Nov. 11 (UPI) — Stacy Keach, a staple of film and television for decades known best for his portrayal of hard-boiled private detective Mike Hammer on television, has died, according to his wife. He was 85.
Keach died Tuesday at his home in Magdalenka, Poland, following a “long and difficult battle with a serious heart condition and heart failure,” Malgosia Tomassi told Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.
“He fought for so long, with extraordinary courage, determination and strength. He was a true warrior, facing his illness with the same remarkable spirit and resilience that defined his life,” Tomassi said.
“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 passing leaves an immeasurable emptiness in our lives. But his extraordinary spirit, his unforgettable voice and the love he gave so generously will remain with us forever.”
Keach was born June 2, 1941, in Savannah, Ga., to actress Mary Cain Peckham and Walter Stacy Keach Sr. an actor, producer and director who created the legendary Tales of the Texas Rangers radio show of the 1950s, according to the younger Keach’s official biography.
His biography on the Hollywood Walk of Fame website states that Keach began acting at the age of four in Taft, Texas, before graduating from Van Nuys High School in 1959, and later earning English and dramatic arts degrees at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1963.
Keach first drew national critical attention for his Shakespearean performances at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in the early 1960s.
He then attended the Yale School of Drama and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
In 1968, Keach landed his first film role, a supporting role in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, starring Alan Arkin and Sondra Locke.
Over the nearly six decades that followed, Keach accumulated some 200 credits as an actor, appearing in diverse works including 1972’s John Huston-directed sports drama Fat City, 1978’s Cheech and Chong drug comedy Up in Smoke, 1980’s Western The Long Riders, 1998’s American History X and the 2013 Oscar-nominated Nebraska.
He continued to act into his later years, starring as Joe Burns, the father of Matt LeBlanc’s Adam Burns in the CBS comedy Man with a Plan, which ran from 2016 to 2020.
In 2019, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.Actor Stacy Keach (3rd-L) is joined by his wife, former Polish model and actress Malgosia Tomassi (2nd-L) and their son Shannon Keach (L) and daughter Karolina Keach (R) during a ceremony honoring him with the 2,668th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles on Wednesday, July 31, 2019. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI
During the pandemic, Keach performed in a Zoom production of Shakespeare’s King Lear.
He told UPI in April 2020, at the height of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, that he planned to use the time in quarantine to finish several other artistic projects, and encouraged fans to find ways to be productive.
“Read that book, write that play,” he said. “I think it’s a time we should think of it as an opportunity to do things you wouldn’t necessarily get to do having to go to work.”
During his career, Keach was nominated for two Golden Globes, winning the 1989 trophy for best performance by an actor in a limited series for his portrayal of American Writer Ernest Hemingway in the television miniseries Hemingway, a role that also netted him an Emmy nomination.
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