Stacy Keach Movies
A fine dramatic actor who never quite made it as a movie star and so settled with a highly successful career as a television leading man, Stacy Keach is best known for playing the title character in the television detective drama Mike Hammer (1984-1987). Though born with an irreparable harelip, Keach is a sturdy and handsome fellow who is often cast as policemen or other authority figures.Keach is the son of a British actor and drama coach, Stacy Keach Sr., and was born in Georgia but raised in Los Angeles. While attending the U.C. Berkeley, Keach became interested in drama. An agent told him that his harelip would make it impossible for Keach to get leading roles. Keach disbelieved him and went on to study drama at Yale. He then received a Fulbright scholarship to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. In New York, he essayed a number of Shakespearean roles and those of other classic plays. He also worked in more contemporary productions such as the off-Broadway McBird!, which won him his first Obie and a Vernon Rice Drama Desk Award. He again won these awards after he played Hamlet at the New York Shakespeare Festival. In 1969, Keach won a Tony nomination for his Broadway debut, portraying Buffalo Bill in Arthur Kopit's Indians. For his performance in The Kentucky Cycle, Keach earned a Drama League Outstanding Artist Award, the Helen Hayes Award for Best Actor, and a Drama Award nomination for Best Actor. Keach made his feature-film debut as an alcoholic wanderer in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968). Keach's movie career took off afterward and he appeared in several major movies in quick succession, including Brewster McCloud (1970) and The New Centurians (1972). In 1971, Keach made an award-winning short film, The Repeatery. Later, he also made a television version of Pirandello's complex Six Characters in Search of an Author. As a movie actor, Keach's heyday ended by the early '80s, after appearing in both American and international productions of widely varying quality; Keach then turned to television.
Mike Hammer was a very successful show, but production abruptly stopped when British customs officers at London's Heathrow Airport found Keach carrying a significant amount of cocaine. He spent several months imprisoned in England, but was released in 1986. Having kicked his drug habit, Keach repaired his damaged career and started showing up regularly in television miniseries such as The Blue and the Gray (1985).
Keach continues his stage work, often narrates documentaries, and occasionally appears in feature films such as Escape From L.A. (1995). Keach is a member of the Los Angeles Classic Theatre Work, the Yale Theater Circle, and the Players Club. In addition, he works on the Artistic Advisory Board for the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts, the Artists Committee for the Kennedy Center Honors, and the Helen Hayes Honorary Committee. In the '90s, Keach was named Honorary Chair for the Cleft Palate Foundation and in 1995 won the Celebrity Outreach Award for his charitable work. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 2003
World-weary private eye Maury Hoover (Stacy Keach) is briefly shaken out of his lethargy when a shapely femme fatale--who looks a lot like Monica (Roma Downey)--slinks into his office, asking him to find someone named Jim Grant. Somehow or other, this assignment is linked to a runaway girl who calls herself Delphina (Amanda MacDonald), for whom Maury has developed a paternal affection. The outcome of the story is determined by Delphina's willingness (or lack of same) to change her standard story about "escaping" from an abusive household--and by Maury's success (or lack of same) in liberating the girl from her vicious pimp Scott Anderson). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Fireworks have long been one of the world's favorite ways to celebrate a special event, and this documentary takes a look at the past, present, and future of the art of pyrotechnics. Nova: Fireworks! examines how the Chinese first developed explosive displays in order to ward off unfriendly spirits, and follows the story to the present day, as several modern masters of the art of fireworks display the latest innovations, including computer-controlled triggering systems which can create displays with a new level of precision. This documentary was produced as part of the award-winning science series Nova, where it first aired in 2002. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
In the summer of 2000, brush and forest fires in America raged as never before, in a season which saw six million acres reduced to ash. When wildfires strike, it's up to elite forces of specially trained firefighters such as the Arrowhead Hotshots to contain and extinguish the blaze. Nova: Fire Wars takes a look at the work of the Arrowhead Hotshots, how they fight fires, what equipment they use, what role fire plays in the ecosystem of a forest, and why some firefighters and environmentalists feel we need to take a new approach to dealing with fires. Produced as part of the awarding winning PBS science series Nova, Nova: Fire Wars was first broadcast on May 7, 2002. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 2002
