Michael Madsen, one of the stars of 'Reservoir Dogs' and 'Kill Bill', dies.

BarcelonaActor Michael Madsen, the iconic Mr. Blonde of Reservoir Dogs, died unexpectedly this Thursday at the age of 67 at his home in Malibu, where authorities found his lifeless body as a result of cardiac arrest, according to the actor's representative. Madsen's career is intrinsically linked to the films of Quentin Tarantino, who made him one of the stars of his directorial debut, Reservoir Dogs, and also gave important papers to the diptych Kill Bill and in The Hateful Eight.

Madsen made his acting debut in 1984 with a small role in War games, and he bounced from supporting role to supporting role during the first years of his career, some in films well-known enough to Thelma and Louise (1991), where he was the quiet musician that Susan Sarandon dates. In Reservoir Dogs (1991) was interested in the role of Mr. Pink, which would end up being played by Steve Buscemi, but Tarantino reserved for him the role of Mr. Blonde, the unscrupulous criminal who is in the background Stuck in the middle with you to torture a police officer and cut off his ear. Madsen brought charisma, elegance, and magnetism to the character, but also a sense of imminent danger, of violence about to explode. Pulp fiction, but the role of Vincent Vega ended up going to John Travolta. Vincent Vega was supposedly the brother of the character played by Madsen in Reservoir Dogs (real name Vic Vega), and for years Tarantino speculated about reuniting the two actors in a film, but the project never materialized. Meanwhile, Madsen capitalized on the success of Reservoir Dogs in supporting roles in films such as thrillerThe escape (1994), the westernWyatt Earp (1994), the science fiction film Species (1995), crime dramas Donnie Brasco (1997) and Mulholland Falls (1996) or the first two installments of the family franchise Free Willy. During these years there were also many roles in smaller productions and even TV movies: with six children from three different women, Madsen had a lot of bills to pay.

More or less typecast in the role of a tough guy with a rocky character that enhanced his powerful physique, Tarantino recruited him again in Kill Bill 1 (2003) and Kill Bill 2 (2004), where Madsen plays Bill's brother and one of his lethal hitmen. But the film plays with the usual archetype of the actor and presents him living in a seedy trailer and earning a living cleaning toilets, a de-idealized image of the killer. cool of Reservoir DogsMadsen and Tarantino's paths would cross again in 2015 in the westernThe Hateful Eight, where the actor plays a cowboy which is housed in the setting where much of the film's action takes place, and Madsen would also make a small cameo in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).

Madsen has never been a fussy actor about his roles. In 2009, he worked on around fifteen films, and in most years he didn't get below six or seven titles, most of them with moderate commercial ambitions and from little-known directors. He also took advantage of his voice as a narrator in video games such as Grand Theft Auto 3. In recent years his productivity had not diminished - he is still waiting for his release Resurrection Road, Concessions and Cookbook for southern housewives–, but he was frequently involved in trouble with the law: in 2022, he was arrested for trespassing and in 2024 for assaulting his ex-wife. Shortly before his first arrest, his 26-year-old son, Hudson, had committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.