Lear.
The television credits ran deep: the miniseries "Mistral's Daughter," "Princess Daisy," Barabbas in Franco Zeffirelli's "Jesus of Nazareth," and Maj. Jonas Steele in "The Blue and the Gray." He won a Golden Globe for playing Ernest Hemingway in a six-hour miniseries, gaining 35 pounds for the part. On Broadway he earned a Tony nomination as Buffalo Bill in "Indians," played Edmund opposite Lee J. Cobb in "King Lear," and appeared in "The Country Wife" (1965), "The Kentucky Cycle" (1993) and "Other Desert Cities" (2011). He led the national tour of "Frost/Nixon" as Nixon and toured in "Sleuth" with Maxwell Caulfield. In 2017 he returned to Chicago's Goodman Theatre, where he had starred in "King Lear" in 2006, for "Pamplona," a one-man Hemingway show. He collapsed onstage and the run was canceled.
In 1984, while still making "Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer," Keach was arrested at London's Heathrow Airport with 1.3 ounces of cocaine hidden in an aerosol shaving cream can and elsewhere in his luggage. His secretary was also arrested. He was sentenced to nine months. In his 2013 book, "All in All: An Actor's Life On and Off the Stage," he wrote that it felt like being kicked in the groin with lead cleats, and called it the lowest moment of his life.
Handcuffed and taken to prison, he was put in a closet-sized cell with an orange plastic bucket for a toilet. Before he went in, an officer asked him to sign a copy of "The Blue and the Gray." Authorities sent the 44-year-old to Reading Prison, a medium-security lockup, because a minimum-security jail would have given reporters too easy access. He was released after six months. He wrote that he received warm letters from Gregory Peck, Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore and Al Pacino, and ran a monthly Sunday movie, once choosing "The Long Riders." He called the time very lonely, depressing and sad, much of it spent re-evaluating his own stupidity.
Afterward he narrated the TV documentary "High on the Job" and told a House panel he had become hooked on cocaine in the mid-1970s, saying there is no greater imprisonment than depending on a chemical substance. He took his warnings to college campuses and rehab centers. He also married Polish actor Malgosia Tomassi, whom he met when she appeared in the Hammer series; he said he treasured her photos and letters behind bars. He was married four times.
His career recovered. His first role after release, in the CBS movie "Intimate Strangers" with Teri Garr, was the third-highest-rated TV movie of the 1985-86 season. "The Return of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer" also did well, and the shelved series won a slot on CBS's 1986-87 schedule. Later, in "Prison Break" (2005-2007), he played a warden modeled on his own English warden, whom he said was compassionate and wanted inmates to rehabilitate.
Born in Savannah, Georgia, to actors who met at Northwestern, Keach studied at UC Berkeley, Yale and, as a Fulbright scholar, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. His film debut came in 1968 in "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter." He is survived by his wife and his children, Shannon and Karolina.
Citations marquantes
As my sentence was read, I felt like someone had kicked me in the groin with lead cleats; it was the lowest moment of my life.— Stacy Keach, in his 2013 book "All in All" (paraphrased)
His choices had a cost, but playing Hamlet, Richard III and King Lear was something he would not give up for anything.— Stacy Keach, New York magazine, 2012 (paraphrased)
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