Michael Madsen, the actor recognized for his chillingly menacing, intense-eyed, frequently sadistic roles in Quentin Tarantino’s films, including “Reservoir Dogs” and “Kill Bill: Vol. 2,” has passed away.
Madsen was discovered unresponsive at his residence in Malibu, California, on Thursday morning and was declared dead, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Watch Commander Christopher Jauregui. Authorities believe he died of natural causes, and there is no indication of foul play. Madsen’s manager, Ron Smith, indicated that cardiac arrest was likely the cause. He was 67 years old.
Michael Madsen career
Madsen’s career spanned over 300 credits dating back to the early 1980s, with many roles in low-budget and independent films. He often portrayed minor characters like thugs, gangsters, and dubious police officers. Tarantino recognized that persona and cast him in prominent roles.
His infamous scene torturing a captured police officer in Tarantino’s 1992 film “Reservoir Dogs,” where Madsen’s bank robber Vic “Mr. Blonde” Vega cuts off the man’s ear while dancing to Stealers Wheel’s “Stuck in the Middle with You,” marked a significant moment in the careers of both the director and the actor.
He became a regular in Tarantino’s films. In the first part of “Kill Bill,” released in 2003, he played a supporting role as Budd, a cowboy-hatted desert inhabitant and a member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. The following year, he starred in the sequel, where he confronts Uma Thurman’s character The Bride and places her in a grave.
Madsen also featured in Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” and “Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood.” He was considered as an alternate choice for the hitman role that revitalized John Travolta’s career in 1994’s “Pulp Fiction.” The character, Vincent Vega, is the sibling of Madsen’s “Reservoir Dogs” robber in Tarantino’s interconnected films.
Born in Chicago into a family with three children, Madsen’s sister is Virginia Madsen, who received an Oscar nomination for her role in “Sideways.”
He performed with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, sharing the stage with actors like John Malkovich.
During a handprint ceremony at the TCL Chinese Theatre in November 2020, Michael Madsen reminisced about his initial journey to Hollywood in the early 1980s.
“I arrived and strolled around, contemplating if there would someday be a way for that experience to be part of me. At that stage, I was uncertain about my future,” he recalled. “I could have pursued being a bricklayer, an architect, a garbage collector, or nothing at all. But I got fortunate. I became an actor.”
His significant film debut came in the 1983 hacker thriller “WarGames” alongside Matthew Broderick. The next year, he portrayed pro baseball player Bump Bailey opposite Robert Redford in “The Natural.”
Throughout the late 1980s, he engaged in numerous guest appearances on television shows, including “Miami Vice” and “Quantum Leap.”
The year 1991 marked a turning point with performances in “The Doors,” where he was a friend of Val Kilmer’s Jim Morrison, and “Thelma and Louise,” where he played the boyfriend of Susan Sarandon’s character, Louise.
Then came “Reservoir Dogs.”
In 1995, he took on the role of a black ops mercenary in the sci-fi film “Species,” and in 1997, he was third billed after Al Pacino and Johnny Depp in “Donnie Brasco,” portraying a member of a gang of criminals.
Occasionally, he portrayed characters that deviated from his typical roles. In the 1993 family adventure “Free Willy,” he played the foster father of the orphaned protagonist.
Madsen returned to smaller parts but continued to work consistently throughout the last two decades of his career.
