Jack Stang Video | Celebrity Interview and Paparazzi

Jack Stang born John A. Stang (October 29, 1923-January 7, 1996) was Mickey Spillane's inspiration for his character Mike Hammer. During World War II Stang was a U.S. Marine who served in the Pacific Theater on Samoa, Guadacanal and Bougainville. He was wounded in action, and was one of four men in his platoon to make it out. Following the war, Stang was a Newburgh, New York policeman where Spillane, then residing at Orange Lake in suburban Newburgh, met him in 1946. After leaving the Newburgh Police, Stang operated a popular riverfront bar and grill at 4th and Front Street in Newburgh.... MORE

Jack Stang born John A. Stang (October 29, 1923-January 7, 1996) was Mickey Spillane's inspiration for his character Mike Hammer. During World War II Stang was a U.S. Marine who served in the Pacific Theater on Samoa, Guadacanal and Bougainville. He was wounded in action, and was one of four men in his platoon to make it out. Following the war, Stang was a Newburgh, New York policeman where Spillane, then residing at Orange Lake in suburban Newburgh, met him in 1946. After leaving the Newburgh Police, Stang operated a popular riverfront bar and grill at 4th and Front Street in Newburgh. After it was devastated by a fire, it reopened as a children's clothing store run by Fran Stang, Jack's mother. The old Newburgh riverfront neighborhood, 4 blocks wide and about a mile long, was demolished in the late 1960s as part of an 'Urban Renewal' program, and the bar property exists as of 2008 as part of a grassy slope and parking lot complex. Stang appeared with Spillane in the 1954 film Ring of Fear and had an unbilled appearance in I, the Jury. Spillane wrote, directed, and filmed a 1955 Mike Hammer screen test with Stang to enable Stang to play Hammer in Kiss Me Deadly. Stang never got to LESS