Stacy Keach (born June 2, 1941) is an American actor and narrator. He was born Walter Stacy Keach, Jr. in Savannah, Georgia. He is most famous for his dramatic roles, however he has done narration work in educational programming on PBS and the Discovery Channel, as well as some comedy roles. Early in his career, he was credited as Stacy Keach, Jr. to distinguish himself from his father Stacy Keach, Sr. His brother, James Keach is known most notably for being the director of the 1993 TV series and 1999 movie Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Stacy has been married three times: to Marilyn Aiken in 1975, to Jill Donahue in 1981, and to Malgosia Tomassi around 1986. He has two daughters from his second marriage and two children from his third marriage. He was also romantically linked to singer Judy Collins in the early 1970s.
Keach graduated from Van Nuys High School in June 1959 and went on to study at the University of California, Berkeley, earning 2 BA degrees in 1963, one in English, the other in Dramatic Art. He continued at Yale University's School of Drama and was a Fulbright Scholar student at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Keach first appeared on Broadway in 1969 as Buffalo Bill in Indians by Arthur Kopit. He has won numerous awards including Obies, Drama Desk Awards, and Vernon Rice Awards. He portrayed film noir-style private detective Mike Hammer in the CBS television series Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer from 1984 to 1987.
Stacy Keach played Cheech and Chong's Police Department arch-nemesis "Sgt. Stedenko" in "Up In Smoke" and "Nice Dreams." One of Keach's most controversial roles was Cameron Alexander, the militant white supremacist in "American History X" with Edward Norton and Edward Furlong.
He is most familiar to younger television viewers for narrating episodes of Nova, National Geographic, and various other informational series, and he performed in the role of Ken Titus, the father in the title family of Fox's Titus, and as Barabbas in Jesus of Nazareth. Beginning in 1999 he served as the narrator for the home video clip show World's Most Amazing Videos, which can now be seen on Spike TV. He currently serves as the host of The Twilight Zone radio dramas. He also has a recurring role as Warden Henry Pope in the Fox drama Prison Break.
In 1984 he was convicted of smuggling cocaine into the United Kingdom and spent six months in Reading prison.
He is the honorary chairman of the Cleft Palate Foundation.