Filmmakers Phillip B. Kunhardt III, Nancy Steiner, and Peter W. Kunhardt explore the eternal struggle for liberty in America while simultaneously illuminating the hypocritical underlying factors that undermined the colonist's bold "experiment in freedom," in a revealing documentary featuring the voices of Brad Pitt, Martin Sheen, Michael Caine, Tom Hanks, Anthony Hopkins , Meryl Streep, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman, Robert Redford and many more. As the newly arrived British subjects staged the revolution that would cut loose their ties to Great Britain and give birth to a new era of freedom, a new hope for liberty emerged - but how then does one justify the presence of slavery in a society founded on the claim of all men being "created equal?" A blight on the quest for liberty and freedom that literally divided a struggling young nation right down the middle, slavery would be the last true obstacle in ensuring that the land of the free would truly live up to the ideals set forth by the founding fathers. As the north and the south set the stage for a bloody four-year war that would go down in history as one of the most brutal internal struggles ever waged, the resulting Civil War showed the willingness of Americans to actually stand up and fight to protect the rights of others as stated in the Constitution. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 2002
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Filmmaker John Carpenter helped redefine the American horror film in 1978 with Halloween, a low-budget thriller which became a major box office success. Since then, Carpenter has devoted his career to bringing a fresh perspective to genre filmmaking, striving to maintain the freedom of an independent while working within the studio system. (Carpenter not only writes and directs his own projects, but often also serves as producer and composer as well.) John Carpenter: Fear Is Just the Beginning...The Man and His Movies is a documentary about this two-fisted maverick auteur, which offers a look at the making of such favorites as Escape From New York, The Thing, The Fog, and many more. The documentary includes interviews with Jamie Lee Curtis, Kurt Russell, Adrienne Barbeau, Debra Hill, and other friends and colleagues. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Carpenter
One of several "Santa Goes to Jail" TV movies appearing during the Christmas season of 2002, The Santa Trap actually has roots going as far back as the 1909 D. W. Griffith one-reeler A Trap for Santa Claus. Transplanted from Connecticut to California, the Emerson family isn't too happy over the prospect of sweltering their way through the Yuletide season. In fact, Bill and Molly Emerson (Robert Hays, Shelley Long) are so displeased with their current plight that they tell their children that Santa Claus doesn't exist. Hoping to prove them wrong, the couple's precocious daughter Judy (Sierra Abel) sets up a Rube Goldberg-like trap in her living room--and sure enough, the little darling snares Santa himself (played by Dick Van Patten) a few hours into Christmas Eve. Naturally, Judy's parents assume that the jolly old elf is a burglar, and promptly have Santa arrested. Thus is set in motion a frantic comedy of errors involving the Emersons, the inept local constabulary, and a burned-out biker named Max (Stacy Keach) who hopes to break out of the slammer by impersonating St. Nick. The Santa Trap first aired December 13, 2002, over the PAX network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stacy Keach, Shelley Long, (more)
Death stars are stars several billion times brighter than the sun, and so far away that when their light comes close enough to be seen on earth, it's already over a billion years old. They also give off powerful gamma rays, some so strong that a number of scientists believe one could possibly destroy the earth some day, and there's so little visible evidence that they exist that it wasn't until 1967 that anyone was sure they were out there. Nova: Death Star, a documentary originally produced as an episode of the acclaimed science series Nova, takes a look at these huge, powerful stars, and explores what is known about them and what astrophysicists are still trying to learn. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Rafi Eisenman's thriller Sunstorm starts with he killing of the General (Stacy Keach). His four daughters are eager to inherit the fortune from their father's gambling business, but the person who masterminded his death, Victoria Warren (Bo Derek), has her eyes on the fortune as well. The daughters team up to get their revenge, but they learn that their father's life was much more complicated than they ever knew. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bo Derek, Ray Raglin, (more)
Having barely survived a devastating car crash, and still reeling from the breakup of his engagement to girlfriend Erin (Cynthia Watros), hapless auto mechanic Christopher Titus (played by comedian Christopher Titus) manages to summon up the energy and will to appear in the third season of the Fox sitcom bearing his name. The season opener finds Christopher anxious to return to his hobby of street racing, despite the fact that he has not regained full use of his injured left arm. In the next episode, Christopher's hopes of restoring tranquility to his relationship with Erin are dashed when her mixed-up niece Amy (Rachel Roth) moves in with the couple. And in subsequent installments, Christopher plays peacemaker when his pal Tommy (David Shatraw) discovers that his father is gay; Erin inadvertently hurts Christopher's feelings when she trains to become a social worker; and Elizabeth Berkeley guest stars as Christopher's much-talked-about "perfect" sister Shannon, who has always been held up as an example to our disgruntled hero by his own father, the boozing, foul-mouthed, evil-spirited Ken Titus (Stacy Keach). Speaking of Ken, he is anxiously looking forward to testifying against his ex-wife (and Titus' mother) Juanita, who at the end of the previous season had murdered her newest hubby at Christopher and Erin's disastrous wedding ceremony. Played in earlier episodes by Christine Estabrook and Frances Fisher, the role of Juanita Titus is this season essayed by Connie Stevens--but only long enough for the character to commit suicide! Although not technically the series finale, the two-part "Insanity Genetic" is a fitting end for the weekly exercise in daffy dysfunction known as Titus. Returning from Juanita's funeral, Christopher is obsessed with the notion that he has inherited her insanity--then proceeds to "prove" it by causing a disturbance which results in all of his friends and family members being arrested en masse! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Titus, Stacy Keach, (more)
