Michael Madsen, 'Reservoir Dogs' and 'Kill Bill' actor, dies at 67
04 Jul 2025 10:14am
Madsen's most iconic performances include Mr. Blonde, a psychopathic criminal in the 1992 crime thriller "Reservoir Dogs," and Budd, the younger brother of the antagonist in the "Kill Bill" movies, both directed by Tarantino. - AFP file photo
LOS ANGELES - US actor Michael Madsen -- best known for his frequent collaborations with director Quentin Tarantino including "Reservoir Dogs" and "Kill Bill" -- died Thursday at age 67 after suffering cardiac arrest, his management team said.
The actor was found unresponsive early Thursday at his home in Malibu, they said.
"Michael Madsen was one of Hollywood's most iconic actors, who will be missed by many," his managers Susan Ferris and Ron Smith said in a joint statement with his publicist, Liz Rodriguez.
Madsen's most iconic performances include Mr. Blonde, a psychopathic criminal in the 1992 crime thriller "Reservoir Dogs," and Budd, the younger brother of the antagonist in the "Kill Bill" movies, both directed by Tarantino.
In addition to his appearances in other Tarantino films like "The Hateful Eight" and "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood," Madsen's prolific career saw him play more than 300 roles over the course of 40 years.
Among his other notable films are "Thelma & Louise," "Free Willy," "Donnie Brasco" and the 2002 James Bond flick "Die Another Day."
Madsen also did voiceovers for several video games, including "Grand Theft Auto III," and published several volumes of poetry.
Madsen was born on September 25, 1957 in Chicago to a firefighter father and a filmmaker mother. His sister, Virginia Madsen, is also an actress.
He married three times over the course of his life and had six children, one of whom died by suicide in 2022. - AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sinar Daily
19 hours ago
- Sinar Daily
Kinky knots: Japanese bondage becomes art
TOKYO - In Tokyo, a man watches a woman slowly bind another with ropes attached to chains hanging from the ceiling. But this is no S&M bar, it's a workshop led by "shibari" master Hajime Kinoko. Kinoko teaches the knot-tying techniques of Japanese bondage, untangling the practice from its associations with kink and emphasising instead art and aesthetics. "I see attaching not only people, but also objects or spaces... as a form of painting on canvas," the 48-year-old told AFP at his studio in central Tokyo. "It's simply another type of expression." Kinoko discovered shibari -- the art of ropes -- in the 2000s while managing an S&M joint in Roppongi, an area of Tokyo known for its nightclubs and bars. "I wasn't particularly drawn to fetishism at first," he said. "At the time, the focus of BDSM was often on the dirty or degrading side, but I didn't see that part of it as necessary," he told AFP. Kinoko learned how to tie a woman's body by watching others before establishing his own style "based on beauty". He started staging performances with a more artistic perspective, and attracted a growing audience. "My goal is not to hurt... I don't place myself in a hierarchical relationship," he said. - Criminal beginnings - The roots of shibari date back to the Edo period (1603-1868) when feudal lords used "hojojutsu" to tie up criminals. The practice took an erotic turn in the 20th century through Ito Seiu's illustrations and books by Dan Oniroku, many of which became -- like "Double Rope Torture" (1985) -- pornographic movies. A pedestrian walking past an egg-shaped home "Natural Eclipse", decorated with blue rope by Hajime Kinoko, one of Japan's best-known artists of "shibari" or rope art, along a street in the Shibuya district of central Tokyo. Photo by Richard A. Brooks/AFP Another word for this in Japanese is "kinbaku" but this "refers to precise and restrictive techniques, such as wrists tied behind the back", Kinoko explained. "Shibari is a broader, freer term. There is no single definition," he said. The artist enjoys marrying the traditional heritage with an avant-garde approach and employing