Keach, born in 1941 to Mary Caine and theater director and actor Stacy Keach Sr., simply followed in his parents’ acting footsteps.

“It started with my family really,” he recalled on the Let’s Dive In podcast in October 2020. “My dad, God love him, was an actor. My mom studied acting even though she never went into it professionally. I grew up in a theatrical family.”

But that’s not to say Caine and Keach Sr. were too keen on their son catching the acting bug.

“My parents did not want me to become an actor,” he admitted. “Having been in the business, they thought it was an insecure profession. It’s fraught with heartache.”

Nevertheless, though they hoped Keach would pursue law or medicine, he knew he was meant to be on the stage and in front of a camera. So, after acting in school plays at age 12, he began his professional acting career at age 20 with roles on the stage at the 1962 Oregon Shakespeare Festival in The Comedy of Errors, Henry IV Part 2 and Coriolanus.