Michael Madsen, a prominent actor celebrated for portraying coolly menacing and sadistic characters, has passed away at the age of 67.
Madsen was discovered unresponsive in his Malibu, California home on Thursday morning and later pronounced dead, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Authorities suspect that he died of natural causes, and foul play is not believed to be involved. Madsen’s manager, Ron Smith, indicated that cardiac arrest was the apparent cause of death.
The actor’s extensive career spanned over 300 credits, beginning in the early 1980s, where he often took on roles of low-level thugs, gangsters, and shady cops in numerous low-budget and independent films.
His collaboration with Quentin Tarantino marked a pivotal turn in his career, elevating him from small roles to main characters in significant films.
One of the defining moments of Madsen’s career came in Tarantino’s 1992 directorial debut “Reservoir Dogs,” where he played the sadistic bank robber Vic “Mr. Blonde” Vega.
In a memorable scene, Madsen tortures a captured police officer while dancing to Stealers Wheel’s “Stuck in the Middle with You,” a performance that set the tone for both his and Tarantino’s later successes.
Following his appearance in “Reservoir Dogs,” Madsen became a regular in Tarantino’s films, further solidifying his place in cinematic history.
He portrayed Budd, a member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, in 2003’s “Kill Bill: Vol. 1,
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