1920-11-21 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.
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Los Angeles Plays Itself | Mike Hammer in Kiss Me Deadly (archive footage) | 2004-07-28 |
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The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller | Lt. Driscoll (archive footage) | 2002-07-02 |
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Without Warning | Dave | 1980-09-26 |
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Winter Kills | Gameboy Baker | 1979-05-11 |
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The Alpha Incident | Charlie | 1978-05-24 |
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My Boys Are Good Boys | Bert Morton | 1978-01-01 |
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Hi-Riders | Mike | 1978-03-17 |
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The Food of the Gods | Bensington | 1976-06-18 |
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Johnny Firecloud | Colby | 1975-08-01 |
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Brannigan | Capt. Moretti | 1975-03-21 |
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The Dead Don't Die | Lieutenant Reardon | 1975-01-14 |
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Night Games | Dutch Armbreck | 1974-03-16 |
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The Girl on the Late, Late Show | Inspector DeBiesse | 1974-04-01 |
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Cry Panic | Chuck Braswell | 1974-02-06 |
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You'll Never See Me Again | Will Alden | 1973-03-01 |
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Love Comes Quietly | Ben Hoeksema | 1973-06-22 |
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Birds of Prey | Jim McAndrew | 1973-01-30 |
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The Mind Snatchers | The Major | 1972-06-28 |
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The Night Stalker | Bernie Jenks | 1972-01-11 |
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The Reluctant Heroes | Capt. Luke Danvers | 1971-11-23 |
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The Anderson Tapes | Police Captain 'Iron Balls' Delaney | 1971-06-17 |
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Lost Flight | Glenn Walkup | 1970-08-13 |
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I Walk the Line | Carl McCain | 1970-11-18 |
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The Devil's Eight | Burl | 1969-05-14 |
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The Detective | Curran | 1968-05-28 |
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The St. Valentine's Day Massacre | George Clarence 'Bugs' Moran | 1967-06-30 |
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Gentle Giant | Fog Hanson | 1967-10-25 |
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The Dirty Dozen | Captain Stuart Kinder | 1967-06-15 |
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Wall of Noise | Matt Rubio | 1963-09-04 |
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Ada | Colonel Yancey | 1961-08-25 |
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Something Wild | Mike | 1961-12-23 |
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Paths of Glory | Cpl. Philippe Paris | 1957-10-25 |
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Run of the Arrow | Lieutenant Driscoll | 1957-09-05 |
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The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown | Mike Valla | 1957-05-09 |
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A Woman's Devotion | Trevor Stevenson | 1956-11-16 |
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Kiss Me Deadly | Mike Hammer | 1955-04-28 |
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Big House, U.S.A | Geraldo 'Jerry' Barker aka Iceman | 1955-03-03 |
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Desert Sands | Capt. David Malcolm | 1955-11-18 |
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Jeopardy | Lawson the Fugitive | 1953-03-30 |
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The Naked Spur | Roy Anderson | 1953-01-30 |
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Code Two | Chuck O'Flair | 1953-04-24 |
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Shadow in the Sky | Burt | 1952-07-18 |
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Glory Alley | Socks Barbarrosa | 1952-06-06 |
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Somebody Loves Me | Benny Fields | 1952-09-24 |
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Teresa | Sgt. Dobbs | 1951-04-05 |
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Die Vier im Jeep | Sergeant William Long | 1951-03-30 |
