Michael Madsen Has Died

Summary

Michael Madsen was born on Sept. 25, 1957, in Chicago, one of three children of Calvin and Elaine (Melson) Madsen. His mother has worked as a filmmaker and producer; his father was a firefighter. One of his two sisters is the actress Virginia Madsen, who received an Academy Award nomination for her performance alongside Paul Giamatti in “Sideways,” Alexander Payne’s 2004 testament to the oenophile life.In his early years, Mr. Madsen worked as a mechanic and later as a paramedic, but his career path took a big turn in 1980, when he accompanied a friend to see a production of “Of Mice and Men,” based on the John Steinbeck novel, by Chicago’s renowned Steppenwolf Theater Company.Enraptured by the performance of its star, John Malkovich, Mr. Madsen tracked him down in the wings. “He asked for my address and said he’d send me a brochure for acting classes,” Mr. Madsen recalled in a 2016 interview with the British newspaper The Independent. “I thought he was just trying to get rid of me.”Mr. Malkovich made good on the offer, and after Mr. Madsen took acting classes, he ended up with a role in a different Steppenwolf production of the same play, playing a ranch hand.He soon turned to Hollywood, securing a role in “WarGames,” the 1983 computer thriller starring Matthew Broderick, and “Racing With the Moon” (1984), a coming-of-age story set during World War II, with Sean Penn and Nicolas Cage in starring roles.Mr. Madsen stole scenes in Oliver Stone’s “The Doors” (1991) playing Tom Baker, a swaggering poet friend of Jim Morrison, and in “Mulholland Falls” (1996), as a, yes, tough-guy Los Angeles detective.