Michael Madsen: Tarantino-mime dies at the age of 67

He was one of the best-known character actors Hollywoods, especially in the films Quentin Tarantinos (62) embodied gangster figures: US actor Michael Madsen (1957-2025) was found lifeless on the morning of July 3 (local time) in Malibu, California, like a spokesman for the police from Los Angeles. He was 67 years old. As a probable cause of death, his publicist Liz Rodriguez states cardiac arrest.

Madsen was a busy actor in Hollywood who had been committed since the 1980s. But only the films Quentin Tarantinos, starting with “Reservoir Dogs” from 1992, made him immortal. In “Reservoir Dogs” he played the gangster figure Mr. Blonde, who appears in one of the most brutal, shocking and most captivating scenes in the film.

In the 1990s, Madsen subsequently could be seen in such different works as “Free Willy”, the sci-fi film “Species” or “Donnie Brasco”. Again and again he was in front of the camera for master director Tarantino – in “Kill Bill 1 and 2”, “The Hateful Eight” and finally “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”.

But in the past decades, Madsen has also been seen in a variety of projects that did not cause a lot of sensation. “Well, sometimes people forget that sometimes you have to pay the mortgage, sometimes you have to bring your children through school, “.. “You can’t always choose the best script. And you choose a project that you might not be involved, and then you have to live with it all your life.”

The mime also gives rise to his own fame. “There are many blessings, but also a lot of stressful things that go hand in hand. I think it has a lot to do with the characters that I played. I think I was more credible than I should have been. I think people are really afraid of me. They see me and think: ‘Holy shit, there is this type!’ But I’m not this type.