LENNY AT LARGE: Stacy Keach elects Nixon role

LENNY AT LARGE

When the Richard Nixon role in the stage drama "Frost/Nixon" was offered to Stacy Keach, he hesitated. "My immediate reaction was, I didn't want to do it."

Not because it wasn't a good part. Keach knows a good script when he sees one. "My good friend, Frank Langella, had done such a good job (playing Nixon)," says Keach. He didn't want to compete against that. So he sat back, and thought it over for a few days.

"Playing Nixon has become such a classical role," says Keach. "It might be just another notch on my belt. I said, 'What the hell. I'll do it."'

There are enough notches in Keach's belt to warrant a warehouse of belts. It seems he's done everything but burlesque.

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Movies: "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter"; "Fat City"; "The New Centurions"; "The Long Riders"; "Ring of Death"; Oliver Stone's "W.", about the outgoing president.

Stage: "King Lear"; "Death Trap"; "Hamlet"; "Indians" (Tony award nomination)

TV: "Mike Hammer"; "Titus"; "Prison Break"

So which does he prefer? "If someone put a gun to my head, I'd choose theater, basically because of the audience."

Keach has been called one of America's pre-eminent interpreters of Shakespeare, and began his career in 1964 with the New York Shakespeare Festival.

Keach went to the Yale School of Drama, but his dream was to study in England. He made it to New York, where legendary director Joseph Papp offered him a part in his production of "Hamlet."

Keach, just 23, agreed. It was a start. "I lived in a sixth-floor walkup at the time. Then I went to England to study. It was very exciting."

In 1966, he played Lyndon B. Johnson in the Broadway political satire "MacBird," which earned him the first of his three Obie awards. "That was the beginning of my success in theater."

In playing the role on tour, Keach has come to realize the ex-president's "tremendous range of behavior." But first, Keach had to figure out "how to look like him. The nose, the chins, the eyebrows." A wig took care of the hair.

Usually, Keach doesn't have to wait for the reviews when doing a stage production. "I really begin to sense where I'm at when the audience let's you know if you're doing it right. At the end of a scene I can generally tell what the audience will be like." It varies the way Keach plays Nixon. "Some nights I play him darker, other nights with more humor. He was very complicated. You're predisposed not to like the guy. He was very self-deprecating in his humor."

The list of famous people Keach has portrayed is impressive. It includes Hemingway, Jesse James and Buffalo Bill. "In the '80s we shot Hemingway all over the world, except Cuba."

One of the best westerns over the last 30 years was "The Long Riders," which starred three sets of brothers: the Keaches, Quaids and Carradines. "It took us nine years to get it on screen," says Keach. "Westerns weren't popular at the time. TV westerns had run their course."

Show business has always shadowed Keach. "My dad, Stacy Keach Sr., was in the business. He had a radio show in the '50s. Joel McCrea was the lead. I was fascinated by the people, but dad didn't want me to be in the business. He wanted me to be a lawyer."

Later this year Keach will star in "Imbued," a two-character film. Keach briefly, and tantalizingly, sets it up. "I play a bookie who goes to his friend's apartment, It's a mess. He's taken off. There's a knock on the door. It's a hooker. One thing leads to another. It's a little like "Last Tango in Paris."'

Keach is working on the music for the movie. "I started composing music a few years ago," he said.

He's passed though Boston before. "I played 'Scrooge' at the Majestic about five years ago, and did summer stock at the Tufts Arena Theater in the '60s."

Keach lives in California and Poland. "My wife is Polish. She has a little house in Warsaw. One year I made 17 trips there. That's a lot of frequent flier miles."

As busy as Keach is, his mind never really disconnects from theater. "I'm ready to re-visit 'King Lear."' He played the role in 2006 at the prestigious Goodman Theatre in Chicago and got glowing reviews in the Sun-Times and Tribune.

"That's a tough role," says Keach. "It's the physicality of it. It's exhausting, but exhilaration."

And it's the exhilaration the actor seeks.

"Frost/Nixon" runs Jan. 27-31 at the Colonial Theatre, 106 Boylston St.,Boston. For tickets, call 617-931-2787 or go to www.ticketmaster.com.