03-07-2025
Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 actor Michael Madsen dies aged 67
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.
It has been confirmed by his manager, Ron Smith, that the actor died Thursday morning after suffering a cardiac arrest.
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 in The Kill Bill films in 2003 and 2004.
In the two decades since then, Madsen was also cast in Sin City, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Scary Movie 4.
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. More Trending
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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