Stacy Keach, the U.S. Actor Who Played Detective Mike Hammer, Dies in Poland at 85
U.S. actor Stacy Keach, best known for playing the hard-boiled private detective Mike Hammer, died on November 10 at his family home in Magdalenka, Poland, at the age of 85. His wife, Malgosia Keach, announced the news in a statement shared through the actor's representative.
After a long and difficult battle with a serious heart condition and heart failure, Keach peacefully departed this world, the statement said. Born on June 2, 1941, in Savannah, Georgia, and raised in Southern California, Keach became one of the most recognizable tough-guy actors on U.S. screens and stages, and was a Golden Globe winner.
Keach's most prominent role was Mike Hammer, the private investigator created by Mickey Spillane. He first took on the role in the 1983 television movie Murder Me, Murder You and returned to it across television series in the 1980s and 1990s, with the fedora and trench coat becoming his signature look.
Beyond Mike Hammer, Keach also played the novelist Ernest Hemingway and performed Hamlet on stage multiple times. His screen work included the outlaw Frank James in the western The Long Riders and Sgt. Stedenko in the comedy Up in Smoke, in a career spanning film, television and the stage over several decades.
Source: Statement from Stacy Keach's family
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：美国演员 Stacy Keach 2007 年出席活动（资料图，本图已预裁为 16:9）。Susanne 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: U.S. actor Stacy Keach at an event in 2007 (file photo, pre-cropped to 16:9). Photo by Susanne, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
