Stacy Keach

Stacy Keach
Stacy Keach in May 2007
Born	Walter Stacy Keach Jr. (1941-06-02) June 2, 1941 Savannah, Georgia, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Actor, narrator
Years active	1964–present
Spouse(s)	Kathryn Baker (m. 1964; div. ?) Marilyn Aiken (m. 1975; div. 1979) Jill Donahue ​ ​ (m. 1981; div. 1986)​ Malgosia Tomassi ​ ​ (m. 1986)​
Parent(s)	Stacy Keach, Sr. Mary Cain (née Peckham)
Relatives	James Keach (brother)
Website	www.gostacykeach.com

Walter Stacy Keach Jr. (born June 2, 1941) is an American actor of stage, film, and television. Highly prolific, he has played mainly dramatic roles throughout his career, often in law enforcement or as a private detective. His most prominent role was as Mickey Spillane's fictional detective Mike Hammer, which he played in numerous stand-alone television films and at least three different television series throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The role earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination in 1984.

He has also performed as a narrator for programs including CNBC'S American Greed (2008–) and various educational television programs. Comedic roles include his role in the Fox sitcom Titus (2000–2002) as Ken, the father of comedian Christopher Titus, and as Sergeant Stedenko in Cheech & Chong's films Up in Smoke (1978) and Nice Dreams (1981). His most recent recurring roles include two seasons as the Warden, Henry Pope, in the series Prison Break (2005–2007), "Pops", the father of the main character from the boxing drama Lights Out (2011), the elderly father Bob on the sitcom Crowded (2016) and the father of Matt LeBlanc's protagonist Adam on Man With A Plan (2015–). Keach won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for the television miniseries Hemingway (1988).

Early life

Keach was born in Savannah, Georgia, the son of Mary Cain (née Peckham), an actress, and Stacy Keach, Sr. (Walter Stacy Keach), a theatre director, drama teacher, and actor. His brother James Keach is an actor and television director. Keach graduated from Van Nuys High School in June 1959, where he was class president, then earned two BA degrees at the University of California, Berkeley (1963), one in English, the other in Dramatic Art. He earned a Master of Fine Arts at the Yale School of Drama and was a Fulbright Scholar at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

While studying in London, Keach met his acting hero Laurence Olivier.

Career

Theatre

Keach played the title role in MacBird!, an Off-Broadway anti-war satire by Barbara Garson staged at the Village Gate in 1966. In 1967, he was cast, again Off Broadway, in George Tabori's The Niggerlovers with Morgan Freeman in his acting debut. To this day, Freeman credits Keach with teaching him the most about acting. In 1967, Keach also starred in We Bombed in New Haven, a play by Joseph Heller which premiered in New Haven at the Yale Repertory Theatre and later went on to Broadway. Keach first appeared on Broadway in 1969 as Buffalo Bill in Indians by Arthur Kopit. Early in his career, he was credited as Stacy Keach, Jr. to distinguish himself from his father. He played the lead actor in The Nude Paper Sermon an avant-garde musical theatre piece for media presentation, commissioned by Nonesuch Records by composer Eric Salzman.

He has won numerous awards, including Obie Awards, Drama Desk Awards and Vernon Rice Awards. In the early 1980s, he starred in the title role of the national touring company of the musical Barnum composed by Cy Coleman. In 1991 and 1996 he won Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Actor for his work in Richard III and Macbeth with Shakespeare Theatre Company. In 1998, he was one of the three principals in a London production of Art with George Wendt. In 2006, he performed the lead role in Shakespeare's King Lear at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. In 2008, he played Merlin in Lerner and Loewe's Camelot, done with the New York Philharmonic. In the summer of 2009, Shakespeare Theatre Company remounted the production of King Lear at Sidney Harman Hall in Washington, D.C., which won him another Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Actor.

He has played the title role in two separate productions of Hamlet.

In 2008 and 2009, Keach played Richard M. Nixon in the U.S. traveling version of the play Frost/Nixon.

On December 16, 2010, Keach began performances as patriarch Lyman Wyeth in the off-Broadway premiere of Jon Robin Baitz' acclaimed new play Other Desert Cities. The production transferred to Broadway's Booth Theatre, where it opened November 3, 2011.

Keach is a founding member of L.A. Theatre Works and had held leads in many productions with them, including 'Willy Loman' in Death of a Salesman and 'John Proctor' in The Crucible.

He was scheduled to return to Broadway in December 2014 in the revival of Love Letters at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre alongside Diana Rigg, but the play closed before Keach and Rigg were to begin their runs.

