Latest news with #SteppenwolfTheatreCompany
CNA
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- CNA
John Malkovich's Red Ghost scenes cut from The Fantastic Four: First Steps
John Malkovich has been cut from The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The 71-year-old actor was set to appear in the new Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) blockbuster as villain Ivan Kragoff/Red Ghost but director Matt Shakman has revealed that his scenes didn't make the final cut as they didn't fit in with the story – which features Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn as the heroic ensemble. In an interview with Variety, the filmmaker said: "There were a lot of things that ultimately ended up hitting the cutting room floor. "When we were building a 60s retro-future world, introducing all of these villains, introducing these four main characters as a group, as well as individually, introducing the idea of a child – there was a lot of stuff to balance in this movie and some things had to go ultimately in terms of shaping the film for its final version." Shakman had previously worked with Malkovich on his feature directorial debut Cut Bank in 2014 and said that it made the decision to omit the Con Air actor even more agonising. He said: "It was heartbreaking not to include him in the final version of the movie because he's one of my very favourite humans and one of my biggest inspirations. "As a person who walks the line between theatre and film and television, there's no one who is more inspiring than the founder of Steppenwolf Theatre Company. "What he's done on stage as an actor and what he's done as a director in theatre as well as in film, and as just a film actor of incredible ability – I was honoured he came to play." Malkovich revealed earlier this year that he has turned down several Marvel movies in the past because he didn't like the terms in the contracts that were on offer. He told GQ magazine: "The reason I didn't do them had nothing to do with any artistic considerations whatsoever. "I didn't like the deals they made, at all. These films are quite gruelling to make… If you're going to hang from a crane in front of a green screen for six months, pay me. "You don't want to pay me, it's cool, but then I don't want to do it, because I'd rather be onstage, or be directing a play, or doing something else." The Burn After Reading star explained that he was shocked by the similarities between a Marvel production and being on stage when he decided to accept the part. Malkovich said: "It's not that dissimilar to doing theatre. You imagine a bunch of stuff that isn't there and do your little play." The actor even suggested that one of the most demanding roles of his career came when he voiced the character of Dr Octavius Brine in the 2014 animated flick Penguins of Madagascar. "And I must have recorded the entire thing, every line; at least a thousand variations of every line.
7NEWS
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- 7NEWS
Reservoir Dogs actor Michael Madsen's true cause of death revealed
Hollywood actor Michael Madsen, whose film career spanned decades and included roles in Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill and Donnie Brasco, died from heart failure, his cardiologist told NBC Los Angeles. Madsen was found unresponsive Thursday at his Malibu home. He was 67. His doctor said heart failure will be listed as the cause of death, with heart disease and alcoholism named as contributing factors. Deputies responded to the Los Angeles County home after a 911 call early Thursday. Madsen was pronounced dead at the residence. No autopsy will be conducted because the cardiologist who was treating Madsen signed the death certificate. The case is considered closed by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, with no foul play indicated, and is listed as a death from natural causes. Manager Ron Smith said last week that Madsen died from cardiac arrest. The gravelly-voiced Madsen was known for portraying enigmatic tough guy characters, and amassed a long list of film credits during his career spanning four decades. Madsen, the brother of Academy Award-nominated actor Virginia Madsen, brought complex characters to life in Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Reservoir Dogs, Thelma & Louise, Donnie Brasco and more. Madsen, who also published several volumes of poetry, was born in Chicago, where he was part of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. His Hollywood career was launched with an appearance in the 1983 sci-fi techno thriller WarGames. Madsen, playing the role of cruel criminal Mr Blonde, was part of Quentin Tarantino's directorial debut in 1992's Reservoir Dogs. The two would collaborate frequently in Hollywood, including Kill Bill: Vol. 1, The Hateful Eight and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Madsen's Reservoir Dogs performance included a notoriously memorable scene in which Mr Blonde, aka Victor 'Vic' Vega, tortured a man he was tasked with guarding as he danced to the song Stuck in the Middle With You. Hudson Madsen, one of his six children, died by suicide at age 26 in 2022. He was one of three sons Madsen shared with his wife, DeAnna Madsen. He also had children from a previous marriage.
NBC News
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC News
‘Reservoir Dogs' actor Michael Madsen died from heart failure, doctor says
LOS ANGELES — Hollywood actor Michael Madsen, whose film career spanned decades and included roles in 'Reservoir Dogs,' 'Kill Bill' and 'Donnie Brasco,' died from heart failure, his cardiologist told NBC Los Angeles. Madsen was found unresponsive Thursday at his Malibu home. He was 67. His doctor said heart failure will be listed as the cause of death, with heart disease and alcoholism named as contributing factors. Deputies responded to the Los Angeles County home after a 911 call early Thursday. Madsen was pronounced dead at the residence. No autopsy will be conducted because the cardiologist who was treating Madsen signed the death certificate. The case is considered closed by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, with no foul play indicated, and is listed as a death from natural causes. Manager Ron Smith said last week that Madsen died from cardiac arrest. The gravelly-voiced Madsen was known for portraying enigmatic tough guy characters, and amassed a long list of film credits during his career spanning four decades. Madsen, the brother of Academy Award-nominated actor Virginia Madsen, brought complex characters to life in 'Kill Bill: Vol. 1,' 'Reservoir Dogs,' 'Thelma & Louise,' 'Donnie Brasco' and more. Madsen, who also published several volumes of poetry, was born in Chicago, where he was part of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. His Hollywood career was launched with an appearance in the 1983 sci-fi techno thriller 'WarGames.' Madsen, playing the role of cruel criminal 'Mr. Blonde,' was part of Quentin Tarantino's directorial debut in 1992's 'Reservoir Dogs.' The two would collaborate frequently in Hollywood, including 'Kill Bill: Vol. 1,' 'The Hateful Eight' and 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.' Madsen's 'Reservoir Dogs' performance included a notoriously memorable scene in which Mr. Blonde, aka Victor 'Vic' Vega, tortured a man he was tasked with guarding as he danced to the song 'Stuck in the Middle With You.' Hudson Madsen, one of his six children, died by suicide at age 26 in 2022. He was one of three sons Madsen shared with his wife, DeAnna Madsen. He also had children from a previous marriage.
