Michael Madsen, star of Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill, dies at 67
LOS ANGELES — Michael Madsen, the actor best known for his coolly menacing, steely-eyed, often sadistic characters in the films of Quentin Tarantino including Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill: Vol. 2, has died.
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Madsen was found unresponsive in his home in Malibu, Calif., on Thursday morning and pronounced dead, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Watch Commander Christopher Jauregui said. He is believed to have died of natural causes and authorities do not suspect any foul play was involved. Madsen's manager Ron Smith said cardiac arrest was the apparent cause. He was 67.
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Madsen's career spanned more than 300 credits stretching back to the early 1980s, many in low-budget and independent films. He often played low-level thugs, gangsters and shady cops in small roles. Tarantino would use that identity, but make him a main character.
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His torture of a captured police officer in Tarantino's 1992 directorial debut Reservoir Dogs, in which Madsen's black-suited bank robber Vic 'Mr. Blonde' Vega severs the man's ear while dancing to Stealers Wheel's Stuck in the Middle with You was an early career-defining moment for both director and actor.
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Madsen told the Associated Press in 2012 that he hated having to do the scene, especially after the actor playing the officer, Kirk Baltz, ad-libbed a line where he begged for his life because he had children.
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'I just said, 'Oh my God,' I couldn't do it, I didn't want to do it,' Madsen said. 'Acting is such a humiliating profession.'
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He would become a Tarantino regular. He had a small role as the cowboy-hatted desert dweller Budd, a member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, in 2003's Kill Bill: Vol. 1, then a starring role the following year in the sequel, in which he battles with Uma Thurman's protagonist The Bride and buries her alive.
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Madsen also appeared in Tarantino's The Hateful Eight and Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood. He was an alternate choice to play the hit man role that revived John Travolta's career in 1994's Pulp Fiction. The character, Vincent Vega, is the brother of Madsen's Reservoir Dogs robber in Tarantino's cinematic universe.
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His sister, Oscar-nominated Sideways actor Virginia Madsen, was among those paying him tribute on Thursday.
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'He was thunder and velvet. Mischief wrapped in tenderness. A poet disguised as an outlaw. A father, a son, a brother — etched in contradiction, tempered by love that left its mark,' she said in a statement. 'I'll miss our inside jokes, the sudden laughter, the sound of him. I'll miss the boy he was before the legend. I miss my big brother.'
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Winnipeg Free Press
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We're then given a brisk, neat-and-tidy ending to the novel, a list of (real) acknowledgments and a (real) note about the author and the type face — all of which you'd typically find at the close of a book. Which is all fine and dandy — except there's 200 or so pages, giving the reader a hint there's plenty more to come. While such an authorial interjection in the middle of a book could be off-putting or clumsy in the hands of some authors, Reva navigates the move brilliantly before plunging the reader back into the action. It's a brief, insightful respite from what's to come — a third act brimming with intensity and anxiety. Every Second Friday The latest on food and drink in Winnipeg and beyond from arts writers Ben Sigurdson and Eva Wasney. In Part III we rejoin the group as Russia's invasion of Ukraine begins in earnest, with the trio women trying to figure out what to do with the kidnapped bachelors now that war has broken out. After unsuccessfully trying to offload the kidnapped bachelors, the mobile lab with Yeva, Nastia, Sol and the gang heads south to the real-life (and now war-ravaged) port city of Kherson, where Yeva may have finally found a mate for Lefty and where the grandfather of Masha, the romance tourism owner, lives. Masha offers Sol and Nastia a deal — get her grandfather out, and she'll provide information on the whereabouts of their mother. Endling Venturing into one of the most dangerous sections of war-torn Ukraine brings the women and their captives in close contact with gunfire and all manner of danger, including the shooting of a scene for a Russian propaganda piece about the liberation of Ukraine. As Yeva locates the acacia tree where Lefty's potential mate might be found, the country and its people are being pushed toward becoming endlings themselves. Reva masterfully ramps up the tension and danger page by page in the latter half of Endling. Despite her anxiety in her interlude/interjection about the book in the novel's middle section, she masterfully brings together seemingly disparate threads by the book's end, never sacrificing humour along the way. Ben Sigurdson is the Free Press literary editor. Ben SigurdsonLiterary editor, drinks writer Ben Sigurdson is the Free Press's literary editor and drinks writer. He graduated with a master of arts degree in English from the University of Manitoba in 2005, the same year he began writing Uncorked, the weekly Free Press drinks column. He joined the Free Press full time in 2013 as a copy editor before being appointed literary editor in 2014. Read more about Ben. In addition to providing opinions and analysis on wine and drinks, Ben oversees a team of freelance book reviewers and produces content for the arts and life section, all of which is reviewed by the Free Press's editing team before being posted online or published in print. It's part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Global News
