private eye mike hammer

Mystery writer Mickey Spillane has died in Murrell's Inlet, South Carolina.

Spillane was the creator of tough guy private eye Mike Hammer, played on television by Darren McGavin in the 1950s and by Stacey Keach in the 1980s and 90s.

A lot of people look down on Spillane's Hammer novels, saying they are just cheap, blunt pulp novels full of sex and violence. And to that I say "hell yeah!" Spillane was an underrated writer. He also starred in a famous series of commercials for Miller Beer, and appeared in many of the Mike Hammer movies and on Columbo and other shows.