A Hollywood Connection

Keach as Mike Hammer

One of Savannah’s most prominent Hollywood connections is television and screen actor Stacy Keach. Stacy was born in Savannah to two Hollywood parents in 1941. [His mother was the daughter of a hunting companion of Theodore Roosevelt, William Peckham This sentence is confusing]. Mary Peckham Keach received a Master’s Degree in Drama and Speech. While at her alma mater she met Stacy Keach Sr. whom she married and had the two sons Stacy Keach Jr. and James Keach. The two sons would have prominent Hollywood careers.

 While Mary was here she taught English in Savannah schools prior to the birth of Stacy Jr. Stacy Sr. would teach at Armstrong State College and in 1937 form the university playhouse, forerunner to the Masquers. It was Stacy Sr.’s job. that would take them away from Savannah. The family of three moved to Flushing, Long Island. The father became a talent scout for RKO, one of the five big movie studios of its time. It was there in 1946 they gave birth to their second son, James. In 1948, the Keaches moved to the San Fernando Valley. Mary would become active in community affairs. The two brothers were now close to Hollywood. Stacy Sr. would have an outstanding career as an actor. He would appear in ''Pretty Woman'' (1990 in which he played a senator, and ''Cobb'' (1994), in which he portrayed the baseball star Jimmie Foxx. He appeared in television shows like ''St. Elsewhere,'' ''Dynasty, ''Baretta,'' ''The Incredible Hulk,'' ''Adam 12,'' ''Barnaby Jones,'' ''Kojack,'' ''Mannix,'' ''Marcus Welby, M.D.,'' ''Bonanza,'' ''Wagon Train,''  among others.

Stacy Keach Jr. would excel at his studies as a Fulbright scholar to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and attending the University of California at Berkeley and the Yale Drama School. He became a brilliant and prolific stage actor, winning awards for his performance in King Lear. He was also an accomplished pianist and composer writing the music for the film, Imbued (2009), in which he also starred. In the seventies he was a major actor working with legendary actors and directors. He starred in movies such as The New Centurions_ with George C. Scott; Doc Holiday with Faye Dunaway in the film 'Doc' (1971); an over-the-hill boxer, Billy Tully in Fat City (1972); directed by John Huston, and The Long Riders (1980), which he co-produced and co-wrote with his brother, James Keach, directed by Walter Hill. On the lighter side he played in Robert Altman's Brewster McCloud (1970), was the oldest living lecherous Wright Brother; and The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) where he played a crazed albino out to kill Paul Newman. He was also in the cult movies Up in Smoke (1978), and the sequel, Nice Dreams (1981) as Sgt. Stedenko.

His most prominent television role was as Mickey Spillane’s fictional detective Mike Hammer, which he played in numerous stand-alone television films and at least three different television series throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

His stellar career has been recognized by many. He played Ernest Hemingway, for which he won a Golden Globe as Best Actor in a mini-series and was nominated for an Emmy in the same category. He has been the recipient of Lifetime Achievement Awards from Pacific Pioneer's Broadcasters, the San Diego Film Festival, the Pacific Palisades Film Festival, and the 2007 Oldenburg Film Festival in Germany and the 2010 Lifetime Award from the St. Louis Film Festival. In 2008, he received the Mary Pickford Award for versatility in acting.

Amazingly Keach was born with a cleft lip and a partial cleft of the hard palate.  This has led to him wearing his signature mustache to hide the scars. He has served as honorary chairman of the Cleft Palate Foundation. Despite this he may be the greatest actor Savannah has ever produced.
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