Ralph Meeker
American actor / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Ralph Meeker (born Ralph Rathgeber; November 21, 1920 – August 5, 1988)[1] was an American film, stage, and television actor. He first rose to prominence for his roles in the Broadway productions of Mister Roberts (1948–1951) and Picnic (1953),[1] the former of which earned him a Theatre World Award for his performance. In film, Meeker is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Mike Hammer in Robert Aldrich's 1955 Kiss Me Deadly.
Ralph Meeker | |
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Born | Ralph Rathgeber (1920-11-21)November 21, 1920 Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. |
Died | August 5, 1988(1988-08-05) (aged 67) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Resting place | Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1945–1980 |
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Meeker went on to play a series of roles that used his husky and macho screen presence, including a lead role in Stanley Kubrick's military courtroom drama Paths of Glory (1957), as a troubled mechanic opposite Carroll Baker in Something Wild (1961), as a World War II captain in The Dirty Dozen (1967), and in the gangster film The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967). Other credits include supporting roles in I Walk the Line (1970) and Sidney Lumet's The Anderson Tapes (1971).
He also had a prolific career in television, appearing as Sergeant Steve Dekker on the series Not for Hire (1959–1960), and in the television horror film The Night Stalker (1972). After suffering a stroke in 1980, Meeker was forced to retire from acting, and died eight years later of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California.