Written by: Stormy Curry, Writer / Producer
Posted by: Jeffrey Thomas DeSocio, Digital News Editor / Producer - email Stacy Keach is a survivor. In his new book "All in All", he talks about everything from his up and down career in Hollywood to his time in jail for drugs. Steve asked him if that arrest ended up helping him the long run. "It did and it didn't. It did in this respect, I could no longer be in denial about problems that I had with addiction...I didn't know that my career was ever going to get back on track." Steve also asked Keach about his childhood and the tough time he had growing up...especially with a cleft lip. "I got teased a lot when I was a child and those are things I had to overcome and I think as a result of that I became an overachiever had to excel in everything whether it was sports or theater or whatever." Stacy was also very candid about some the big acting roles he either turned down or lost...including "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". "Hal Ashby was the original director and said I was going to play that part, and they took Hal off the film...and gave it to Milos Forman who then said 'you're not gonna do this, Jack Nicholson is gonna do it if he's available'...inadvertently I turned down MASH. I didn't know it was going to be the big hit that it was." Keach did talk about the one part he did get...and then got to play again years later. "I had the great privilege of doing it twice actually...12 years later, we did another Mike Hammer." Stacy is also co-starring in the new Alexander Payne movie "Nebraska", which opens Friday. Fun facts about Stacy Keach (Source: Wikipedia) 1) Walter Stacy Keach Jr. is an American actor and narrator. 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 (particularly his role in the Fox sitcom Titus as Ken, the hard-drinking, chain-smoking, womanizing father of comedian Christopher Titus and for Sergeant Stedenko in Up in Smoke) and musical roles. 2) Keach was born in Savannah, Georgia, the son of Mary Cain (née Peckham), an actress, and Walter Stacy Keach, a theater director, drama teacher, and actor. His brother James Keach is an actor and television director. Keach graduated from Van Nuys High School in June 1959, where he was class president, then earned two BA degrees at the University of California, Berkeley (1963), one in English, the other in Dramatic Art. He earned an M.F.A. at the Yale School of Drama and was a Fulbright Scholar at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. ‘All In All' is out now. ‘Nebraska' hits theaters Friday. Read more: http://www.myfoxla.com/story/23945953/stacy-keach-i-didnt-know-if-my-career-was-going-to-get-back-on-track#ixzz2lsSyOI6F