A government agent must ferret out his arch-enemies in this action thriller. The Brotherhood of Liberty, a right-wing militia group dedicated to the violent overthrow of the U.S. government, has stolen three special Air Force missiles whose warheads have been loaded with biological weapons powerful enough to kill the population of a large city in a matter of days. ATF agent Ethan Carter (Dean Cain) is assigned to go undercover as a Brotherhood of Liberty member to find out what became of the missiles and what the militia intends to do with them. Working with Wilson Fain (Frederic Forrest), a former BOL member who has been released from prison on the condition of co-operating with the ATF, Carter comes in contact with Brotherhood leader George Armstrong Montomery (Stacy Keach) and learns of the group's shocking plan to seize power. Meanwhile, ATF trainee Julia Sanders (Jennifer Beals) is assigned to watch out for Carter and keep him out of danger, though there's little she can do to save him after he's dug himself into the Brotherhood. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dean Cain, Stacy Keach, (more)
- 2000
This is the second entry in the World's Most Amazing Videos series of tapes, featuring real-life video taken during amazing situations. Included in the action are breathtaking rescues, deadly stunts, out of control animal attacks, crashes, fires, natural disasters, and a few not-so-natural ones. ~ Karla Baker, All Movie Guide
- 2000
Narrated by actor Stacy Keach, this is the first volume of a series of four, from a program produced by NBC: A collection of remarkable footage from real videos that depict unusual events, amazing escapes, and staggering disasters. ~ Alice Duncan, All Movie Guide
- 2000
Weighed down with the dysfunctional family to end all dysfunctional families, auto mechanic Christopher Titus (played by comedian Christopher Titus!) finds that simply surviving from sunup to sundown is a near-insurmountable task during Season One of the Fox network sitcom bearing his name. In the first of the season's eleven episodes, "Sex With Pudding", Christopher suspects that his girlfriend Erin (Cynthia Watros) is cheating on him, and never mind that Erin is virtually the only worthwhile person within the hero's orbit. It's likely that Christopher is merely reacting to past disillusionments, most of them doled out by his burned-out, boozed-up wreck of a father, Ken Titus (Stacy Keach). In recalling the life lessons learned during his miserable childhood while Ken wed one unfortune woman after another, Titus informs the audience "I swore I would never be like my dad. Or my mom. Or my mom. Or my mom. Or my mom. . ." Later in the season, Chris and his brainless brother Dave (Zack Ward fantasize about what life would be like should their dad suddenly vanish (this episode was actually the pilot, but was shown second); Ken frames Dave for a robbery when Dave threatens to move out of the house; Christopher learns to regret the simple question "Want some pie" when he betrays Titus in favor of a flashy waitress named Tiffany; Ownership of a customized hot rod may end up proving that Ken has finally lost what is left of his mind; a case of "road rage" reveals that, contrary to popular belief the Titus family is not the most worthless aggregation on earth; Christopher's manic-depressive mom Juanita (played this season by Christine Estabrook) escapes from a mental institution just long enough to pump drugs into all her loved ones; and Ken gives up drinking, and proves to be a crashing bore when sober. In the season finale, a phony heart attack saves Ken from losing his driver's license--but not from a real heart attack. This episode serves to introduce Mary Lou Rosato as Ken's latest "main squeeze", Nurse Kathy (Mary Lou Rosato). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Titus, Stacy Keach, (more)
- 2000
This documentary presents the story of Nikola Tesla, the great scientist, visionary, and inventor who gave the world alternating current electricity, as well as being the father of radio. The film tells the story of this man's astonishing genius, his visions and inventions. Tesla's own scientific and autobiographical writings, as well as archival photographs and reenactments are used to tell the story. A native of Austro-Hungary, Tesla came to America in 1884. Working first with Edison, the two inventors fell out over Edison's insistence on using direct current. Tesla took his alternating current vision to Westinghouse. His New York address was renowned for the bolts of lightning emanating from it, as Tesla worked to unlock the secrets of energy and electricity. His quest took him to Colorado. The film follows Tesla's exploits and eccentricities, which made him a darling of the press. Included is the well-known and touching story of his devotion to a certain white pigeon. Largely forgotten today in spite of the great debt the modern world owes him, the film pays tribute to this overlooked genius.
~ Rose of Sharon Winter, All Movie Guide
~ Rose of Sharon Winter, All Movie Guide
This film is one of a four-part series that looks at natural disasters around the world. This episode focuses on the sky and some of the strange phenomena in it. Sometimes, out of the blue, come lightning bolts, without any storm clouds or other signs that a strike is forming. The viewer sees the disastrous consequences of one such strike on some gliders. The viewer then goes to Peekskill, NY, where a 27-pound meteor crashed into a surprised motorist's car. There is also footage of the 1999 Sydney hailstorm, which destroyed thousands of houses. Interviews with scientists provide insight into the events, as well as revealing plans to harness the forces of nature for human welfare. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, All Movie Guide
