*Keach was born with a
cleft lip and a partial cleft of the hard palate and underwent numerous operations as a child. He is the honorary chairman of the
Cleft Palate Foundation, and advocates for insurance coverage for such surgeries.
*In
1984, he was convicted of
smuggling cocaine into the
United Kingdom and spent six months in
Reading prison. The governor of that prison would serve as the basis for his character, Warden Pope, on
Prison Break.
*He was the first choice for the role of father Damien Karras in the 1973 movie
The Exorcist, written by
William Peter Blatty. He went on to play Kane in the 1980 movie
The Ninth Configuration, written and directed by Blatty; this role was itself intended for
Nicol Williamson.
*All of the cast members of
Titus have commented they enjoyed working with Keach, because, even with the dryest line the writers could invent, Keach would find a way to make the line funny.
*He has played the title role in three separate productions of
Hamlet.