Washington (United States) (AFP) – Stacy Keach, the prolific and acclaimed American tough-guy actor who thrived in theatre, film, and television, and whose roles ranged from Hamlet to detective Mike Hammer, has died, his wife said Wednesday. He was 85. Malgosia Tomassi confirmed the news in a statement to Hollywood publication “Variety,” saying her husband died Tuesday “after a long and difficult battle with a serious heart condition and heart failure.”
The versatile and prolific Keach was a force of nature when he burst onto Broadway in the mid-1960s, winning praise as one of America’s greatest Shakespearean actors and earning a Tony Award nomination for his role in “Indians.” His silver screen debut in “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” kicked off a six-decade career that spanned more than 100 movies. In “Fat City,” the unsentimental 1972 film directed by John Huston and co-starring Jeff Bridges, Keach earned critical praise for his gritty portrayal of a washed-up boxer, establishing him as one of Hollywood’s most serious actors.
He also delivered top-tier performances as Doc Holliday in “Doc” from 1971, “The New Centurions,” and “The Long Riders.” Keach was widely celebrated for his role as the seen-it-all private eye in the hit TV series “The New Mike Hammer,” based on the gruff noir detective in the pulp novels of Mickey Spillane, whom Keach revered and eventually befriended. Keach — who claimed in his autobiography “All in All” that he shared the same drug dealer as John Belushi — nearly saw his career derailed when he was arrested in 1984 at London’s Heathrow airport trying to smuggle cocaine in a shaving cream can.
“Busted, like some common perp on ‘Mike Hammer.’ I knew how stupid I had been,” he wrote. Keach pleaded guilty and served six months in jail at England’s Reading Prison. He bounced back with a Golden Globe-winning portrayal of writer Ernest Hemingway in the 1988 television miniseries “Hemingway,” and he drew new fans in the 2010s by playing New York’s archbishop in the long-running CBS drama “Blue Bloods,” as well as with a recurring voice role on the iconic series “The Simpsons.”
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