Irish Independent
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Obituary: Michael Madsen, actor who will forever be known for that cut-throat razor scene in ‘Reservoir Dogs'
Star was usually cast as an unrepentant tough guy, but he was also the dad in 'Free Willy' Telegraph obituaries Michael Madsen, who has died of a heart attack at the age of 67, was an actor who made his name as the psychopathic Mr Blonde in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and went on to appear in four more Tarantino films. Over a vastly prolific career, with more than 300 credits, he specialised in charismatic hardmen, imbuing every role with a sense of danger and unpredictability. But if Madsen had had his way he would not have played Reservoir Dogs' most grimly memorable role. When casting his violent directorial debut about a heist gone badly wrong, Tarantino offered Madsen the part of Vic Vega — Mr Blonde for the purposes of the robbery — but the actor was set on playing Mr Pink, because he had more lines with Harvey Keitel. Tarantino agreed to audition him for the role, he recalled. 'For one of the only times in my life I'd rehearsed the dialogue, so I did a few Mr Pink scenes. When I was done, Quentin looked at me and went, 'Is that it? OK, good. You're not Mr Pink. You're Mr Blonde, and if you're not Mr Blonde, then you're not in the movie'.' Steve Buscemi played Mr Pink. While Madsen carved out a Hollywood niche as an unrepentant tough guy, he insisted that in real life he was very different (though there were brushes with the law). 'People have been afraid of me because of the parts I played. Nobody remembers that I was the dad in Free Willy.' Madsen was born in Chicago on September 25, 1957, one of three children. His father, Calvin, a US Navy veteran from World War II, was a firefighter, and his mother, Elaine (nee Melson), worked in finance before becoming an author and Emmy-winning film producer; the couple divorced when Michael was 11. After leaving school, he worked as a mechanic, then as a paramedic, but his life changed in 1980 when a friend took him to see a production of Of Mice and Men by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Enthralled, he went backstage and found the play's star, John Malkovich, who encouraged him to take acting classes. A few months later, Madsen was treading the boards in another production of the same play. He moved to LA and supported himself by working in a garage, and from 1982 began accumulating small roles, including two episodes of hospital drama St Elsewhere, and as a policeman in the 1983 thriller WarGames. His big break came in 1991 as Susan Sarandon's easygoing musician boyfriend in Thelma & Louise. 'It was one of the only times I got to play a sympathetic character,' he said. ADVERTISEMENT Tarantino wanted him to play Vincent Vega in 'Pulp Fiction' That brought him on to Tarantino's radar and the offer to play Mr Blonde, making the film his own in the unforgettable scene involving a razor, an ear and Stuck in the Middle with You. But his career took an immediate downturn. Tarantino wanted him to play Vincent Vega in his 1994 follow-up Pulp Fiction, but Madsen was contracted to Lawrence Kasdan's Western, Wyatt Earp, starring Kevin Costner. The three-hour epic was an epic flop; Pulp Fiction won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, an Academy Award and two Baftas, while the hitherto moribund career of Oscar-nominated John Travolta, who got the part, was super-charged back into life. A decade of hard graft followed for Madsen, one of the highlights being his portrayal of the real-life mobster Sonny Black in Mike Newell's Donny Brasco (1997). Then, in 2003 and 2004 he was reunited with Tarantino in the two Kill Bill films as the strip-club bouncer and hitman Budd (codename Sidewinder), an early target for Uma Thurman as she sets out on her gory voyage of revenge. In Tarantino's 2015 western The Hateful Eight he was the cattlehand Joe Gage, then four years later Sheriff Hackett in Bounty Law, the fictional 1960s TV Western that features in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. In 1984, Madsen married Georganne LaPiere, Cher's half-sister; they divorced in 1988. In 1991, he married Jeannine Bisignano; they had two sons, Christian and Max, who are both actors. They divorced in 1995, and the following year he married DeAnna Morgan; they had three sons, one of whom, Hudson, a US Army sergeant, took his own life in 2022. She survives him with his other four sons and a daughter from another relationship.
Metro
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
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. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Cash Me Outside girl Bhad Bhabie sued for $674,452.40 MORE: Star Wars actor Kenneth Colley dies aged 87 after 'contracting Covid' MORE: Charlize Theron, 49, details 'amazing' one-night stand with a 26-year-old