a day ago
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Calgary man injured in Russian drone and missile attack in Ukraine
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Vancouver Sun
a day ago
- Vancouver Sun
Michael Madsen, star of Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill, dies at 67
LOS ANGELES — Michael Madsen, the actor best known for his coolly menacing, steely-eyed, often sadistic characters in the films of Quentin Tarantino including Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill: Vol. 2, has died. Madsen was found unresponsive in his home in Malibu, Calif., on Thursday morning and pronounced dead, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Watch Commander Christopher Jauregui said. He is believed to have died of natural causes and authorities do not suspect any foul play was involved. Madsen's manager Ron Smith said cardiac arrest was the apparent cause. He was 67. Madsen's career spanned more than 300 credits stretching back to the early 1980s, many in low-budget and independent films. He often played low-level thugs, gangsters and shady cops in small roles. Tarantino would use that identity, but make him a main character. Get top headlines and gossip from the world of celebrity and entertainment. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sun Spots will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. His torture of a captured police officer in Tarantino's 1992 directorial debut Reservoir Dogs, in which Madsen's black-suited bank robber Vic 'Mr. Blonde' Vega severs the man's ear while dancing to Stealers Wheel's Stuck in the Middle with You was an early career-defining moment for both director and actor. Madsen told the Associated Press in 2012 that he hated having to do the scene, especially after the actor playing the officer, Kirk Baltz, ad-libbed a line where he begged for his life because he had children. 'I just said, 'Oh my God,' I couldn't do it, I didn't want to do it,' Madsen said. 'Acting is such a humiliating profession.' He would become a Tarantino regular. He had a small role as the cowboy-hatted desert dweller Budd, a member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, in 2003's Kill Bill: Vol. 1, then a starring role the following year in the sequel, in which he battles with Uma Thurman's protagonist The Bride and buries her alive. Madsen also appeared in Tarantino's The Hateful Eight and Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood. He was an alternate choice to play the hit man role that revived John Travolta's career in 1994's Pulp Fiction. The character, Vincent Vega, is the brother of Madsen's Reservoir Dogs robber in Tarantino's cinematic universe. His sister, Oscar-nominated Sideways actor Virginia Madsen, was among those paying him tribute on Thursday. 'He was thunder and velvet. Mischief wrapped in tenderness. A poet disguised as an outlaw. A father, a son, a brother — etched in contradiction, tempered by love that left its mark,' she said in a statement. 'I'll miss our inside jokes, the sudden laughter, the sound of him. I'll miss the boy he was before the legend. I miss my big brother.' His Hateful Eight co-star and fellow Tarantino favourite Walton Goggins celebrated him on Instagram. 'Michael Madsen… this man… this artist… this poet… this rascal…' Goggins wrote. 'Aura like no one else. Ain't enough words so I'll just say this…. I love you buddy. A H8TER forever.' James Woods, Madsen's co-star in two films, wrote on X, 'I was always touched by his sweet nature and generosity, the absolute opposite of the 'tough guys' he portrayed so brilliantly.' Madsen was born in Chicago to a family of three children. He performed on stage with the city's Steppenwolf Theatre Company alongside actors including John Malkovich. During a handprint ceremony at the TCL Chinese Theatre in November 2020, Madsen reflected on his first visit to Hollywood in the early 1980s. 'I got out and I walked around and I looked and I wondered if there were someday some way that that was going to be a part of me. And I didn't know because I didn't know what I was going to do at that point with myself,' he said. 'I could have been a bricklayer. I could have been an architect. I could have been a garbage man. I could have been nothing. But I got lucky. I got lucky as an actor.' His first film role of any significance was in the 1983 hacker thriller WarGames with Matthew Broderick. The following year he played pro baseball player Bump Bailey alongside Robert Redford in The Natural. He spent much of the rest of the 1980s doing one-off guest roles on television dramas including Miami Vice and Quantum Leap. 1991 would bring a career boost with roles in The Doors, where he played a buddy of Val Kilmer's Jim Morrison, and Thelma and Louise, where he played the boyfriend of Susan Sarandon's Louise. Then would come Reservoir Dogs. In 1995, he played a black ops mercenary in the sci-fi thriller Species and in 1997 he was third billed after Al Pacino and Johnny Depp as a member of a crew of gangsters in Donnie Brasco. He occasionally played against type. In the 1993 family orca adventure Free Willy he was the foster father to the orphan protagonist. Madsen would return to smaller roles but worked constantly in the final two decades of his career. Madsen had six children. He had struggled in recent years after the 2022 death of one of his sons, Hudson. 'Losing a child is the hardest and most painful experience that can happen in this world,' Madsen said in an Instagram post last year. He said the loss put a strain on his marriage to third wife, DeAnna Madsen. He was arrested on suspicion of domestic battery last year, but was not charged. He filed for divorce, but asked that the filing be dismissed just weeks later. He had previously been arrested twice on suspicion of DUI, most recently in 2019, when he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanour. '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,' his managers Smith and Susan Ferris and publicist Liz Rodriguez said in a statement. 'Michael was also preparing to release a new book called Tears For My Father: Outlaw Thoughts and Poems currently being edited.' The memoir includes a foreword from Tarantino.
