Stacy Keach, a distinguished American stage actor renowned for his portrayal of the rugged detective Mike Hammer on television, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 85. His career faced a significant setback in 1984 when he was incarcerated for attempting to smuggle cocaine into the UK.
Keach breathed his last at his residence in Magdalenka, Poland, “following a prolonged and challenging struggle with a serious heart ailment and heart failure,” as stated by his wife, Malgosia Tomassi Keach. In June 2017, he had already experienced a heart attack while performing in Chicago.
Although he was celebrated as a master interpreter of Shakespeare and favored by iconic directors like John Huston, Keach’s legacy is firmly intertwined with his interpretation of the tough private investigator Hammer, a character created by crime writer Mickey Spillane.
Refusing to be typecast, Keach’s career featured a diverse array of roles, from a laid-back cop in films to King Lear on stage, and even as the narrator of World’s Most Amazing Videos. He portrayed a disturbed colonel in The Ninth Configuration (also known as Twinkle, Twinkle Killer Kane), led the television series Titus, appeared in Alexander Payne’s Oscar-nominated film Nebraska, and took on a recurring role as a New York archbishop in the CBS drama Blue Bloods. Last year, he delivered a memorable performance as George Clooney’s disillusioned father in Jay Kelly.
“My goal was to have a broad variety of roles throughout my career. It may have negatively impacted my professional journey,” he shared with New York magazine in 2012. “My choices have come with consequences. But I have had the opportunity to portray Hamlet, Richard III, and King Lear, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.”
‘One of the greats’
Lou Diamond Phillips, who portrayed Keach’s son in the 2008 film Lone Rider, expressed his sentiments on X, describing Keach as a “consummate actor, gracious, generous, and incredibly kind, even with the aura of a smoldering volcano. One of the greats. I am proud to have shared some moments with him.”
Keach, seen in April 1984, was one of America’s finest stage actors. (Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Keach took on the role of French artist Julien Mistral in the CBS miniseries Mistral’s Daughter, portrayed a Russian prince in the miniseries adaptation of Judith Krantz’s novel Princess Daisy, played Barabbas in Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth, and was Maj. Jonas Steele in The Blue and the Gray. He received a Golden Globe for his role as Ernest Hemingway in a six-hour miniseries, for which he gained 35 pounds.
Keach was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance as Buffalo Bill in the Broadway production of Indians, starred as Edmund opposite Lee J. Cobb in King Lear on Broadway, and appeared in other onstage productions such as The Kentucky Cycle in 1993, The Country Wife in 1965, and Other Desert Cities in 2011.
He also led the national touring company of Frost/Nixon, playing the disgraced president, and toured with Sleuth alongside Maxwell Caulfield. In 2006, he starred in a production of King Lear at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and returned in 2017 for Pamplona, a one-man show about Hemingway, where he collapsed on stage, resulting in the show’s cancellation.
‘Lowest moment’ was prison
While still starring in Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer (later renamed The New Mike Hammer), Keach was apprehended in 1984 at London’s Heathrow Airport after attempting to smuggle 1.3 ounces of cocaine hidden in an aerosol shaving cream can and other parts of his luggage. His secretary was also taken into custody.
Stacy Keach and his wife Malgosia Tomassi Keach pose for a photo at a premiere in 2006. (Lucas Jackson/The Associated Press)
“As my sentence was announced — nine months in prison — it felt as if someone had kicked me in the groin with lead cleats,” he recounted in his 2013 memoir, All in All: An Actor’s Life On and Off the Stage. He added: “It was the lowest moment of my life.”
He was shackled and taken to a prison cell the size of a closet, equipped with an orange plastic bucket as a toilet. Prior to his incarceration, an officer asked him to sign a copy of the book The Blue and the Gray.
The then-44-year-old actor was placed in Reading Prison, a medium-security facility, as officials believed a minimum-security prison would allow too easy access for the media. He was released after serving six months.
In his memoir, Keach shared that during his time in prison, he received warm letters from Gregory Peck, Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, and Al Pacino. He was assigned to oversee a movie screening once a month on Sundays, recalling that he selected The Long Riders for one of those occasions. He described the experience as “very lonely, very depressing, very sad. I spent much of my time reflecting on my own foolishness.”
Post-incarceration, he narrated the television documentary High on the Job and testified before Congress, recounting to a House committee how he initially became addicted to cocaine in the mid-1970s. “There is no greater imprisonment than being reliant on a chemical substance for one’s survival,” he testified.
Keach took his message to college campuses and rehabilitation centers. He later married Polish actress Malgosia Tomassi, whom he met during her appearance on the Hammer series. He cherished her letters and photographs while he was incarcerated.
Married 4 times
Having been married four times, Keach is survived by Malgosia and his daughters, Shannon and Karolina.
His first project after his release was the CBS film Intimate Strangers alongside Teri Garr, which became the third-highest rated television movie of the 1985-86 season. His subsequent film, The Return of Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer, also performed well, and the Mike Hammer series, which had been shelved since his arrest, was finally scheduled for CBS’ 1986-87 programming.
Years later, in the series Prison Break, which aired from 2005 to 2007, Keach portrayed a prison warden, stating that he aimed to model his character after his real-life warden in England, who demonstrated great compassion and a desire to assist inmates in their rehabilitation.
Born in Savannah, Georgia, Keach was the offspring of actors who met at Northwestern University. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he obtained degrees in English and dramatic art.