Michael Madsen, the gravel-voiced character actor best known for playing sneering tough guys in Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs” and “Kill Bill: Vol. 2,” died Thursday morning from cardiac arrest, according to his manager, Ron Smith.
He was 67.
In an acting career spanning more than 40 years, Madsen racked up dozens of screen roles. He was best known for his collaborations with Tarantino, who cast him as a psychotic thief in “Reservoir Dogs” and a washed-up hitman in “Kill Bill: Vol. 2.”
“Reservoir Dogs,” one of the seminal independent films of the 1990s, shocked audiences with its graphic violence, including a scene in which Madsen’s character, Mr. Blonde, cuts off a police officer’s ear while dancing to “Stuck in the Middle With You.”
Michael Madsen at an event in Santa Monica, Calif., on April 21, 2014.Jerod Harris / Getty Images file
Madsen’s other notable big-screen credits include “The Doors,” “Thelma & Louise” and “Donnie Brasco.” Tarantino included him in the ensemble casts of the bloody Western “The Hateful Eight” and the 1969-set “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”
In addition to appearing in film and television projects, Madsen played voice roles in video games such as “Grand Theft Auto III,” the “Dishonored” series and “Crime Boss: Rockay City.” He also published poetry and photography.
Michael Madsen was born in Chicago on Sept. 25, 1957, to a firefighter father and filmmaker mother; one of his siblings is the Oscar-nominated actor Virginia Madsen.
He got his professional start working at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, where he apprenticed under John Malkovich. The experience led to small early roles in 1980s films like “WarGames” and “The Natural.”
Madsen eventually broke through with “Reservoir Dogs,” a low-budget crime thriller that launched Tarantino’s career and helped transform the Sundance Film Festival into a Hollywood hot spot.
The film also earned Madsen an indelible place in film history. The sadistic and trigger-happy Mr. Blonde was one of the 400 nominees for the American Film Institute’s list of the all-time greatest movie villains.
Roger Ebert praised Madsen’s performance in an otherwise mixed review of “Reservoir Dogs.”
“One of the discoveries in the movie is Madsen, who has done a lot of acting over the years … but here emerges with the kind of really menacing screen presence only a few actors achieve; he can hold his own with the fearsome [Lawrence] Tierney, and reminds me a little of a very mean Robert De Niro,” Ebert wrote in his review.
Madsen was originally lined up to play John Travolta’s role in Tarantino’s era-defining “Pulp Fiction,” but he dropped out to appear in Kevin Costner’s “Wyatt Earp” instead — a choice he said he came to regret.
Tarantino’s “Kill Bill: Vol. 2” allowed Madsen to flex his dramatic muscles as Budd, a former elite assassin who eventually finds himself working as a low-rent bouncer and living in a trailer.
He worked steadily throughout his career, acting in various small-scale projects but occasionally appearing in high-profile releases, such as the James Bond franchise entry “Die Another Day” and the graphic novel adaptation “Sin City.”
Madsen was married three times, most recently to DeAnna Morgan. He is survived by four children, including actor Christian Madsen; another son, Hudson, died in 2022.
