Michael Madsen, the prolific character actor best known for his collaborations with Quentin Tarantino, died on July 3 at age 67 from cardiac arrest.
In 2009, Entertainment Weekly dubbed the slick, sandpaper-voiced actor the “hardest-working man in show business,” noting that he appeared in 25 films in 2009 alone.
Sure, the vast majority of his vast catalog won’t be memorialized in the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, but that doesn’t diminish Madsen’s fierce work ethic and inimitable onscreen presence, which crackled with cool menace. And while he’ll always be remembered for the psychopathic characters he played in Tarantino films, his career also featured more tender roles.
To commemorate Madsen’s passing, we combed through the actor’s filmography for his finest works. Here are EW’s picks for Michael Madsen’s best movie roles, ranked.
Michael Madsen and Bruce Willis in ‘Sin City’. Dimension Films
Madsen played a small role in Frank Miller’s gritty Sin City as Bob, the corrupt partner of Bruce Willis‘ Officer John Hartigan. It’s memorable, though, for how it let the duster-clad actor spit pulpy, noir-indebted dialogue in glorious black-and-white.
Sin City presents a vision of hardboiled crime classics shaped by time and homage. It also lets audiences imagine how the enigmatic Madsen might have looked in a film by Fritz Lang or Otto Preminger.
Michael Madsen as Joe Gage in ‘The Hateful Eight’. Andrew Cooper/The Weinstein Company
Madsen always had a smoker’s voice, but it positively rumbled throughout his turn as cowboy Joe Gage, a.k.a. “Grouch” Douglass, in The Hateful Eight, his third collaboration with Tarantino.
The actor was clearly having a blast, leaning hard into both the naughty and nice sides of his mysterious traveler. His character’s ominous smirk and froggy croak are grittier than the gnarled wood of the lodge where the film is set.
Michael Madsen as Press in ‘Species’. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Getty
Sci-fi action flick Species and its 1998 sequel are better than you’d expect, benefiting from their gnarly sexuality and ensemble cast, which includes Madsen alongside Marg Helgenberger, Forest Whitaker, Alfred Molina, and Ben Kingsley.
Each seasoned and distinctive performer brings a texture to Species that gives it a unique flavor in a crowded genre. Madsen, especially, is a grounded presence, lending naturalism and dry humor to the ridiculous story of an alien-human hybrid who can’t control her libido.
In EW’s review at the time, our critic described his black ops mercenary as a “more humane spin on the Mike Hammer type,” hearkening again to Madsen’s aura as a tough guy from another era.
Michael Madsen as Wolf in ‘The Winner’. Moviestore/Shutterstock
In this unappreciated (and deeply odd) crime comedy from Repo Man director Alex Cox, Madsen got to play mean, funny, and even sexy opposite Vincent D’Onofrio and Rebecca De Mornay.
The story of a loser who’s lucky at gambling, The Winner cast Madsen as Wolf, the opportunistic brother of D’Onofrio’s Phillip. Madsen scored laughs while lugging their brother’s corpse around, but he also proved combustible during moments of intimacy with De Mornay.
It’s a film that taps into his understated menace while also indulging both his tender and puckish sides. A gem worth seeking out.
Michael Madsen as Rudy in ‘The Getaway’. Universal/Courtesy Everett
Yeah, yeah, The Getaway was a bomb, a critical and commercial failure. It’s tough remaking a Sam Peckinpah classic.
Still, if there’s any reason to revisit it, it’s for Madsen’s wild turn as antagonist Rudy Travis, which is elevated that much more by his ecstatic chemistry with costar Jennifer Tilly. (There’s a scene of the pair playing with guns and condoms that’s so strangely compelling you’d think it was improvised.)
“The Getaway is probably one of the best times I’ve had making a picture. You know, fun-wise,” Madsen told The A.V. Club in 2015. “It was a remake of a Peckinpah film, and my character was completely out of his mind, and I had Roger Donaldson at the helm. It was a pretty good movie. I don’t think it was really released right. I think it should’ve been a wider release. I think they should’ve left it out a little bit longer.”
