LOS ANGELES (The Thursday Times) — Stacy Keach, woh Amriki adakar jinhon ne television par sakht-geer niji jasoos Mike Hammer ka kirdar ada kiya aur jinhein apne mulk ke behtareen Shakespearean stage adakaron mein shumar kiya jata tha, inteqal kar gaye. Un ki umar 85 baras thi.
Un ki ahliya Malgosia Tomassi Keach ne ek bayan mein kaha ke Keach Mangal ko Warsaw ke qareeb Magdalenka mein khandan ke ghar par “dil ke sangeen arze aur heart failure ke khilaf taweel aur mushkil jang ke baad” inteqal kar gaye.
Unhon ne kaha, “Stacy na sirf ek azeem adakar the, jinhein duniya bhar ke nazireen sarahte aur chahte the, balkay mere pyare shohar, mere sathi, aur hamare khandan ka dil bhi the.”
Tanawwo par ustuwar career
1941 mein Georgia ke shehar Savannah mein adakar Stacy Keach Sr aur Mary Cain ke haan paida hone wale Keach ne University of California, Berkeley mein English aur drame ki taleem hasil ki, Yale School of Drama se tarbiyat li, aur Fulbright scholar ke taur par London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art mein ek saal guzara.
Stage un ki pehli mohabbat tha. Unhon ne Off Broadway par 1966 mein jang-mukhalif tanziya drame MacBird! aur 1972 mein Hamlet ke liye Obie awards jeete, aur 1969 mein Broadway par Arthur Kopit ke drame Indians mein Buffalo Bill ke kirdar par Tony award ke liye namzad hue. Agli dahaiyon mein unhon ne King Lear, Richard III, Macbeth, aur Falstaff ke kirdar ada kiye, aur 2010 mein Washington mein Lear ke kirdar par Helen Hayes award jeeta.
Parde par woh John Huston ki film Fat City (1972) mein dhalti umar ke boxer, Cheech and Chong ki Up in Smoke (1978) mein bokhlaye hue Sgt Stedenko, apne bhai James ke sath The Long Riders (1980) mein daku Frank James, aur The Ninth Configuration (1980) mein ek makhboot-ul-hawas Marine colonel bane. Baad ki filmon mein American History X, The Bourne Legacy, aur Alexander Payne ki Nebraska shamil thin. Un ka aakhri kirdar Jay Kelly (2025) mein George Clooney ke kirdar ke walid ka tha.
Unhon ne 1988 ki television mini-series mein Ernest Hemingway ka kirdar ada karne ke liye taqreeban 16 kilogram wazan barhaya aur is kirdar par Golden Globe award jeeta.
Unhon ne 2012 ke ek interview mein kaha tha, “Mera maqsad zyada se zyada mutanawwe kirdar ada karna tha. Shayad is se mere career ko nuqsan pohncha. Lekin mujhe Hamlet, Richard III, aur King Lear khelne ka mauqa mila, aur main use kisi cheez ke badle nahin chhorunga.”
Mike Hammer, aur jail
Unhein sab se zyada shohrat Mickey Spillane ke fedora pehanne wale jasoos ke kirdar Mike Hammer se mili, jo 1984 se 1987 tak CBS par nashr hua. Woh 1989 ki ek TV film aur 1997 aur 1998 mein ek syndicated series mein dobara is kirdar mein laute.
1984 mein, jab yeh show nashr ho raha tha, Keach ko London ke Heathrow Airport par cocaine ke sath giraftar kiya gaya. Unhon ne jurm qabool kiya, nau mahine qaid ki saza sunai gayi, aur unhon ne chhe mahine Reading Prison mein guzare. Baad mein unhon ne ise apni zindagi ka sab se bura lamha qarar diya, aur kaha ke jail ke ek padri se dosti ke baais woh Roman Catholic ban gaye.
Rihai ke baad unhon ne Amriki Congress ke ek panel ke samne apni lat ke bare mein gawahi di aur collegon aur bahali marakiz mein ja kar manshiyat ke khatraat se aagah kiya. Barson baad Prison Break mein jail ke warden ka kirdar ada karte hue unhon ne kaha ke unhon ne yeh kirdar England mein apne hamdard warden ko samne rakh kar nibhaya.
Woh assi baras ki umar ke baad bhi kaam karte rahe, Blue Bloods mein Cardinal Kevin Kearns ke taur par aur taweel arse se jari series American Greed ke rawi ke taur par. Woh 2009 mein Frost/Nixon ke daure ke dauran Richard Nixon ka kirdar ada karte hue kai falij ke hamlon se bach gaye, aur 2017 mein Chicago mein Hemingway par yak-kirdari drame Pamplona ke dauran stage par dil ke daure se bhi.
Keach ne chaar shadiyan keen. Pasmandgan mein un ki ahliya, jin se un ki mulaqat us waqt hui jab woh Hammer series mein aayin aur jin se unhon ne 1986 mein shadi ki, un ke bachche Shannon aur Karolina, aur un ke bhai James shamil hain.
