Actor Michael Madsen, best known for his roles in Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 has died aged 67.
Born in Chicago, Illinois in 1957, Madsen’s mother Elaine was a filmmaker and author while his father Calvin was a World War II Navy veteran and a firefighter with the Chicago Fire Department.
After appearing on screens for the first time in the 1980s, Madsen went on to earn over 300 credits to his name throughout his career.
It has been confirmed by his manager, Ron Smith, that the actor died Thursday morning after suffering a cardiac arrest and being found unresponsive in his Malibu home.
‘In the last two years Michael Madsen has been doing some incredible work with independent film including upcoming feature films Resurrection Road, Concessions and Cookbook for Southern Housewives, and was really looking forward to this next chapter in his life. Michael was also preparing to release a new book called Tears For My Father: Outlaw Thoughts and Poems currently being edited,’ his representatives shared in a statement to Variety.
‘Michael Madsen was one of Hollywood’s most iconic actors, who will be missed by many.’
After his parents divorced in the 1960s, Maden’s mother was encouraged to pursue a career in the arts, encouraged by film critic Roger Ebert.
His siblings are Cheryl Madsen, an entrepreneur, and Academy Award nominee Virginia Madsen.
As a teenager Madsen worked at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, where he counted John Malkovich as a mentor.
His first notable screen role was in the science fiction film WarGame in 1983, going on to appear in Killing Time, Blood Red and Thelma & Louise.
But it was over a decade on from his first part that his break-out role came in Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 directorial debut Reservoir Dogs, in which he played criminal Mr. Blonde.
In the next few years he was seen in the Free Willy franchise, Mulholland Falls and Die Another Day, before other notable roles came Tarantino’s Kill Bill films in 2003 and 2004.
Madsen played assassin Budd, the brother of Bill (David Carradine). He and Tarantino later collaborated again in 2015’s The Hateful Eight.
In the two decades since then, Madsen was also cast in Sin City, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Scary Movie 4.
In 2012 he also appeared on the ninth season of Celebrity Big Brother alongside Denise Welch, Frankie Cocozza and Natalie Cassidy. He finished in 4th place in the final.
Last year Madsen appeared in eight films, with another four set to be released after his death – A Corpse in Kensington, Saturday at the Starlight, The Witching Hour and Legend of the White Dragon.
The actor once explained his choice of film roles following the Kill Bill franchise.
‘Some of them I’m only in for 10 minutes, but they bought my name, and they bought my face to put on the DVD box with a gun. What people don’t always understand is that I established a certain lifestyle for my family back in the days of Species and Mulholland Falls and The Getaway. I wasn’t about to move my six kids into a trailer park. So, when people offered me work, it wasn’t always the best, but I had to buy groceries and I had to put gas in the car,’ he told The Independent in 2015.
Madsen was first married to Georganne LaPiere, half-sister of singer and actress Cher, from 1984 until 1988.
He has a daughter named Jessica with Dana Mechling. She was born in 1979.
The actor was then married to Jeannine Bisignano from 1991 to 1995. They have two sons, Christian and Max, who are both actors.
In 1996, he married for a fourth time – this time to DeAnna Morgan. They had three sons together – Luke, Kalvin and Hudson, who died by suicide in 2022.
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