Ralph Meeker

Ralph Meeker
Meeker in a photo for the MGM film Code Two (1953)
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
Spouses	Salome Jens ​ ​ (m. 1964; div. 1966)​ Colleen Meeker ​ ​ (m. 1970; div. 1981)​ Millicent Meeker ​ ​ (before 1988)​

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 known for his portrayal of Mike Hammer in Robert Aldrich's 1955 Kiss Me Deadly and as condemned infantryman Cpl. Philippe Paris in Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory.

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.