Michael Madsen has died. He was 67.
Madsen was one of those guys you kind of assumed would just always be around, gravel-voiced and squinting, leaning against a wall with a cigarette and a smirk. A tough guy with poetry in his bones.
Most people remember Madsen for one scene — that scene — in Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs.” With “Stuck in the Middle with You” on the radio, a straight razor in hand, a terrified cop duct-taped to a chair. Mr. Blonde. That moment made him a legend in the Tarantino-verse and, in some ways, cursed him too. He could never fully escape it.
But Madsen’s career went deeper than that single, sadistic set piece. He was a Tarantino favorite — Vincent Vega’s brother, Mr. Blonde, was supposed to return in the aborted Vega Brothers prequel that never happened. He showed up in “Kill Bill,” of course, as Budd, a washed-up bouncer with a samurai sword in a golf bag.
What’s often overlooked is how damn good he could be when given the material. Look at his work in “Thelma & Louise,” and “Donnie Brasco” — he could do the brooding, tortured masculinity thing with the best of them. Some of his other notable works could be found in “The Hateful Eight,” “Thelma and Louise,” “Wyatt Earp,” Species,” and “Mulholland Falls.”
Of course, there was the other side too. The DTV years. The straight-to-video stuff. Madsen never said no to a paycheck. He racked up over 200 credits. Some of those movies looked like they were shot over a long weekend in a warehouse. But he kept showing up. He wanted to work.
Now he’s gone, and the movies are just a little less cool without him.