Michael Madsen

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Birth Name: Michael Søren Madsen

Age: 66, born 25 September 1957

Country of origin: United States

Height: 6' 2"

Relationship Status: In a relationship

Partner: DeAnna Madsen

Lists

418 votes

The evolution of... (739 items)
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Published 13 years, 5 months ago

66 comments

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boys don't cry (36 items)
list by Dan

Published 14 years, 4 months ago

36 comments

158 votes

Greatest Movie Villains (92 items)
list by Adriano Lopes

Published 14 years, 6 months ago

19 comments

142 votes

DC Universe Cast - Superheroes (312 items)
list by fabrizius

Published 13 years, 6 months ago

35 comments

133 votes

When The Villain Steals The Show (30 items)
list by Severin Severin

Published 11 years, 7 months ago

15 comments

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Michael Madsen Videos

Michael Madsen reading BEATING.

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Description: Michael Søren Madsen (born September 25, 1957) is an American actor, poet and photographer. He has appeared in more than 150 films, including Reservoir Dogs, Thelma & Louise, Wyatt Earp, Free Willy, Donnie Brasco, Species, Kill Bill, and Sin City. He is scheduled to appear in the upcoming film The Hateful Eight, his third collaboration with director Quentin Tarantino. Madsen is also credited with voice work in several video games, including Grand Theft Auto III, True Crime: Streets of L.A., DRIV3R, Dishonored, The Walking Dead: Season Two, and Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Madsen was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of E Michael Søren Madsen (born September 25, 1957) is an American actor, poet and photographer. He has appeared in more than 150 films, including Reservoir Dogs, Thelma & Louise, Wyatt Earp, Free Willy, Donnie Brasco, Species, Kill Bill, and Sin City. He is scheduled to appear in the upcoming film The Hateful Eight, his third collaboration with director Quentin Tarantino. Madsen is also credited with voice work in several video games, including Grand Theft Auto III, True Crime: Streets of L.A., DRIV3R, Dishonored, The Walking Dead: Season Two, and Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

Madsen was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Elaine Melson, an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and author, and Calvin Madsen, a firefighter. His parents divorced in the 1960s, and his mother left a career in finance to pursue a career in the arts, encouraged by Roger Ebert. His siblings are Cheryl Madsen, an entrepreneur, and Academy Award-nominated actress Virginia Madsen. Madsen's paternal grandparents were Danish and his mother is of English, Irish, Scottish, German, and Native American ancestry.

Madsen's acting career began at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, where he served as an apprentice under actor John Malkovich.

In 1982, Madsen was cast by Edward McDougal for the lead in an independent film, Against All Hope, his first movie. He then played a small role in the studio picture WarGames in 1983. That same year, he appeared in a bit part in Edward Zwick's 1983 television movie Special Bulletin. Soon after, Madsen was cast as a psychopathic gunman who took Mary Beth hostage in the Cagney and Lacey episode "Heat", which aired October 22, 1984. He moved to Los Angeles and appeared in other films, including as arrogant baseball player Bump Bailey in The Natural (1984), a deranged killer in Kill Me Again (1989), and as the tough but touching boyfriend of Susan Sarandon in Thelma & Louise (1991).

Then came a memorable role as the razor-wielding, sadistic ex-con and jewel thief "Mr. Blonde" in the bloody Quentin Tarantino crime story Reservoir Dogs. The film brought Madsen attention among critics and fans. During a scene in which Madsen's psychopathic character Mr. Blonde tortures a police officer, actor Kirk Baltz ad-libbed a line about being a father to a young child. Madsen, who himself had just become a father, was so upset that he found it difficult to finish the scene. On some copies of the film's DVD, as Baltz completes the line, a voice can be heard off-screen saying "Oh, no, no ..." The ad-lib exacerbated Madsen's original reluctance to do the scene, because of his real-life aversion to violence.

Madsen was then cast in a variety of major studio films, including Free Willy, Mulholland Falls, Wyatt Earp, Species and with Johnny Depp and Al Pacino in the critically acclaimed Donnie Brasco. He was unable to play the role of Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction as he couldn't get out of rehearsals for the film Wyatt Earp, which he had just decided to do. The role instead went to John Travolta, relaunching his career.

Since the mid-1990s, Madsen has appeared in lower-budget films released directly to video or television. Notable exceptions include his featured role in Tarantino's Kill Bill, in the James Bond adventure Die Another Day and in the film version of the Frank Miller graphic novel Sin City. He appeared in Scary Movie 4 in 2006 parodying Tim Robbins's character from War of the Worlds. He was also in the film 44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shoot-Out in 2003.

In 2004, Tarantino discussed an idea for a movie starring Madsen and John Travolta as the Vega brothers. The film would have seen Madsen and Travolta reprising their roles as Vic (Mr. Blonde) from Reservoir Dogs and Vincent from Pulp Fiction. However, in 2007, because of the age of the actors and the onscreen deaths of both characters, Tarantino said the project (which he intended to call Double V Vega) was "kind of unlikely now".

In 2008, Madsen had a starring role as "The Gent" in Hell Ride, written and directed by Larry Bishop and executive produced by Tarantino. ... (more)