Actor Michael Madsen, a well-known Hollywood face and star of films such as Kill Bill, Donnie Brasco, and Reservoir Dogs, died Thursday at his home in Malibu, south of Los Angeles, California. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed this, although TMZ was the first to report the news. Madsen was 67.
According to the tabloid, with reliable sources within the police force, an unidentified person called emergency services early this morning, where sheriff's deputies responded. The actor was found in his home and pronounced dead there around 8:30 a.m."Our understanding is that Michael went into cardiac arrest and was found unresponsive at his Malibu home early this morning," his deputies said in a press statement.
Madsen was a prolific Hollywood veteran, with a career spanning over 300 titles dating back to the 1980s, when he began making television series such as Hospital, Miami Vice and Mackey's Honor. In the 1990s, he made appearances in such well-known titles as Free Willy, Thelma & Louise, Wyatt Earp and of course Donnie Brasco, in which he played Sonny.
But his most popular roles probably came from the hand of Quentin Tarantino, who bet on him for Reservoir Dogs (1992), for the role of Mr. Blonde; for the first part of Kill Bill, in 2003; for The Hateful Eight, in 2015; and for Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood, in 2019. However, he always maintained that he was not that famous tough guy, with a slightly crooked chin and crossed gaze, that he played in so many films.
“I'm not like that,” he asserted in an interview with EL PAÍS in 2007, as part of the Seville European Film Festival. Madsen often visited Spain and even filmed there. “That tough guy in the movies isn't my persona. I'm scary, and I don't know why. I'm, above all, a thinker, an observer of society... When I work as an actor, I live a solitary life. I spend my life in hotels, on trains, on planes... I'm like a kind of vagabond. I've traveled the world and seen things that not many people have seen, which makes me feel lucky. In my solitary, itinerant life, I've had time to write things. I didn't write them to publish them. I wrote them on matchboxes, in paper bags... And I put them in a box.”
Brother and husband to many actresses—his sister, Virginia Madsen, is also an actor—the actor has always been in the spotlight. But in recent years, he has been in the press more for personal issues and problems than for his work. In 2012, he was arrested by police for drunk driving, but in August 2019, he suffered a similar arrest, which resulted in him spending four days in prison (and five years on probation) after driving his car after drinking alcohol, which led to a car accident in Malibu. In February 2022, he was arrested for trespassing, spent a couple of hours in the hospital and another two at the police station, and was released.
In August of last year, Madsen was arrested in Los Angeles for violence against his wife, DeAnna Madsen, who called police to report that her husband had pushed her after an argument and locked her out of their home. The performer was held in jail and was released after posting $20,000 bail.
Michael's marriage to DeAnna was the actor's third, and he had seven children from his various relationships. One of his toughest moments came in January 2022, when his son Hudson died. The 26-year-old committed suicide by shooting himself in Oahu, Hawaii, where he lived with his wife. “I'm in shock because my son, who I spoke to a few days ago, told me he was happy; my last text from him was 'I love you, Dad,'” he shared with the Los Angeles Times days after the boy's death. “I didn't see any signs of depression. It's very tragic and very sad. I'm trying to make sense of it all and understand what happened,” he said at the time. “He had the typical life issues that people have with finances, but he wanted a family. He was looking toward his future, so it's mind-blowing. I can't understand what he's been through.”
Hudson was the eldest son of Michael and DeAnna (also an actress), with whom he also shares two other children, Calvin and Luke. But before that, in the late 1970s, he had a daughter named Jessica. In addition, in the early 1980s, Madsen married Georganne LaPiere, Cher's sister, to whom he was married for four years, from 1984 to 1988. After the divorce, he married Jeannine Bisignano, an actress and producer, in 1991, with whom he had two more sons, Christian and Max. Madsen and Bisignano divorced in 1995. It was just a year later when he married DeAnna, then named Morgan, in Jamaica. With her, he had his three young children.
Madsen leaves behind several unfinished projects. “Over the past two years, Michael Madsen has been doing incredible work in independent film, including the upcoming features Resurrection Road, Concessions, and Cookbook for Southern Housewives, and he was looking forward to this next chapter in his life,” his agents said in the statement. “He was also preparing the release of a new book titled Tears For My Father: Outlaw Thoughts and Poems, which is currently in editing.” “He was one of Hollywood’s most iconic actors and will be missed by so many.”