Keach was scheduled to play Ernest Hemingway in Jim McGrath's one-man play Pamplona at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago from May 30 to June 25, 2017. Keach did appear in previews of Pamplona May 19 through May 28, and was well received by audiences. He was reported to be sick on opening night, but still went on for the night's performance, which was halted about an hour into the performance due to Keach's health. The following two nights' performances were also canceled, and on June 2, the Goodman Theatre announced that the entire run would be canceled because Keach's doctors advised a period of rest and recuperation for him.

Music

Keach sang backing vocals on the Judy Collins hit song "Amazing Grace".

Films

Keach played a rookie policeman in The New Centurions (1972), opposite George C. Scott. That year he also starred in Fat City, a boxing film directed by John Huston. He was the first choice for the role of Damien Karras in the 1973 movie The Exorcist, but he did not accept the role. He went on to play Kane in the 1980 movie The Ninth Configuration, written and directed by Blatty; this role was itself intended for Nicol Williamson.

Stacy Keach's storytelling talent as narrator was given worldwide exposure in the 1973 Formula One racing documentary Champions Forever, The Quick and the Dead by Claude du Boc.

Keach played Cheech and Chong's Police Department nemesis Sgt. Stedenko in Up In Smoke and Nice Dreams. He also appeared as Barabbas in Jesus of Nazareth. In 1978 he played a role of explorer and scientist in The Mountain of the Cannibal God, co-starring former Bond girl Ursula Andress. The film became a cult favorite as a "Video nasty".

One of his most convincing screen performances was as Frank James (elder brother of Jesse) in The Long Riders (1980). His brother James played Jesse James. In 1982 Keach starred in Butterfly with Pia Zadora.

He portrayed a white supremacist in American History X, alongside Edward Norton and Edward Furlong. In Oliver Stone's 2008 biopic W., Keach portrays a Texas preacher whose spiritual guidance begins with George W. Bush's AA experience, but extends long thereafter.

Keach also starred in the TV film Ring of Death playing a sadistic prison warden who runs an underground fight club where prisoners compete for their lives.

He had also starred in the movie Planes as Skipper Riley, main character Dusty Crophopper's flight instructor. He reprised the role in Planes: Fire & Rescue.

In 2012, Keach had a significant supporting role in The Bourne Legacy, and in the 2013 Alexander Payne film Nebraska.

In 2017, the film Gotti: In The Shadow of My Father will be released. Keach plays the part of Neil Dellacroce, the notorious underboss of the Gambino crime family.

Television

Keach as Mike Hammer and Tanya Roberts as Velda in Murder Me, Murder You in 1983

One of Keach's early television roles was in 1958 on the syndicated romantic comedy, How to Marry a Millionaire, with Barbara Eden and Merry Anders. His first-ever experience as a series regular on a television program was playing the lead role of Lieutenant Ben Logan in Caribe in 1975. He played Barabbas in the 1977 Jesus of Nazareth (miniseries), and portrayed Jonas Steele, a psychic and Scout of the United States Army in the 1982 CBS miniseries, The Blue and the Gray. He later portrayed and is best known as Mike Hammer in the CBS television series Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer and The New Mike Hammer from 1984 to 1987. He returned to the role of Hammer in Mike Hammer, Private Eye, a new syndicated series that aired from 1997 to 1998. In 1988, he starred as Ernest Hemingway in the made-for-TV movie Hemingway.

In 2000, he played Ken Titus, the father of the title character in Fox's sitcom Titus. Cast members of Titus have commented they enjoyed working with Keach because he would find a way to make even the driest line funny.

Keach lent his voice to The Simpsons episodes "Hungry, Hungry Homer," "Old Yeller-Belly," "Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play," and "Waiting for Duffman," portraying Duff Brewery President Howard K. Duff VIII, and the Batman Beyond episode "Lost Soul" as an artificial intelligence. He also guest starred in a 2005 episode of the sitcom Will & Grace, and had a recurring role as Warden Henry Pope in the Fox drama Prison Break.

In November 2013, Keach appeared on the Fox comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine, in the episode "Old School". In February 2015, Keach started guest appearing in NCIS: New Orleans as Cassius Pride, father of NCIS Agent Dwayne Pride.

Narrator

Stacy Keach narrated several episodes of Nova, National Geographic, and various other informational series. From 1989-92, he was host of the syndicated informational reenactment show, Missing Reward, which had a similar format to the popular Unsolved Mysteries at the time. From 1992-95, he became the voice-over narrator for the paranormal series Haunted Lives: True Ghost Stories.

