Michael Madsen, Quentin Tarantino's favorite actor, dies

There are actors who are better defined by what they could have been than by what they ultimately became, despite their not inconsiderable careers. Michael Madsen is not one of them; he is, without a doubt, the best example of them all, the paradigm, the gold standard of wasted talent. Typecast as the rude Mr. Blonde, the violent and unscrupulous character in Reservoir Dogs (1992), his refusal to play the protagonist of Pulp Fiction (1994)—he preferred to work on Wyatt Earp, a depressing western that looked like a failure from the first frame—marked his career forever. It is said that Quentin Tarantino was more than just disproportionately angry with him when the actor turned down the role, which would end up in the hands of John Travolta. And they say, as was later proven, that the anger lasted until Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003), a film that reunited them while waiting for the most eagerly awaited of all the projects never fulfilled: Double V Vega (better known as The Vega Brothers ), where, now they had made peace, Vic and Vincent Vega would reunite, that is, the characters from Madsen's Reservoir Dogs and Travolta's Pulp Fiction . "If I hadn't quit, the Vega brothers wouldn't exist. There would only be one Vega and that would be me," he declared in an interview, making clear the Michael Madsen that could have been but wasn't.

News of the actor's death at the age of 67 broke on Tuesday. Suddenly, all the Madsens were gone, both those that were and those that never were. The actor's lifeless body was found by police in his home in Malibu, Los Angeles County, following a call from emergency services. The sheriff's department confirmed that a violent death is not suspected .

"Perhaps I was born in the wrong era. I'm nostalgic for the golden age of black and white films. The actors of that time conveyed truth, openness. Perhaps the scripts were too simple, but the type of anti-hero wasn't open to equivocation, and I think it suited my style and way of acting better," he told The Guardian some time ago when asked persistently about the limited impact of his tireless career, which spanned nearly 300 titles with minuscule and forgettable appearances in most of them.

Throughout a filmography spanning four decades, Madsen gained recognition for his portrayals of tough guys, almost always merciless, with an enigmatic appearance and a slight tendency towards self-parody. Among his notable titles, one name stands out above all as the guardian of his greatest dreams: Quentin Tarantino. For him, he worked in the two mentioned above, as well as in The Hateful Eight (2015) and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) . Thelma & Louise (1991) , Donnie Brasco (1997), Free Willy (1993), and The Doors (1991) are other productions in which he participated before "crawling" (his own expression) through countless B-movies in which, in one way or another, he played characters very similar to Mr. Blonde.

"Listen, kid, I'm not going to lie to you, okay? I don't give a damn what you know or don't know, but I'm going to torture you anyway. Not to get information out of you. I find it funny torturing a cop. You can say whatever you want, because I've heard it all. You can only pray for a quick death, which you're not going to get." These scripted lines were heard uttered in Reservoir Dogs and, in one way or another, have haunted him every step of the way.

Madsen began his career in Chicago working for John Malkovich before making his big screen debut in the science fiction film WarGames (1983). Ten years later, in 1992, Tarantino came into his life. He wanted the role of Mr. Pink, obsessed as he was with working with Harvey Keitel (Mr. White). The role that later went to Steven Buscemi was supposed to share more scenes with his idol. From then on, Madsen began to accumulate losses and so, in addition to Pulp Fiction, he turned down work on films such as LA Confidential (1997) and Natural Born Killers (1994) .

Among his upcoming projects are as many as 18 productions with his name on the credits. All of these and a book of poems titled Tears for My Father: Outlaw Thoughts and Poems. In an earlier collection of poems, the man who thought it unmanly to wear makeup to act, the man who said he only worked to support his family after three marriages, the man who cringed every time his face appeared in one of the movies he hated making, the man who could have been but wasn't, writes: " I'm lost. Alone. And suicidal. Though I'm not likely to act on it./I'm kind of a weirdo. Admired by other weirdos because I play weirdos."