Stacy Keach, the Golden Globe-winning actor who portrayed private investigator Mike Hammer on TV, has died. He was 85.
Keach died Tuesday, Nov. 10, at his family home in Magdalenka, Poland, wife Malgosia Keach wrote in a statement shared by the actor's representative.
"After a long and difficult battle with a serious heart condition and heart failure, Stacy peacefully departed this world," she said. "He fought for so long, with extraordinary courage, determination and strength. He was a true warrior, facing his illness with the same remarkable spirit and resilience that defined his life."
Malgosia Keach described the "Blue Bloods" star as "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."
Keach made his mark on television as detective Mike Hammer, a role he first took on in the 1983 TV movie "Murder Me, Murder You." He returned to the character over the next 15 years, starring in several TV movies and series, including "The New Mike Hammer" and "Mike Hammer, Private Eye."
Nearly a decade ago, Stacy Keach had a heart attack onstage in 2017 during opening night of the production "Pamplona," in which he played Ernest Hemingway.
"After 11 successful previews, on opening night the unthinkable occurred. I had a mild heart attack onstage," he wrote in a 2018 New York Times essay. "It resembled a fog rolling in, causing me to completely lose track of where I was in the dialogue."
"As a result, there was a five-minute period where I’m sure the audience couldn’t detect anything amiss," Stacy Keach continued. "However, as time went on, it became painfully apparent, after I repeated the same line a half dozen times, that something was terribly wrong."
When he saw a doctor the next day, the actor underwent "a battery of tests" that showed "I had had a mild heart attack, but also that I had some seriously clogged arteries, and unless I underwent immediate bypass surgery, there was a good chance that I wouldn’t survive any future episode(s)."
He underwent a six-hour triple bypass operation and by 2018 found "my health has never been better, my recovery aided by diet and exercise."
Stacy Keach is survived by wife Malgosia Keach, their children Karolina and Shannon Keach and their grandchildren.
This story is developing.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Stacy Keach, 'Mike Hammer' actor, dies at 85