Beginning in 1999, he served as the narrator for the home video clip show World's Most Amazing Videos, which is now seen on Spike TV. He currently hosts The Twilight Zone radio series. Keach can also be heard narrating the CNBC series American Greed. For the PBS series American Experience, he narrated The Kennedys, among others.

In 2008, Keach once again reprised his famous role as Mike Hammer in a series of full-cast radio dramatisations for Blackstone Audio. (He also arranged and performed the music for the audio dramas. His wife, Malgosia Tomassi also starred in the dramas playing Maya Ricci, a yoga instructor.) Keach has also read many of Mickey Spillane's original Mike Hammer novels as Audiobooks.

Keach plays the role of John in The Truth & Life Dramatized Audio Bible, a 22-hour audio version of the RSV-CE translation of the New Testament.

On January 6, 2014, Keach became the official voice of The Opie and Anthony Channel on SiriusXM Satellite Radio (Sirius Channel 206, XM Channel 103).

Personal life

Keach's star at the Orpheum Theatre, 2010

Keach was born with a cleft lip and a partial cleft of the hard palate, and he underwent numerous operations as a child. Throughout his adult life he has often worn a mustache to hide the scars. He is now the honorary chairman of the Cleft Palate Foundation, and advocates for insurance coverage for such surgeries. In the 1971 film Doc Keach impersonated the title character, John "Doc" Holliday.

In 1984, London police arrested Keach at Heathrow Airport for possession of cocaine. Keach plead guilty, and served six months at Reading Prison. This was during the run of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, which Keach had also narrated in character; impressionist Rich Little had to fill in as the show's narrator during Keach's imprisonment.

Keach stated that his time in prison (which he said was the lowest point of his life) and the friendship he formed with a priest who befriended him during that time led to his conversion to Roman Catholicism. Subsequently, he and his wife were able to meet with Pope John Paul II to have their son blessed since his wife, Malgosia Tomassi, had gone to the same school that the Pope had attended in Warsaw.

Keach has been married four times: to Kathryn Baker in 1964, to Marilyn Aiken in 1975, to Jill Donahue in 1981, and to Malgosia Tomassi around 1986. In 2015 Keach received Polish citizenship.

He suffered a mild stroke in March 2009, from which he has made a full recovery.

In June 2017, Keach fell ill during the opening night production of Pamplona at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. During the one man show, he appeared lost and repeated the same lines of dialogue over and over. The Goodman cancelled the rest of the run a few days later.

Filmography

Films

Title	Year	Role	Notes
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter	1968	Blount
Brewster McCloud	1970	Abraham Wright
End of the Road	1970	Jacob Horner
The Traveling Executioner	1970	Jonas Candide
Doc	1971	Doc Holliday
The New Centurions	1972	Roy Fehler
Fat City	1972	Billy Tully	KCFCC Award for Best Actor (tied with Marlon Brando for The Godfather)
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean	1972	Original Bad Bob the Albino
Wilbur and Orville: The First to Fly	1973	Wilbur Wright
Luther	1973	Martin Luther
The Gravy Train	1974	Calvin
Watched!	1974	Mike Mandell/Sonny
Conduct Unbecoming	1975	Captain Harper
Street People	1976	Charlie Hanson
The Killer Inside Me	1976	Lou Ford
The Squeeze	1977	Jim Naboth
The Greatest Battle	1978	Major Mannfred Roland
Gray Lady Down	1978	Capt. Bennett
Up in Smoke	1978	Sergeant Stedanko
Two Solitudes	1978	Huntley McQueen
Mountain of the Cannibal God	1979	Professor Edward Foster
The Ninth Configuration	1980	Col. Vincent Kane
The Long Riders	1980	Frank James
Road Games	1981	Patrick Quid
Nice Dreams	1981	Sergeant Stedanko
Butterfly	1982	Jess Tyler
That Championship Season	1982	James Daley
False Identity	1990	Ben Driscoll/Harlan Errickson
Class of 1999	1990	Dr. Bob Forest
Milena	1991	Jesenski
Sunset Grill	1993	Harrison Shelgrove
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm	1993	Carl Beaumont / Voice of Phantasm	Voice only
New Crime City	1994	Wynorski
Raw Justice	1994	Deputy Mayor Bob Jenkins
Escape From L.A.	1996	Commander Malloy
Prey of the Jaguar	1996	The Commander
The Sea Wolf	1997	Captain Wolf
American History X	1998	Cameron Alexander
Future Fear	1998	General Wallace
Fear Runs Silent	1999	Mr. Hill
Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return	1999	Dr. Michaels
Unshackled	2000	Warden Kelso
Icebreaker	2000	Bill Foster
Militia	2000	George Armstrong Montgomery
Mercy Streets	2000	Tom
Sunstorm	2001	General John Parker
Birds of Passage	2001	Captain Savienko
When Eagles Strike	2003	General Thurmond
The Hollow	2004	Claus Van Ripper
Caught in the Headlights	2004	Mr. Jones
Galaxy Hunter	2004	3V3
El Padrino: The Latin Godfather	2004	Governor Lancaster
Man with the Screaming Brain	2005	Dr. Ivanov
Keep Your Distance	2005	Brooks Voight
Come Early Morning	2006	Owen Allen
Jesus, Mary and Joey	2006	Jack O'Callahan
Haunted Prison	2006		TV film
Honeydripper	2007	Sheriff
W.	2008	Earle Hudd
Chicago Overcoat	2009	Ray Berkowski
The Boxer	2009	Joe
Weather Wars	2011	Marcus Grange
Cellmates	2011	Warden Merville
Jerusalem Countdown	2011	Jackson	Based on the Novel, Jerusalem Countdown
The Bourne Legacy	2012	Turso
The Great Chameleon	2012	Max
Ooga Booga	2013
Planes	2013	Skipper	Voice only
Nebraska	2013	Ed Pegram
Planes: Fire & Rescue	2014	Skipper	Voice only
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For	2014	Wallenquist
If I Stay	2014	Grandpa
Truth	2015	Lt. Colonel Bill Burkett
Cell	2016	Charles Ardai
Gold	2016	Clive Coleman
Girlfriend's Day	2017	Gundy
The Life and Death of John Gotti	2017	Aniello "Neil" Dellacroce	Post-production