it in novel settings. In Tokyo's Shibuya district, he enveloped an egg-shaped house called the "Natural Eclipse" in blue rope like a spider's web, transforming it into a living sculpture. "It was the missing piece," the owner of the building, who agreed to the project after seeing another of Kinoko's works, told AFP. "Today, passersby stop to photograph it. It has become a place of interaction," he told AFP, declining to give his name. Kinoko installed large cubes of red rope on top of a Tokyo shopping mall and erected a "shibari sanctuary" at the Burning Man festival in the United States in 2017. "Why not stretch networks of ropes around the Eiffel Tower?" he said with a smile. - Create connections - Kinoko began offering workshops in London 20 years ago, before inviting fellow Japanese shibari masters to introduce their art to the European public. "Shibari then spread very quickly," he says. But international success has not been without risk. "When I saw people tying without knowing what they were doing, I realised it was necessary to teach. Shibari can be dangerous," he said. Reputed to be a hard taskmaster, he founded his own shibari school, Ichinawakai, where he trains a new generation of students, around 40 percent of them women. One of them, Sen, travelled from France to learn the techniques. "I discovered him in Paris during a performance... He has freed himself from the original dynamics," the 25-year-old told AFP. Kinoko offers "certification", although this is not an official licence. Students must pass a 10-stage course, master a variety of knots and guarantee the safety of those they are tying up. "You have to know how to communicate, make things beautiful and not hurt. That's what I try to convey. I feel responsible," Kinoko said. "I want shibari to transform society," he said. "Because, deep down, shibari is a way to create connections." - AFP
Free Malaysia Today
a day ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Billy Joel to sell off motorcycles due to health condition
US pop great Billy Joel is auctioning off his motorcycle collection and has cancelled a tour after being diagnosed with a rare brain condition. (Invision / AP pic) NEW YORK : US pop great Billy Joel will auction the motorcycle collection he maintains in New York state after being diagnosed with a brain condition that forced him to cancel a planned tour, his management said Wednesday. In May, Joel scrapped dates in Britain and a packed schedule crisscrossing the United States from July 2025 up until July 2026 because of a diagnosis of a rare condition, Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH). 'Due to a recent medical diagnosis, Billy will be auctioning off his bike collection later this year,' his publicist told AFP. Joel's extensive collection of motorcycles is housed at a shop in the Long Island town of Oyster Bay, where they can be seen free of charge on weekends. 'He will not be renewing the lease on the 20th Century Cycles bike shop once it expires late September,' the publicist said. The 76-year-old 'We Didn't Start the Fire' and 'New York State of Mind' legend has been a pop mainstay since the 1970s, and motorcycles have long been part of his public persona. In the hit song's music video, he whisks away an 'Uptown Girl' on the back of his motorcycle, and sings about riding a motorcycle in the rain in the song 'You May Be Right.' His collection includes more than 75 bikes, per the shop's website. 'I like the older style,' with some motorcycles dating back to the 1940s, Joel said in a promotional video. Joel's condition arises if cerebrospinal fluid cannot properly flow throughout the brain and spinal cord, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. The excess fluid and pressure can cause brain damage. The institution said on its website that NPH is rare, and can cause cognitive impairment including memory problems as well as trouble walking. Joel said previously 'this condition has been exacerbated by (previous) concert performances, leading to problems with hearing, vision, and balance.'
