File:Michael_Madsen_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
OverviewAI-generated
Michael Madsen (1957–2025) was an American television and film actor and producer. Born in Chicago, Illinois, he began his professional work period in 1982. His acting career spanned genres including drama fiction, thriller, and action film. Madsen was a citizen of the United States and spoke English and Italian. He was the brother of Virginia Madsen and the father of six children, including Christian Madsen.
Madsen died on July 3, 2025, in Malibu. He is also credited as an author with works such as *Tears of My Father*, *Sell Like Titans*, *Liar*, *Get Started*, and *First Class Writer*.
Synthesized by Vinony from 40 facts across 8 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, Open Library, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, TMDb, Wikiquote, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Works
- 15
Top works
- Tears of My Father
- Sell Like Titans
- Liar
- Get Started
- First Class Writer
via Open Library + Wikidata
Film & TV
Acting · Chicago, Illinois, USA
Michael Madsen (September 25, 1957 – July 3, 2025) was an American actor, poet, and photographer. He starred in central roles in such films as Reservoir Dogs, Free Willy, Donnie Brasco, and Kill Bill, in addition to a supporting role in Sin City. Madsen is also credited with voice work in several video games, including Grand Theft Auto III, True Crime: Streets of L.A. and DRIV3R.
Known for
- Legend of the White Dragon — Max Reed2026
- A Corpse in Kensington — Michael2026
- Blood Behind Us — Reed Philibosian2026
- Mr. Wonderful — Brian Fenton2026
- Demon Hunters2026
- Michael Jackson: A Life in Music — Self (archive footage)2026
- Resurrection Road — Quantrill2025
- Queen of Manhattan — District Attorney2025
- Concessions — Rex Fuel2025
- Sinatra! Eternity — Robert (Bob) Nelson2025
via TMDB
Music · MusicBrainz
- Type
- Person
- Gender
- Male
- Origin
- Germany
- Active from
- 1957
- Active to
- 2025
via MusicBrainz · CC0
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 409
- Total plays
- 1,793
<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Michael+Madsen">Read more on Last.fm</a>
Recent publications · Crossref
5 total works indexed
- Moderated estimation of fold change and dispersion for RNA-seq data with DESeq2
· 2014 · cited 88,540x
- Gene set enrichment analysis: A knowledge-based approach for interpreting genome-wide expression profiles
· 2005 · cited 48,841x
- Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure
· 1976 · cited 44,835x
- Highly accurate protein structure prediction with AlphaFold
· 2021 · cited 43,600x
- Comparison of simple potential functions for simulating liquid water
· 1983 · cited 39,556x
via Crossref · CC0
Quotes
- “Kids are a great excuse for you to stop acting like one.”
- “Encourage your kids' artistic side. Toughen up everything else.”
- “I encourage my boys to do stuff in the arts, but I'm also an advocate of not taking any shit, I have a heavy bag and every morning the boys go three 3-minute rounds on the heavy bag with the gloves.”
- “I'm a leading man trapped inside a bad guy's body.”
- “Is it really selling out if it feeds your family?”
- “The oddest thing is when children recognize me from Free Willy and their parents recognize me from Reservoir Dogs. The kids are, like, 'There's Glen!' and the parents are, like, 'Don't go near that guy!'”
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
~9 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Michael Søren Madsen (September 25, 1957 – July 3, 2025) was an American actor. He was widely known for starring in Quentin Tarantino's films such as Reservoir Dogs (1992), Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004), and The Hateful Eight (2015). His other film roles included WarGames (1983), The Natural (1984), The Doors (1991), Thelma & Louise (1991), Free Willy (1993), Species (1995), Donnie Brasco (1997), Die Another Day (2002), Sin City (2005), and Scary Movie 4 (2006). Madsen also voiced characters in video games such as Grand Theft Auto III (2001), Narc (2005), the Dishonored series (2012–2017), The Walking Dead: Season Two (2014), and Crime Boss: Rockay City (2023). Madsen had six children, including actor Christian Madsen.
Early life
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Michael Madsen” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.