Which actor plays Mike Hammer in Kiss Me Deadly?

Ralph Meeker plays Mike Hammer in the 1955 film Kiss Me Deadly.

Meeker portrays Mickey Spillane's hard-boiled private investigator in Robert Aldrich's intensely bleak film noir. The story begins when Hammer picks up a distressed hitchhiker and becomes involved in a mystery surrounding a dangerous, unexplained suitcase. Unlike many traditional detective films, the movie gives its investigator a deliberately abrasive and morally troubling personality.

The film is a loose adaptation of Spillane's 1952 novel, but its screenplay by A. I. Bezzerides substantially changes the plot and replaces the book's central criminal conspiracy with an espionage-flavored mystery. That transformation helped give the film its Cold War atmosphere and apocalyptic ending.

Meeker's performance is sometimes confused with other screen portrayals of Hammer, because the character appeared in several films and television adaptations. In Kiss Me Deadly, however, Meeker is the definitive lead, supported by Maxine Cooper as Velda and Albert Dekker as Dr. Soberin. The film was directed by Aldrich, not Meeker.