Veteran actor Stacy Keach has passed away at 85 after a career spanning more than six decades. Besides his work in comic book movies such as Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Keach has starred in Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer, Titus and Prison Break. His wife Malgosia Keach confirmed he died on November 10th at their home in Poland following a long battle with a heart condition and heart failure.
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Born on June 2, 1941, in Savannah, Georgia, Keach came from a theatrical family. His father was an actor and director, and his younger brother, James Keach, also became an actor and film director. Keach was educated at UC Berkeley, Yale, and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art before making his stage debut. He was nominated for a Tony for Indians in 1969 and won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Ernest Hemingway in the 1988 miniseries Hemingway.
In the realm of genre and comics, Keach voiced Carl Beaumont, father of Bruce Wayne’s former love interest Andrea Beaumont, in 1993’s Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. He also voiced the menacing Phantasm, the masked vigilante at the heart of the film’s mystery. He voiced the businessman behind Duff Beer, Howard K. Duff VIII on The Simpsons. He returned to comic book adaptations in 2014’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For as mob boss Wallenquist, nicknamed “The Kraut,” under nearly unrecognizable prosthetics.
Stacy Keach became a television star in the 1980s, playing the hard-boiled detective Mike Hammer, created by Mickey Spillane. He returned to the popular role several times throughout his career. You can check out the show’s intro credits below. His film parts were far more diverse. He was Commander Malloy, the military officer in charge of Snake Plissken’s latest suicide mission in John Carpenter’s Escape from L.A. In American History X, Keach played Cameron Alexander, a calculating white supremacist who manipulates Edward Norton’s Derek Vinyard and his younger brother, played by Edward Furlong. He reunited with Norton in The Bourne Legacy playing retired Admiral Mark Turso, a government official involved in the covert program that created Jeremy Renner’s genetically enhanced operative.
One of Keach’s funniest roles came on Christopher Titus’ Fox sitcom Titus, which ran from 2000 to 2002. He played the alcoholic, perpetually angry father of the title character, Ken Titus. Ken was a nightmare of a parent, but Keach was loved by the cast and crew. His comedic timing made even the driest lines hilarious, and Keach called Titus one of television’s best-written comedies.
The master thespian went on to play Warden Henry Pope on Prison Break. Pope was a good man at his core, unlike many of the other corrupt officials on the show, and his trust became a vital part of Michael Scofield’s plan to escape. We kind of wish he’d followed his costars into the CW’s Arrowverse, but alas, he did not. The actor would go on to revisit the archetype that made his career, appearing as a hard-boiled former detective in the Brooklyn 99 episode “Old School.” In the episode he paired off with Andy Samberg to run down a case to hilarious effect.
Keach never abandoned the stage, continuing to perform Shakespeare well into his later years. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2015 and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2019. Keach is survived by his wife, Malgosia, their children, Shannon and Karolina, and his grandchildren.
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