Michael Madsen

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Michael Madsen
Image:Michael Madsen.jpg
Michael Madsen
Born September 25 1958 (1958-09-25) (age 50)
Chicago, Illinois, US
Official site http://www.michaelmadsen.com/

Michael Soren Madsen (born September 25, 1958) is an American actor. He is well known for his 'tough guy' image on screen.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Madsen was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Elaine (née Melson), an Emmy-winning poet, producer and playwright who often works for PBS, and Cal Madsen, a fireman.[1] Madsen's mother left a career in corporate business to pursue a writing career.[2] Madsen's paternal grandparents were Danish and his mother has Irish and Native American ancestry.[3] His sister is actress Virginia Madsen. He also has an older sister named Cheri, who owns a restaurant with her husband and three children, they live in Wisconsin. Madsen's youth was characterized by unfortunate events: at age nine his parents separated and he frequently had to change schools. He began to steal and was sent to jail a few times. Madsen's acting career started at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, where he served as an apprentice actor under John Malkovich.

[edit] Career

Soon after his apprenticeship, he was cast in a small role in his first movie WarGames (1983). He moved to Los Angeles and appeared in a series of minor film roles, including playing baseball player Bump Bailey in The Natural, a deranged killer in Kill Me Again (1989), and Susan Sarandon's tough but touching boyfriend "Jimmy" in Thelma & Louise (1991).

He played a razor-wielding, sadistic ex-con and jewel thief, "Mr. Blonde", in the film Reservoir Dogs. The film gained attention among film critics and fans, as did Madsen's performance and the brutality of his character. During the scene in Reservoir Dogs where Michael Madsen's character, Mr. Blonde, tortures Officer Nash, actor Kirk Baltz ad-libbed a line about being father of a young child. Madsen, who himself had just become a father, was so upset by this line that he had difficulty finishing the scene. On some copies of the DVD, as Baltz completes the line, a voice can be heard off-screen saying "Oh, no, no..." The ad-lib also compounded his reluctance to do the scene to begin with, due to his aversion to violence.

Subsequently, Madsen was cast in a variety of supporting roles in major studio films, including Free Willy, Mulholland Falls, Species, and the critically-acclaimed Donnie Brasco.

Since his peak in the mid 1990s, Madsen has appeared in a large number of lower-budget films that have been released directly to video or television. Some notable exceptions include his major role in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill and appearances in the James Bond film Die Another Day and the film version of Frank Miller's Sin City. He appeared in Scary Movie 4 in 2006 parodying Tim Robbins's character from War of the Worlds.

Madsen has appeared in a few television series, including the short-lived series Vengeance Unlimited and most recently as "Don Everest" in the poker-themed ESPN series Tilt. He appeared in Michael Jackson's 2001 music video, "You Rock My World" and has provided voice work for several video games, including Grand Theft Auto III, True Crime: Streets of L.A., and Driver 3. He provided voice work for the movie of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as Maugrim the wolf, captain of the White Witch's secret police.

Madsen's latest voice-over role is for the Playstation 2 game, Yakuza, where he voices the role of Futo Shimano, a violent and unforgiving leader of a Yakuza family. Quentin Tarantino has confirmed that he will use Madsen in another upcoming movie by him, this time as the lead role of Babe Buchinsky in Inglorious Bastards. Madsen will reprise his role as Bob in Sin City 2.

He is set to appear in House, a horror movie that is adapted from the acclaimed novel by Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti, in which he will portray a police officer. It is scheduled to be released on October 22 2007.

Madsen appeared in Every Time I Die's music video "Kill The Music" and recorded a public service announcement for Deejay Ra's 'Hip-Hop Literacy' campaign, encouraging reading of screenplays by Quentin Tarantino.

Madsen has also written a few books of poetry. Burning in Paradi (1998) and The Complete Poetic Works of Michael Madsen, Vol. I: 1995-2005 by Michael Madsen (2005)

[edit] Personal life

Madsen's first marriage was to Georganne LaPiere, the half sister of Cher. He remarried, to Jeannine Bisignano, with whom he has two of his first sons, Max and Christian. Since 1996, he has been married to Deanna Morgan. Madsen has five children, all boys. His sons' names are Calvin who now has changed his name to Kalvin, Hudson, Luke and his other sons Max and Christian from his marriage to Bisignano. He has said that the five films he has acted in that he is proudest of are Reservoir Dogs, Donnie Brasco, Species, Free Willy, and Kill Bill.

Michael lived in a Malibu house that once belonged to the late Keith Moon, the original drummer of The Who, but has recently moved to another house in Malibu.

[edit] Award(s)

September 20th, 2007 won "Best Actor" award at the 23rd Annual Boston Film Festival for his role as Sean Kelleher in Strength and Honor.[4]

[edit] Filmography

[edit] 1982 - 1999

[edit] 2000 onwards

[edit] References

  1. ^ Bell, Mark. "METHOD FEST TO PRESENT THE 2007 MAVERICK AWARD TO MICHAEL MADSEN", Film Threat, 2007-02-23. Retrieved on 2007-05-31. 
  2. ^ Kennedy, Lisa. "A strong role, an equal partner", The Denver Post, 2007-02-21. Retrieved on 2007-05-31. 
  3. ^ Bray, Tony. "Virginia Madsen", TV Now, April, 2004. Retrieved on 2007-05-31. 
  4. ^ http://imdb.com/name/nm0000514/awards
  5. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000514

[edit] External links

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