Kill Bill star Michael Madsen dies aged 67

The actor, best known for his films with Quentin Tarantino, was found unresponsive in Los Angeles

Madsen in 2018. Picture: Valery Hache/AFP

Michael Madson, the actor best known for playing gun-toting tough guys in collaborations with Quentin Tarantino, has died aged 67 after suffering a cardiac arrest.

Madsen, star of films including Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill: Volume 2 and The Hateful Eight, was found unresponsive at his home in Malibu yesterday (Thursday) morning, according to his representatives.

His managers, Susan Ferris and Ron Smith, and his publicist, Liz Rodriguez, said in a statement that he had been “doing some incredible work with independent film” over the past two years and “was really looking forward to this next chapter in his life”.

He had a book in the editing process, they said, adding: “Michael Madsen was one of Hollywood’s most iconic actors, who will be missed by many.”

Michael Madsen as Mr Blonde in Kill Bill

Madsen played the sadistic criminal Mr Blonde in Tarantino’s directorial debut Reservoir Dogs in 1992, alongside Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth and Steve Buscemi. He had perhaps the movie’s defining scene, cutting off a police officer’s ear while dancing to Stuck in the Middle With You.

Madsen’s other films include Donnie Brasco and the James Bond film Die Another Day. He developed a reputation as a Hollywood hellraiser due to his hard-drinking lifestyle. However, in 2018 he said he had settled down and changed his ways.

“Fame is a two-edged sword,” he told the Hollywood Reporter. “There are a lot of blessings but also a lot of heavy things that come with it. I think it has a lot to do with the characters I’ve played. I think I’ve been more believable than I should have been. I think people really fear me. They see me and go, ‘Holy shit, there’s that guy!’ But I’m not that guy. I’m just an actor. I’m a father, I’ve got seven children.”

 

He added: “I sure as hell had my rabble-rousing days, but sooner or later you have to get over that and move on.”

Madsen filed for divorce from his wife of 28 years, DeAnna Madsen, last year. At the time he said they had split shortly after their 26-year-old son took his own life in January 2022. Madsen was arrested on domestic battery charges last August after police responded to a “family disturbance” in Malibu involving his estranged wife.

While his highlight reel includes some of the best films of recent decades, Madsen had also starred in his fair share of duds. He told the Hollywood Reporter that many of his failed projects were chosen out of financial necessity.

“Well, sometimes people forget that sometimes you have to pay the mortgage, sometimes you have to put your kids through school,” he said.

The Times