LOS ANGELES — Michael Madsen, the actor who was a staple in numerous Quentin Tarantino films including “Kill Bill” and “Reservoir Dogs,” has died. He was 67

A spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirmed to The Times that deputies responded to the actor’s Malibu home Thursday morning and found him unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at 8:25 a.m. The spokesperson said Madsen seemingly died of natural causes.

Madsen’s managers Susan Ferris and Ron Smith and publicist Liz Rodriguez also confirmed news of the prolific actor’s death in a statement shared to The Times on Thursday. Smith said Madsen, who garnered nearly 330 acting credits over the course of his decades-long career, died of cardiac arrest.

“Michael Madsen was one of Hollywood’s most iconic actors, who will be missed by many,” the representatives’ statement said.

Madsen, born in Chicago in September 1957 to a filmmaker mother and firefighter father, began his professional screen career in the early 1980s but became best known for playing grimy antagonists in his collaborations with Tarantino. He notably appeared as a the ruthless, torture-loving Mr. Blonde in “Reservoir Dogs” and as the sleazy Budd in the Uma Thurman-led “Kill Bill” films, who met his gruesome end at the hands of Daryl Hannah’s Elle Driver and a black mamba snake. “The Hateful Eight” and “Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood” were Madsen’s most recent collaborations with Tarantino.

In the 2007 thriller “Boarding Gate” Madsen played against his typical role, starring as a shady American businessman living in Europe. “The fact is: I don’t really get an opportunity to play a role like this very often,” he told The Times in 2008.

“Nobody wants to put me in a suit and a tie and have me sit in an office, let alone give me love scenes,” he added. “People are a lot more comfortable when I have a cigarette in my mouth and a gun in my hand.”

The veteran actor — older brother of Oscar-nominated “Candyman” star Virginia Madsen — stayed busy until his death, appearing in numerous projects nearly every year. He appeared in films including “The Doors,” “Thelma & Louise,” “Free Willy,” “Species” and “Sin City.” He also appeared in the TV series “Powers,” “24,” “Tilt,” “Vengeance Unlimited” and “Our Family Honor.”

Madsen had 18 projects in the works before his death, according to IMDb. In their statement his representatives said Madsen had “been doing some incredibly work” and touted his work in the upcoming films “Resurrection Road,” “Concessions” and “Cookbook for Southern Housewives.” Madsen, who was “really looking forward to this next chapter in his life” per his reps, also had a new book, “Tears for My Father: Outlaw Thoughts and Poems,” set to hit shelves in September with a forward from Tarantino.

“One of the reasons Michael’s work has such meaning for me is he’s writing about feelings and emotions that it seems at times the last few generations have become blind to,” the Oscar-winning filmmaker says in the forward. “Some of Michael’s work is about family remembrances. A moment he saw his mother wrap her arms around his father’s waist, or how his sister looked in one dress in particular. Some of them are thought jazz. Some are the best recordings of the gypsy life of a movie actor I’ve ever read.”

He later adds: “The real journey that Michael the writer is exploring is what it means to be a man in a world where the notions of manhood that some of us grew up with are barely remembered. But then if everybody embarked on the hero’s journey, everybody would be a hero, wouldn’t they?”

Madsen married wife DeAnna Madsen in 1996 and they share three children: Hudson, Luke and Calvin. Hudson, who was Tarantino’s godson, died in 2022.

“It’s so tragic and sad,” Madsen said in January 2022. “I’m just trying to make sense of everything and understand what happened.”

Offscreen, Madsen had several brushes with the law, notably getting arrested in Malibu in 2019 on suspicion of misdemeanor driving under the influence. He had been hospitalized in 2012 after being arrested on suspicion of DUI and was again arrested that year after allegedly getting into a fight with his son. He was arrested again in August 2024 on suspicion of spousal battery. After news of alleged tensions with his wife spread, Madsen dismissed the reports, writing on social media that “losing a child is the hardest and most painful experience that can happen in this world.”

He reassured fans he loved his wife and their children, also speaking candidly about the lasting toll of losing his son. “I don’t think my son is dead, I think he escaped from a life that didn’t make sense anymore,” the actor said.

Madsen was also a photographer, screenwriter, producer and published poet.

———

(Former Times staff writer Nardine Saad contributed to this report.)

———

©2025 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.