Stacy Keach, Star of ‘Mike Hammer,’ ‘Fat City,’ Dies at 85

Stacy Keach, a commanding actor whose work includes movies like “Fat City” and the starring role in “The New Mike Hammer” series on CBS, died Tuesday in Poland. He was 85.

His wife, Małgosia Tomassi, confirmed his death to Variety. In a statement, she said he died “after a long and difficult battle with a serious heart condition and heart failure” at the family’s home in Magdalenka, Poland.

“Stacy was not only a legendary actor, admired and loved by audiences the world over, but also my beloved husband, my companion and the heart of our family,” the statement said. “His passing leaves an immeasurable emptiness in our lives. But his extraordinary spirit, his unforgettable voice and the love he gave so generously will remain with us forever.

Active on stage, film and TV into his eighties, he popped up in “The Bourne Legacy,” “Nebraska,” “Two and a Half Men,” “Ray Donovan” and had a recurring voice role on “The Simpsons.” Keach was also known for playing Cardinal Kevin Kearns on “Blue Bloods.” His TV appearances included “Man With a Plan” and “The Black List.” His final role was in “Jay Kelly” in 2025, as the father of Jay Kelly, played by George Clooney.

In 2010, he received a Helen Hayes award for his performance of “King Lear,” for Shakespeare Theater Co., one of many stage honors over the course of his career.

Keach got his Tony nomination for playing Buffalo Bill in the 1969 Broadway production “Indians” early on but garnered even more fame as “Mike Hammer.” The CBS series aired from 1984-87 and he reprised the role in the 1989 TV movie “Mike Hammer: Murder Takes All” and the syndicated series “Mike Hammer, Private Eye” in 1997-98. He also narrated the CNBC series, “American Greed.”

Keach’s run as the private detective got off to a rocky start off screen, however. In 1984, police arrested Keach at London’s Heathrow Airport for possession of cocaine. Pleading guilty, the actor served six months at Reading Prison. Since Keach also narrated “Mike Hammer” in character, impressionist Rich Little was called to sub in as the show’s narrator during Keach’s imprisonment.

In a 2014 television interview, Keach declared that his time in prison was (understandably) the low point of his life, and a friendship he formed with a priest during that time led to his conversion to Roman Catholicism.

Keach’s Emmy nomination came shortly after that period; he was recognized in 1988 for outstanding lead actor in a miniseries or special for playing the famous author of the title in “Ernest Hemingway.”

Part of an acting family that includes his younger brother James, who has gone on to direct and produce, Walter Stacy Keach Jr. was born in Savannah, Ga., the son of actress Mary Cain and Stacy Keach Sr., an actor, drama teacher and theater director. Class president at Van Nuys High School, he graduated from UC Berkeley in 1963, and went on to earn a graduate degree at the Yale School of Drama. He was also a Fulbright Scholar at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

In 1966, Keach played the title role in Barbara Garson’s Off Broadway anti-war satire “MacBird!,”winning his first Obie Award. The following year he appeared Off Broadway again, this time with Morgan Freeman (in the latter’s acting debut) in George Tabori’s provocatively titled “The Niggerlovers.”

Keach made his Broadway debut in Georg Buchner’s “Danton’s Death” in 1965, soon thereafter appearing in a revival of “The Country Wife,” followed by the original Broadway production of Bertolt Brecht play “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” and a 1968 staging of “King Lear” in which he played Edmund. The following year he starred in Arthur Kopit’s “Indians,” picking up his Tony nomination for his performance as Buffalo Bill.

He returned to Broadway in 1979 as a replacement for John Wood as Sidney Bruhl in Ira Levin’s long-running mystery comedy “Deathtrap,” starred in “Solitary Confinement” in 1992 and in Robert Schenkkan’s “The Kentucky Cycle” the following year.

Off Broadway, Keach appeared twice in “Hamlet,” in 1964 and 1972, the second time in the title role, winning his second Obie. He also appeared as Falstaff in Henry “IV” Parts I and II in 1968, and as James Tyrone Jr. in O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” in 1971.

In the early 1980s he starred in the title role of the national touring company of the Cy Coleman musical “Barnum.” He performed the title role in “King Lear” at the Goodman Theater in 2006, and in 2008 played Merlin in a semi-staged version of “Camelot” with the New York Philharmonic.

Keach played Richard M. Nixon in the U.S. traveling version of the play “Frost/Nixon” in 2008 and 2009, in the course of which — one day in March 2009 — he had a series of strokes, from he recovered sufficiently to take another go at “King Lear” in D.C. that summer.

Keach was a founding member of L.A. Theatre Works.

The actor debuted on TV in an episode of college drama “Channing” in 1964, followed by a TV movie versions of Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” (1967), in which he played Autolycus, and “Macbeth” (1968), in which he played Banquo. Also in 1968 the actor made his big-screen debut in the adaptation of Carson McCullers’ “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.”

He played a crippled millionaire in Robert Altman’s “Brewster McCloud” (1970) and by the next year he starred in the title role of the Western “Doc,” playing Doc Holliday opposite Faye Dunaway.

In John Huston’s boxing drama “Fat City” (1972), Keach was the over-the-hill boxer praying for a comeback, and Jeff Bridges was the young boxer on the rise.

Also in 1972 the actor starred with George C. Scott and Jane Alexander in the adaptation of Joseph Wambaugh’s “The New Centurions” and had a supporting role in Huston’s “The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean.” He played in a number of roles before stoner comedy classic “Up in Smoke” (1978).

“The Ninth Configuration” (1980), directed by Willliam Peter Blatty and adapted by him from his own surrealist novel “Twinkle Twinkle ‘Killer’ Kane,” became a cult favorite, with Keach’s as Marine Col. Vincent Kane who runs a hospital for military men with psychiatric problems.

Also in 1980, the actor appeared with his brother James Keach as Frank and Jesse James in “The Long Riders,” and in 1982 he starred with Bruce Dern, Robert Mitchum, Martin Sheen and Paul Sorvino in Jason Miller’s “That Championship Season.”

Additional film credits include Oliver Stone’s biopic “W.” (2008), John Sayles’ “Honeydripper” (2007) and “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” (2014). He had a recurring role on “ER” and the Fox comedy “Titus.”

H has made numerous guest appearances on shows including “Touched by an Angel,” “Will & Grace,” “George Lopez,” “30 Rock” (as himself), “Anger Management,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “NCIS: New Orleans” and “Hot in Cleveland.”

Keach was married four times, first to Kathryn Baker in 1964, then to Marilyn Aiken from 1975-79 and to Jill Donahue from 1981-86.

He is survived by fourth wife Malgosia Tomassi, whom he married in 1986; son Shannon and daughter Karolina and his brother James Keach.