Kill Bill star Michael Madsen passes away

Michael Madsen, the actor best known for his coolly menacing, steely-eyed, often sadistic characters in the films of Quentin Tarantino including Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill: Vol. 2, has died.

Michael Madsen dies at 67

Michael was found unresponsive in his home in Malibu, California, on Thursday morning and pronounced dead, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Watch Commander Christopher Jauregui said. He is believed to have died of natural causes and authorities do not suspect any foul play was involved. Michael’s manager Ron Smith said cardiac arrest was the apparent cause. He was 67.

Michael’s career spanned more than 300 credits stretching back to the early 1980s, many in low-budget and independent films. He often played low-level thugs, gangsters and shady cops in small roles. Tarantino would use that identity, but make him a main character.

His torture of a captured police officer in Tarantino’s 1992 directorial debut Reservoir Dogs, in which Michael’s black-suited bank robber Vic Mr. Blonde Vega severs the man’s ear while dancing to Stealers Wheel’s Stuck in the Middle with You was an early career-defining moment for both director and actor.

Michael told the news agency in 2012 that he hated having to do the scene, especially after the actor playing the officer, Kirk Baltz, ad-libbed a line where he begged for his life because he had children.

"I just said, 'Oh my God,' I couldn't do it, I didn't want to do it," Michael said. "Acting is such a humiliating profession."

He would become a Tarantino regular. He had a small role as the cowboy-hatted desert dweller Budd, a member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, in 2003's Kill Bill: Vol. 1, then a starring role the following year in the sequel, in which he battles with Uma Thurman's protagonist The Bride and buries her alive.

Michael also appeared in Tarantino's The Hateful Eight and Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood. He was an alternate choice to play the hit man role that revived John Travolta's career in 1994's Pulp Fiction. The character, Vincent Vega, is the brother of Michael's Reservoir Dogs robber in Tarantino's cinematic universe.

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