Lightning struck Stacy Keach’s chimney the night he was born. His parents called it ‘a sign of someone special coming into the world’
Stacy Keach Jr. also proved lucky for Fox TV when he took up the role of Titus in their series
On June 2, 1941, in Savannah, Georgia, a violent summer storm rolled through the night; a bolt of lightning struck the chimney of the Keach family house. Meanwhile, inside a hospital, amidst the sudden rumble of thunder, a baby was taking his first breaths. The baby was Stacy Keach. Most parents might have seen the shattered chimney as a costly affair; Walter Keach, aka Keach Sr., and Mary Keach saw it as a flash of destiny. Decades later, Stacy Keach Jr. came to be known for his Shakespearean monologues, gritty, mysterious eyes, and an unmistakable, thunderous voice. And as he passed away, at the age of 85 on November 10, 2026, at his home in Magdalenka, Poland, this story from his biography resurfaced on the internet.
Chaotic delivery
Shortly after his wife Mary went into labor at the hospital, someone called looking for Keach Sr., announcing that their chimney had been set on fire due to lightning. He had to rush back to the house with firemen while Mary delivered their baby in the hospital. Although his insurance company refused to cover the damages later, he viewed it as a good sign. As years passed, his and Mary’s hunch actually proved true.
A stroke of luck
At the time, Keach Sr. was teaching “drama” at Armstrong Junior College. He desperately wanted to try out his luck in Hollywood. Soon after Stacy’s birth, Keach Sr. was called out to the Pasadena Playhouse to join the company as both an actor and a director. So Mary and he put Stacy in their Nash Rambler and drove to Pasadena, California. For over fifty years, Stacy Sr. worked as a writer, director, actor, and producer.
Meanwhile, he thought that his son would become a lawyer, but having grown up in an entertainment environment, Stacy started acting in his high school, as he shared with WNYC. He would often come home and describe the plays to Keach Sr. "When you're describing that," Keach Sr. would reply, "You describe that big, butternut tree; you've got to see that tree, and when you're working in the drugstore, and you're getting ice cream out of the ice cream box, you have to reach your hand way down there and pull it."
'I guess you may have some talent'
In one semester, Stacy was playing the character of De Flores in "The Changeling" — a Jacobean play written by Thomas Middleton and Rowley. When his parents saw him act, they exclaimed, "Well, I guess you may have some talent. So maybe if this is what you want to do, we'll support you." When he played the role of Henry the Fifth, word about his acting skills reached Joe Papp at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. And that's where it started. Moving ahead, Stacy also proved lucky for Fox when he took the role of Titus in a series, an imposing father from hell. The scales dramatically skyrocketed when he joined the show.
Legends never die
During his life, the legendary actor has nearly 255 known credits to his name, including feature films and television shows, per TMDB. He won 10 awards and was nominated 11 times, including for the Primetime Emmy Award, per IMDb. Dubbed the American interpreter of Shakespeare, the Golden Globes-winning actor played "King Lear" at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., which received the “best reviews any national leader has earned in that town for decades.” His portfolio of work is an absolute illustration of why his parents considered him extraordinary when he was born. He was extraordinary and will always be, wherever he is.
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