Stacy Keach 1941 – 2026

Biography

Walter Stacy Keach Jr. was an American actor whose six-decade career ran from Shakespearean stages to television stardom. Born in Savannah, Georgia, on June 2, 1941, he became best known as Mickey Spillane’s hard-boiled private eye Mike Hammer on CBS from 1984 to 1987, a role he returned to across films and TV movies. A Theatre Hall of Fame inductee with four Drama Desk Awards and a Golden Globe, he played Hamlet and King Lear on stage and Hemingway on screen, with film credits including Fat City and The Long Riders and later television turns in Titus, Prison Break and Blue Bloods. In June 2017 he suffered a heart attack onstage in Chicago and underwent a triple bypass. He died on November 10, 2026, at his family home in Magdalenka, Poland, after a long battle with a serious heart condition and heart failure. He was 85, survived by his wife Malgosia and their children Karolina and Shannon.