Television

Title	Year	Role	Notes
Perry Mason	1964	Police Detective	Episode: "The Case of the Frightened Fisherman"
Channing	1964	The Colleague	Episode: "The Face in the Sun"
The Winter's Tale	1967	Autolycus	Television film
Macbeth	1968	Banquo	Television film
NET Playhouse	1971	Wilbur Wright	Episode: "The Wright Brothers"
The Man of Destiny	1973	Napoleon Bonaparte	Television film
All the Kind Strangers	1974	Jimmy Wheeler	Television film
Great Performances	1974	Chorus	Episode: "Antigone"
Caribe	1975	Lieutenant Ben Logan	6 episodes
Dynasty	1976	Matt Blackwood	Mini series
Lincoln	1976	Politician	Episode: "Crossing Fox River"
Jesus of Nazareth	1977	Barabbas	Miniseries; episode: "Part 2"
The Fitzpatricks	1978	Unnamed character	Episode: "The New Fitzpatrick"
Saturday Night Live	1978	Man in Cold As Ice	Episode: "Christopher Lee/Meatloaf"
A Rumor of War	1980	Maj. Ball	Miniseries
The Blue and the Gray	1982	Jonas Steele	Miniseries
Princess Daisy	1983	Prince Alexander "Stash" Valensky	Miniseries
Murder Me, Murder You	1983	Mike Hammer	Television film
Mistral's Daughter	1984	Julien Mistral	Miniseries
More Than Murder	1984	Mike Hammer	Television film
Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer	1984–1985	Mike Hammer	Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Drama
The Return of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer	1986	Mike Hammer	Television film
Intimate Strangers	1986	Dr. Jeff Bierston	Television film
The New Mike Hammer	1986–1987	Mike Hammer	Television series
Hemingway	1988	Ernest Hemingway	Miniseries Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film (tied with Michael Caine for Jack the Ripper) Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor - Miniseries or a Movie
The Forgotten	1989	Adam Roth	Television film
Mike Hammer: Murder Takes All	1989	Mike Hammer	Television film
Missing: Reward	1989-1992	Host	Television series
The Mysteries of the Dark Jungle	1991	Colonel Edward Corishant	Mini series
Mission of the Shark: The Saga of the U.S.S. Indianapolis	1991	Captain Charles Butler McVay III, USN	Television film
Lincoln	1992	George McClellan (voice only)	Television film
Haunted Lives: True Ghost Stories	1992	Narrator (voice only)	Television series
Revenge on the Highway	1992	Claude Sams	Television film
Rio Diablo	1993	Kansas	Television film
Body Bags	1993	Richard Coberts	Television film
In The Heat Of The Night	1993	Wade Hatton	Television film
Against Their Will: Women in Prison	1994	Jack Devlin	Television film
Texas	1994	Sam Houston	ABC Television film
Young Ivanhoe	1995	Pembrooke	Television film
Amanda & the Alien	1995	Emmitt Mallory	Television film
The Pathfinder	1996	Compte du Leon	Television film
Promised Land	1997	Ned Bernhart	Episode: "Downsized"
Legend of the Lost Tomb	1997	Dr. William Bent	Television film
Murder in My Mind	1997	Cargill	Television film
Mike Hammer, Private Eye	1997–1998	Mike Hammer	26 episodes
Touched by an Angel	1997, 2003	Maury Hoover / Ty Duncan	2 episodes
Rugrats	1998–2001	Marvin Finster (voice)	3 episodes
Batman Beyond	1999	Vance (voice)	Episode: "Lost Soul"
