Stacy Keach dies at 85 in Magdalenka, Poland, after heart failure
American actor Stacy Keach died at 85 at his home in Magdalenka, Poland, on Tuesday, November 10, 2026. His wife, Malgosia Tomassi Keach, said he died of heart failure after a long battle with a serious heart condition. He was best known for playing the hard-boiled private detective Mike Hammer on television.
Keach’s heart problems were public for years. In June 2017, he collapsed onstage at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago during a performance of the one-man show Pamplona, and the production was cancelled. He also had a mild stroke in 2009 while appearing in Frost/Nixon.
Early stage training and Shakespeare roles
Keach studied English and drama at the University of California, Berkeley, and then trained at the Yale School of Drama. He went on to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art as a Fulbright scholar, a grant for study abroad funded by the United States government. His first professional stage work came in the 1960s, when he played leading Shakespearean characters at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and at the Public Theater in New York.
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Keach worked on stage, film and television for more than six decades. His best-known honors and roles include the following.
- Golden Globe for best actor for playing Ernest Hemingway in a six-hour biographical miniseries
- Tony Award nomination for playing Buffalo Bill in the Broadway production of Indians
- Lead role as Richard Nixon in the national tour of the historical drama Frost/Nixon
- Title role as the private detective in the CBS series Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer, which debuted in 1984
- Henry Pope, the prison director in the drama Prison Break, from 2005 to 2007
Arrest at Heathrow and nine months in prison
In 1984, British customs officers arrested Keach at Heathrow Airport, in London, after he was found carrying about 37 grams of cocaine hidden in toiletries. The arrest interrupted filming of Mike Hammer. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine months in prison, and he served six months at Reading Prison before his release.
The experience shaped the rest of his public life. Keach later spoke openly about his struggle with cocaine addiction and visited college campuses and rehabilitation centers to share his story. He also testified before the United States Congress about substance dependence.
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Keach kept acting until the end of his life and appeared recently in the film Jay Kelly. He married Malgosia Tomassi in 1986, and he is survived by his wife and their two children, Shannon and Karolina.
