Actor Michael Madsen, recognized for his portrayal of brooding, intimidating robust guys in a profession spanning greater than 40 years, has died at age 67. The Hollywood Reporter says the reason for loss of life has been reported as cardiac arrest.
Madsen appeared in a whole lot of movies and televisions exhibits through the years, starting with one thing referred to as In opposition to All Hope in 1982 and progressing by way of a litany of ’80s TV staples: St. Elsewhere, Cagney and Lacey, Miami Vice, Tour of Obligation, Jake and the Fatman, and Quantum Leap, to call just a few. 1992 was a very massive yr for Madsen, with roles in movies together with The Doorways, Thelma and Louise, and Deadly Intuition.
1992 was additionally the yr of Reservoir Canines, the movie that kicked off Madsen’s long-running collaboration with director Quentin Tarantino—a partnership that continued by way of the Kill Invoice duology, The Hateful Eight, and As soon as Upon a Time in Hollywood.
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Madsen did loads of good work in these movies, however this can be my favourite scene:
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Madsen additionally made appearances in quite a few videogames, which is the place our pursuits lie. His remaining recreation, Crime Boss: Rockay Metropolis, wasn’t nice, maybe reflecting his feedback in a 2018 THR interview during which he mentioned “you’ll be able to’t at all times choose the best script” while you’ve acquired payments to pay. (Which, to be truthful, additionally mirrored the final a number of years of his movie profession.) Different recreation roles embrace Grand Theft Auto 3, True Crime: Streets of LA, Driv3r, and Yakuza.
However his actual videogame star flip got here when he was forged as Daud, the notorious Knife of Dunwall within the Dishonored video games, whose homicide of Empress Jessamine Kaldwin triggered the occasions of the collection. The character advanced from a typical villainous presence within the first recreation to a posh, virtually sympathetic anti-hero throughout The Knife of Dunwall, The Brigmore Witches, and Loss of life of the Outsider. And it wasn’t a half-assed, phoned-in effort in pursuit of a paycheque: Madsen’s turbo-gravelly voice is ideal for the position, and it drips with remorse as he seems again on a protracted profession of butchery.

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“He was thunder and velvet. Mischief wrapped in tenderness,” Madsen’s sister Virginia wrote in a tribute shared on Instagram. “A poet disguised as an outlaw. A father, a son, a brother—etched in contradiction, tempered by love that left its mark.
“We’re not mourning a public determine. We’re not mourning a fantasy—however flesh and blood and ferocious coronary heart. Who stormed by way of life loud, good, and half on hearth. Who leaves us echoes—gruff, good, unrepeatable—half legend, half lullaby. I’ll miss our inside jokes, the sudden laughter, the sound of him. I’ll miss the boy he was earlier than the legend. I miss my massive brother.”