The Courage to Love	2000	Jean Baptiste	Television film
The Outer Limits	2000	Cord van Owen	Episode: "The Gun"
Titus	2000–2002	Ken Titus	54 episodes
Lightning: Fire from the Sky	2001	Bart Pointdexter	Television film
The Zeta Project	2001	Roland de Flores (voice)	Episode: "The Next Gun"
The Simpsons	2001–2016	Howard Duff / Various (voice)	6 episodes
The Santa Trap	2002	Max Hurst	Television film
The Zeta Project	2002	Roland de Flores (voice)	Episode: "The Next Gun"
Girls Club	2002	Harold Falcon	Episode: "Book of Virtues"
Miracle Dogs	2003	C.W. Aldrich	Television film
Frozen Impact	2003	Pete Crane	Television film
What's New, Scooby-Doo?	2003, 2005	Harold Lind / The Mayor (voice)	2 episodes
George Lopez	2005	Blaine McNamara	Episode: "George Stare-oids Down Jason"
Will & Grace	2005	Wendell Schacter	Episode: "From Queer to Eternity"
Prison Break	2005–2007	Henry Pope	23 episodes
Desolation Canyon	2006	Samuel Kendrick	Television film
Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America	2006	Secretary Collin Reed	Television film
Blackbeard	2006	Captain Benjamin Hornigold	Television film
Death Row (a.k.a. Haunted Prison)	2006	John Elias	Television film
ER	2007	Mike Gates	3 episodes
American Greed	2007–present	Narrator (voice only)	Television series transmitted on the Consumer News-and-Business Channel
Lone Rider	2008	Robert Hattaway	Television film
Ring of Death	2008	Warden Golan	Television film
Meteor	2009	Sheriff Crowe	Television film
The Nanny Express	2009	Rev. McGuiness	Television film
Two and a Half Men	2010	Tom, Chelsea's father	4 episodes
Lights Out	2011	Pops Leary	13 episodes
Bored to Death	2011	Bergeron	2 episodes
Mater's Tall Tales	2011	Skipper (voice)	Episode: "Air Mater"
Hindenburg	2011	Edward van Zandt	Television film
30 Rock	2012	Himself	Episode: "Murphy Brown Lied to Us"
Anything For Money	2012	Narrator	Song written and composed to promote CNBC's series American Greed (see above)
The Neighbors	2012–2013	Dominick Weaver	3 episodes
Sean Saves the World	2013	Lee Thompson	3 episodes
1600 Penn	2013	Senator Frohm Thoroughgood	2 episodes
Anger Management	2013	Ray	Episode: "Charlie and Deception Therapy"
Brooklyn Nine-Nine	2013	Jimmy Brogan	Episode: "Old School"
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	2014	Orion Bauer	Episode: "American Disgrace"
Enlisted	2014	Patrick	Episode: "Vets"
Jennifer Falls	2014	Mike	Episode: "Jennifer's Song"
The Exes	2014	Bill Drake	Episode: "An Officer and a Dental Man"
Hot in Cleveland	2015	Alex	2 episodes
Full Circle	2015	Bud O'Rourke	8 episodes
NCIS: New Orleans	2015	Cassius Pride	2 episodes
Crowded	2016	Bob Moore	13 episodes
Blue Bloods	2016-2017	Archbishop Kevin Kearns	2 episodes
Ray Donovan	2016	Marty (The Texan)	2 episodes
Blunt Talk	2016	Arthur Bronson	2 episodes
Man with a Plan	2017	Joe Burns	Episode: "Assisted Living"

External links

• Stacy Keach - official website
• Stacy Keach at IMDb
• Stacy Keach at the Internet Broadway Database
• Stacy Keach at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Cleft Palate Foundation
• BroadwayWorld.com interview with Stacy Keach, September 23, 2008