Ralph Meeker

Ralph Meeker, born Ralph Rathgeber on November 21, 1920, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was an American actor whose career spanned stage, film, and television across four decades. The son of Ralph and Magnhild Senovia Haavig Meeker Rathgeber, he spent portions of his early life in Michigan and Chicago. He attended the Leelanau School in Glen Arbor Township, Michigan, an institution that later inducted him into its hall of fame, and graduated from Northwestern University in 1942 with a major in music. During World War II, Meeker served in the United States Navy but received a discharge after several months due to a neck injury.

Meeker launched his professional career on the Broadway stage, beginning with minor roles in Strange Fruit (1946), directed by José Ferrer and running for 60 performances, and Cyrano de Bergerac (1946), starring and directed by members of the Ferrer family, which ran for 163 performances. His Broadway career extended from 1945 to 1965 and encompassed a wide range of productions. His first major stage opportunity came with Mister Roberts (1948–1951), directed by Joshua Logan and produced by Leland Hayward, in which he served as understudy to Henry Fonda. Theatre World recognized him as one of the twelve most promising actors of the 1947–48 season, a distinction that came with a Theatre World Award. While still under personal contract to Logan and Hayward for Mister Roberts, Meeker was released to take over the role of Stanley Kowalski from Marlon Brando in the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Elia Kazan. He began performing the role in June 1949, continued through the Broadway run's close in December, and subsequently toured with the production.

In 1954, Meeker was cast in the Broadway world premiere of William Inge's Picnic, directed by Logan and featuring Paul Newman and Janice Rule. The production ran for 477 performances and earned Meeker the New York Critics' Circle Award in 1954. When the play was adapted into a film in 1955, the lead roles originated by Meeker and Janice Rule were filled by William Holden and Kim Novak; according to Turner Classic Movies, Meeker declined the film role because he was unwilling to sign a long-term contract with the production company. Later Broadway credits included Cloud 7 (1958), which ran only 11 performances; a replacement role for Eli Wallach in Rhinoceros, starring Zero Mostel; Something About a Soldier (1962), directed by Dore Schary and featuring Sal Mineo, which ran 12 performances; Arthur Miller's After the Fall, in which Meeker played the supporting role of Mickey in the Broadway world premiere; and But for Whom Charlie and Mrs. Dally, among other productions.

Meeker's film career began with the Swiss production Four in a Jeep (1951), directed by Leopold Lindtberg, in which he starred alongside Viveca Lindfors. MGM subsequently signed him to a term contract, placing him in Fred Zinnemann's Teresa (1951) in a supporting role as a sergeant, followed by Shadow in the Sky (1952) opposite Nancy Davis and Glory Alley (1952), billed above Leslie Caron and directed by Raoul Walsh. During the same period, Paramount borrowed him to play Betty Hutton's leading man in the musical Somebody Loves Me (1952). His final MGM period produced two well-received films: a supporting role as a misfit ex-cavalryman in Anthony Mann's Western The Naked Spur (1953), starring James Stewart, and a role in the thriller Jeopardy (1953) with Barbara Stanwyck and Barry Sullivan.

The role for which Meeker is perhaps most widely remembered came in Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly (1955), in which he portrayed private detective Mike Hammer in an adaptation of Mickey Spillane's novel. The film later acquired cult status and has been cited as an influence on French New Wave directors including Jean-Luc Godard. That same year, Meeker appeared in Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory (1957), playing Corporal Philippe Paris, a soldier accused of cowardice during a World War I battle. Additional film work included a lead role in the romantic comedy The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown (1957) opposite Jane Russell, a supporting part in Sam Fuller's Western Run of the Arrow (1957), a troubled mechanic opposite Carroll Baker in Jack Garfein's Something Wild (1961), a World War II captain in The Dirty Dozen (1967), and a role in the gangster film The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967). He also appeared in supporting capacities in I Walk the Line (1970) and Sidney Lumet's The Anderson Tapes (1971).

Television occupied a substantial portion of Meeker's professional life. He starred in the premiere episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1955, titled "Revenge," alongside Vera Miles, and appeared in three additional segments of that series. From 1959 to 1960, he held the lead role of Army Sergeant Steve Dekker in the 39-episode series Not for Hire. He also appeared in the television horror film The Night Stalker (1972) and accumulated guest credits on numerous series including Playhouse 90, Wagon Train, Climax!, Studio One in Hollywood, Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Loretta Young Show, Goodyear Playhouse, Route 66, and others.

Following a stroke in 1980, Meeker was compelled to retire from acting. He died of a heart attack on August 5, 1988, in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 67.