Michael Madsen, the actor best known for his coolly menacing, steely-eyed, often sadistic characters in the films of Quentin Tarantino including Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill: Vol. 2, has died.
Madsen was found unresponsive in his home in Malibu, California, on Thursday, July 3, and pronounced dead, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Watch Commander Christopher Jauregui said. He is believed to have died of natural causes and authorities do not suspect any foul play was involved. Madsen's manager Ron Smith said cardiac arrest was the apparent cause. He was 67.
Madsen’s career spanned more than 300 credits stretching back to the early 1980s, many in low-budget and independent films. He often played low-level thugs, gangsters and shady cops in small roles. Tarantino would use that identity, but make him a main character.
His torture of a captured police officer in Tarantino's 1992 directorial debut Reservoir Dogs, in which Madsen's black-suited bank robber Vic “Mr. Blonde” Vega severs the man's ear while dancing to Stealers Wheel’s "Stuck in the Middle with You” was an early career-defining moment for both director and actor.
He would become a Tarantino regular. He had a small role as the cowboy-hatted desert dweller Budd, a member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, in 2003's Kill Bill: Vol. 1, then a starring role the following year in the sequel, in which he battles with Uma Thurman's protagonist The Bride and buries her alive.
Madsen also appeared in Tarantino's The Hateful Eight and Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood. He was an alternate choice to play the hit man role that revived John Travolta's career in 1994's Pulp Fiction. The character, Vincent Vega, is the brother of Madsen's Reservoir Dogs robber in Tarantino's cinematic universe.
His sister, Oscar-nominated Sideways actor Virginia Madsen, was among those paying him tribute on Thursday. "He was thunder and velvet. Mischief wrapped in tenderness. A poet disguised as an outlaw. A father, a son, a brother − etched in contradiction, tempered by love that left its mark," she said in a statement. "I’ll miss our inside jokes, the sudden laughter, the sound of him. I’ll miss the boy he was before the legend. I miss my big brother."
His Hateful Eight co-star and fellow Tarantino favorite Walton Goggins celebrated him on Instagram. "Michael Madsen… this man… this artist… this poet… this rascal…" Goggins wrote. "Aura like no one else. Ain’t enough words so I’ll just say this…. I love you buddy. A H8TER forever."