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Ralph Meeker

Nov 21, 1920 - Aug 05, 1988 (67 years old) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Ralph Meeker (born Ralph Rathgeber; November 21, 1920 – August 5, 1988) was an American actor. He first rose to prominence for his roles in the Broadway productions of Mister Roberts (1948–1951) and Picnic (1953), 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.

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.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Ralph Meeker, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known For

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The F.B.I.
King Hogan
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Studio One
Steve Windom
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Ironside
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Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
Steve Elkins
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The Name of the Game
Senator Goddard
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Climax!
Alex Hill
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The Rookies
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The High Chaparral
Tracy Conlin
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Wanted: Dead or Alive
Martin Ash
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The Outer Limits
John Dexter

Credits