Michael Madsen as Glen in ‘Free Willy’. Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett
Something special about Madsen is that even when he was playing psychopaths, they were psychopaths you’d probably grab a beer with. For all his gruffness, there was a warmth radiating off of him, a sly smile that hinted at a deeper playfulness.
Madsen put that to good use in Free Willy, a sappy, kid-friendly tale about an orphan who grows to love an orca at a struggling amusement park. Madsen played the kid’s foster dad, Glen, who helps save the orca from captivity. Free Willy isn’t really a showcase for Madsen’s many talents, but it does highlight a softer side he didn’t often flex.
“It was one of those things that kind of balances out my bad guys, you know?” Madsen told The A.V. Club. “Anybody who thinks that I’m just a villainous character… Well, hey, how about Free Willy?“
Michael Madsen as Sonny Black and Johnny Depp as Joseph D. Pistone in ‘Donnie Brasco’. TriStar/Courtesy Everett
Madsen held his own against Johnny Depp and Al Pacino in Mike Newell’s Oscar-nominated Donnie Brasco, based on the true story of an FBI agent’s infiltration of the Bonanno crime family in the 1970s. Madsen costarred as Sonny Black, the real-life gangster born Dominick Napolitano.
It’s a paranoid, muscular, and at times genuinely scary performance, with Madsen putting his imposing frame to frightening use in his scenes with Depp’s undercover agent.
“I guess if you wanted to pick my top five, that’d be in there,” Madsen told The A.V. Club. “It was a pretty damned good film, and shooting in New York City wasn’t bad, either. When you play a character that’s someone real, when you’re playing a true story, it’s really great, ’cause you’re not pretending to make up some silly thing. I wanted to dignify it. I wanted to give it as much respect as it deserved.”
Susan Sarandon as Louise and Michael Madsen as Jimmy in ‘Thelma & Louise’. Path Entertainment/Getty
Ridley Scott’s Oscar-winning Thelma & Louise is a movie filled with bad men. It’s something of a surprise, then, that Madsen, a man known for playing bad men, emerges as the film’s most sympathetic male.
As Jimmy Lennox, a musician carrying a torch for Susan Sarandon‘s Louise, Madsen got to do some of the most moving and mercurial work of his career. The pair’s scenes are stunningly well-written, tasking the actors with navigating a whirlwind of anger, frustration, melancholy, and love in tight, uncomfortable spaces.
Michael Madsen as Budd in ‘Kill Bill: Vol. 2’. Andrew Cooper/Miramax
Tarantino’s Kill Bill tells the story of the Bride (Uma Thurman), a trained killer who vows revenge against the assassins who, in gunning down her wedding, killed her soon-to-be husband and unborn child. Madsen starred in the two-parter’s second entry as Budd, now a deadbeat bouncer living in a trailer.
Perhaps it was the novelty of seeing an older, wrinkled Madsen over a decade after he played Reservoir Dogs‘ twisted Mr. Blonde, but the weariness and remorse Madsen tapped into as Budd cuts to the bone. You’ve seen the damage he helped dispense, yet you almost want the Bride to let him off the hook.
”What’s funny is how incredibly likable he is even though he buries Uma alive,” Tarantino previously told EW. ”He does this horrible thing, but people think he’s the most sympathetic person in the movie.”
Michael Madsen as Mr. Blonde, a.k.a. Vic Vega, in ‘Reservoir Dogs’. Miramax/courtesy Everett
As Mr. Blonde, a.k.a. Vic Vega, in Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, Madsen delivered one of the most charming psychopaths ever put to film. Madsen’s suave, razor-wielding bank robber is so memorable that EW previously named him one of the best villains in film and TV history.
Yes, Madsen got many of the crime classics’ best lines (“Are you gonna bark all day, little doggie, or are you gonna bite?”). But the actor shines most of all in a scene EW’s critic called a “gonzo centerpiece,” soft-shoeing from amiable nonchalance to utter savagery. It finds Mr. Blonde slicing the ear from a restrained police officer as he boogies to Stealers Wheel’s jaunty ’70s pop song “Stuck in the Middle With You,” a track that’s become infamous in the decades since its reemergence in the film.
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