MICHAEL MADSEN
(25 September 1957 – 3 July 2025)
The American actor Michael Madsen lived a life that was not unlike that of some roles he played in films. He was generally cast as a man with problems or was something of a troublemaker. He has now died at the relatively early age of 67 from a cardiac arrest. Whether it was caused by overwork – he made over 300 film and television appearances – or the rambunctious life he led, who knows? Maybe his first film in 1982, Against All Hope, said it for him. It was about an alcoholic looking for God. Madsen, the actor, was a difficult man, blighted by alcoholism and drink-driving and assault charges. He had four partners, all actresses, and seven children including a son who committed suicide.
Who knows which came first, the bad man or the talented actor cast in often vicious roles? Perhaps he was typecast when he worked for Quentin Tarantino, Oliver Stone, Ridley Scott, Mike Newell, Robert Rodriguez and David Zucker. Did they bring out the best – or the worst - in him? However, there was also a positive side to Madsen’s life in that he worked for the Shriners Hospital for Children and collaborated with other celebrities for local charities. He was born in Chicago to the US Navy veteran Calvin Madsen and filmmaker and the author Elaine Madsen. He attended New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois. His two sisters were an entrepreneur, Cheryl Madsen, and the actress Virginia Madsen.
His first work as an actor was with the Steppenwolf Company in Chicago under John Malkovich for a production of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. His first film of note was the John Badham thriller WarGames in 1983. He was also in John Dahl’s Kill Me Again with Val Kilmer and Joanne Whalley. He played the American actor Tom Baker in Oliver Stone’s film about The Doors and then was the boyfriend of Susan Sarandon in Ridley Scott’s Thelma and Louise. Then Tarantino cast him as Mr Blonde in Reservoir Dogs where he famously cut off a policeman’s ear while dancing to Stealers Wheel’s ‘Stuck in the Middle With You’. Later on, Tarantino wanted Madsen for Pulp Fiction but the actor was already (and regrettably) committed to Lawrence Kasdan’s Wyatt Earp (1994) as the lawman Virgil Earp.
He was also a detective in Lee Tamahori’s Mulholland Flats with Nick Nolte and Melanie Griffith, the Mafia capo ‘Sonny Black’ in Mike Newell’s Donnie Brasco with Al Pacino and Johnny Depp and in Tamahori’s Die Another Day, as Halle Berry’s superior. A couple of Free Willy movies also came along. 2003 found him playing Budd in Tarantino’s Kill Bill Volume 1 & 2, for which he was grateful as he had hitherto appeared in far too many unworthy movies. Tarantino saved Madsen’s face and was arguably the making of him.
Tarantino came back again with The Hateful Eight (2015), a Western about strangers meeting in a blizzard during a stagecoach stopover. Madsen played Joe Gage, known as ‘The Cow Puncher’. Madsen’s finale for Tarantino was Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019) in which he played a TV actor. Madsen carried on working in films until 2024, along with the many TV appearances he made over the years, plus video games and documentaries. Being Michael Madsen was Michael Mongillo’s 2007 mockumentary about the actor’s ‘life’.
On a personal level, Madsen had a daughter called Jessica with Dana Mechling in 1979. He married Georganne LaPiere, Cher’s half-sister, in 1984. Then he married Jeannine Bisignano from 1991 and they had two sons, Christian and Max, both actors. After their divorce in 1995 he married DeAnna Morgan and they had three sons, Luke, Kalvin and Hudson, the latter who committed suicide in 2022, aged 26. Michael Madsen gathered some awards during his long career but they were mainly local to the USA. He produced a line of hot sauces called American Badass which just about summed up the man, his life and his work.
MICHAEL DARVELL