Free Malaysia Today
a day ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Italian Brainrot: the AI memes most adults don't know
Soft toys of Brainrot characters – inspired by AI-generated characters that have been going viral – displayed at a shop in central Tokyo. (AFP pic) TOKYO : In a Japanese shop selling cheap trinkets, there is a rack of toys, stickers and keyrings based on a global crew of AI-generated characters that almost every child – and very few adults – knows about. A walking shark in oversized sneakers, an orange with muscular arms, and a twirling 'Ballerina Cappuccina' with a mug for a head are among the strange stars of the online phenomenon called Italian Brainrot. 'At first it's not funny at all, but it kind of grows on you,' 16-year-old Yoshi Yamanaka-Nebesney from New York told AFP. 'You might use it to annoy someone and find that funny.' The name nods to the stupefying effect of scrolling through mindless social media posts, especially over-the-top images created with AI tools. Shouty, crude, and often nonsensical Italian voiceovers feature in many of the clips made by people in various countries that began to spread this year on platforms such as TikTok, embraced by young Gen Z and Gen Alpha members. The dozen-plus cartoonish AI creatures have fast become memes, inspiring a stream of new content such as 'Brainrot Rap', viewed 116 million times on YouTube. A YouTube Short titled 'Learn to Draw 5 Crazy Italian Brainrot Animals' – including a cactus-elephant crossover named 'Lirili Larila' – has also been watched 320 million times. 'There's a whole bunch of phrases that all these characters have,' said Yamanaka-Nebesney, in Tokyo with his mother Chinami, who had no idea what he was talking about. School-age Italian Brainrot fans can be found from Kenya to Spain and South Korea, while some of the most popular videos reference Indonesia's language and culture. 'I went on trips to Mexico and people would crack jokes about it there, too,' Yamanaka-Nebesney said. Tralalero Tralala, a shark with legs and blue Nike sneakers, was reportedly the first viral character in the Italian Brainrot genre. (Wikipedia pic) Internet trends move fast, and Italian Brainrot 'hit its peak maybe two months ago or a month ago', said Idil Galip, a University of Amsterdam lecturer in new media and digital culture. Italian – a 'melodic language that has opportunities for jokes' – has appeared in other memes before. And 'there are just so many people in Indonesia' sharing posts which have potential for global reach, Galip said. A 'multi-level marketing economy' has even emerged, with AI video-makers targeting Italian Brainrot's huge audience through online ads or merchandise sales, she added. Nurina, a 41-year-old Indonesian NGO worker, said her seven-year-old loves the mashed-up Brainrot world. 'Sometimes when I pick him up from school, or when I'm working from home, he shouts, 'Mommy! Bombardino Crocodilo!'' – a bomber plane character with a crocodile head. 'I know it's fun to watch,' said Nurina, who goes by one name. 'I just need to make him understand that this is not real.' Some videos have been criticised for containing offensive messages that go over young viewers' heads, such as rambling references in Italian to 'Bombardino Crocodilo' bombing children in Gaza. 'The problem is that these characters are put into adult content and many parents are not tech-savvy enough to spot the dangers,' warned Oriza Sativa, a Jakarta-based clinical psychologist. 'Tung Tung Tung Sahur' The best-known Indonesian Brainrot character, 'Tung Tung Tung Sahur' resembles a kentongan, a drum used to wake people up for sahur during Ramadan. Brainrot characters 'Tung Tung Tung Sahur' and 'Bombardino Crocodilo'. (Wikipedia pics) Indonesia has a young, digitally active population of around 280 million, and 'Tung Tung Tung Sahur' is not its only viral export. Recently, video footage – not AI-generated – of a sunglass-wearing boy dancing on a rowboat during a race at a western Indonesian festival also became an internet sensation. Noxa, the TikToker behind the original 'Tung Tung Tung Sahur' clip, is now represented by a Paris-based collective of artists, lawyers and researchers called Mementum Lab. 'Noxa is a content creator based in Indonesia. He's under 20,' they told AFP. 'He makes fast, overstimulated, AI-assisted videos. 'He doesn't call himself a 'contemporary artist', but we think he's already acting like one,' said Mementum Lab, which is focused on complex emerging issues around AI intellectual property, and says it is helping Noxa negotiate deals for his work. Noxa, in comments provided by the collective, said the character was 'inspired by the sound of the sahur drum I used to hear'. 'I didn't want my character to be just another passing joke – I wanted him to have meaning,' he added. Cultural nuances can be lost at a mass scale, however, with one 12-year-old tourist in Tokyo saying he thought 'Tung Tung Tung Sahur' was a baseball bat. And the generation gap looks set to persist. 'What's that?!' laughed a woman as she puzzled at the row of Italian Brainrot dolls. 'It's not cute at all!'
