Actor Stacy Keach, known for Mike Hammer, dies at 85

Stacy Keach died on Tuesday at his home in Magdalenka, Poland, after a prolonged struggle with a serious heart condition and heart failure, his wife Malgosia Tomassi Keach said in a statement. The 85-year-old actor, celebrated for his Shakespearean work and his portrayal of Mickey Spillane's private eye Mike Hammer, had previously suffered a heart attack onstage in Chicago in 2017.

Keach's career spanned theater, film and television. He earned a Tony nomination for playing Buffalo Bill in the Broadway play "Indians" and performed leading roles such as Hamlet, Richard III and King Lear. On screen, he won a Golden Globe for depicting Ernest Hemingway in a six-hour miniseries, appeared in Alexander Payne's "Nebraska," and played George Clooney's father in "Jay Kelly." He also narrated the series "World's Most Amazing Videos" and starred in the TV series "Titus."

"My objective was to have as varied a selection of roles as possible. It probably did hurt my career," Keach told New York magazine in 2012.

In 1984, while filming "The New Mike Hammer," Keach was arrested at London's Heathrow Airport for attempting to smuggle 1.3 ounces of cocaine. He served six months of a nine-month sentence in Reading Prison, describing the experience as "the lowest moment of my life" in his 2013 memoir. After his release, he returned to acting, starring in the CBS movie "Intimate Strangers" and reviving the Mike Hammer series for the 1986-87 season.

Keach also testified before Congress about his past cocaine use, warning of the dangers of chemical dependency. He later spoke to college campuses and rehabilitation centers about his experience.

Born in Savannah, Georgia, to actor parents, Keach studied at UC Berkeley, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Yale School of Drama and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art as a Fulbright scholar. He was married four times and is survived by his wife Malgosia and daughters Shannon and Karolina.