Michael Madsen Movies With Quentin Tarantino That Made A Star: Reservoir Dogs To Kill Bill, Watch His Scene-Stealing Performances | Video

Michael Madsen, best known for playing sadistic characters in the signature gory and violent films of director Quentin Tarantino, died aged 67. Madsen was found unresponsive in his home in Malibu, California. 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.

Madsen’s career spanned more than 300 credits stretching back from early 1980s, when he featured in many low-budget and independent films, to becoming the main character in Tarantino movies in the 90s to the late 2000s. Madsen was known for playing thugs, gangsters and shady cops in small roles, before he was discovered by Tarantino, who would use this "image" to his advantage, but turned him into the main character in his movies.

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Reservoir Dogs

Michael Madsen played a suited bank robber, Vic 'Mr Blonde' Vega, in Quentin Tarantino's 1992 directorial debut Reservoir Dogs. This became a career-defining role for him. The torture scene of a captured police officer involving Vic, in which he cuts the ear off of the cop, played by Kirk Baltz, while dancing to Stealers Wheel’s Stuck In The Middle With You and nearly burns him alive, showed his range as a performer as Tarantino's lens captured both the ease and the evil of his screen presence, creating a memorable cinema moment.  

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Kill Bill: Volume 1

In Kill Bill (2003), Madsen returned as a torturer. He played the cowboy-hatted Budd, a member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, who would have no qualms torturing and killing a mom-to-be at her wedding. Despite being surrounded by stars like Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivica A Fox, David Carradine and more in the unpopular wedding scene, his cold-blooded glances and demeanor stood out.

Kill Bill: Volume 2

Budd (Michael Madsen) would return in Kill Bill sequel to feature in a longer, more elaborate and slow burn torture and fight scene with Uma Thurman's Beatrix 'The Bride' Kiddo. Here, he would fight with her inside his trailer parked far out in the desert, shoot her with a shotgun and bury her alive. Madsen, coming from a legacy of such roles, nailed his part in the gory action thriller.

Madsen also appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight and Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood, although for smaller but equally impactful parts. His recurrent return in the director's filmography created a memorable fan moment every time. Interestingly, Madsen was also the alternate choice to play the hit man Vincent Vega that revived John Travolta’s career in 1994 Tarantino classic Pulp Fiction.