Like many other filmmakers, Quentin Tarantino has his favorite and most frequent collaborators, and among those who have appeared in almost all of his movies is Michael Madsen – and here’s every character he has played in Reservoir Dogs, which followed a group of criminals, all with different codenames, whose planned heist of a jewelry store went terribly wrong. Reservoir Dogs not only marked the beginning of Tarantino’s career, but also his first work with one of his frequent collaborators: Michael Madsen.
Michael Madsen’s career began in 1982 in the movie Against All Hope, but his first notable role on the big screen arrived the following year in the Cold War sci-fi movie WarGames. Although he appeared in other projects after that, it wasn’t until he played Mr. Blonde in Reservoir Dogs that he became a widely known name, and this role opened many doors in his career. Since then, Madsen has appeared in a variety of movies from different genres, such as Donnie Brasco, Die Another Day, Sin City, and Scary Movie 4. However, he continues to be best-known for his roles in different Tarantino movies, becoming one of his frequent and most popular collaborators.
Although Madsen hasn’t been part of every movie made by Quentin Tarantino, he has been present in some of his biggest projects, and could have been part of his best work had other commitments not gotten in the way. Here’s every character Michael Madsen has played in Quentin Tarantino’s movies.
Reservoir Dogs – Vic Vega a.k.a. Mr. Blonde
Michael Madsen’s character in Reservoir Dogs, Mr. Blonde, was one of the thieves whose heist didn’t go as expected. His real name was Vic Vega, and he turned out to be the most dangerous one of the group, as he killed several innocent civilians during the heist and tortured a kidnapped policeman. As he was about to set him on fire, he was shot to death by Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), and it became obvious why Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) described him as a psychopath. Madsen was going to play Vincent Vega in Tarantino’s next movie, Double V Vega, but the project never happened.
Kill Bill Volume 1 & 2 – Budd
Madsen’s next collaboration with Tarantino was in the movies Deadly Vipers who at the time of the events of the movies was working as a bouncer and living in a trailer. He became The Bride’s (Uma Thurman) third target in her revenge mission, and he incapacitated her and buried her alive, but she escaped – however, she couldn’t fulfill her mission as Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), another member of the Deadly Vipers, killed him with a black mamba she hid with the money she was going to pay him for The Bride’s sword.
The Hateful Eight – ‘Grouch’ Douglass/Joe Gage
Madsen returned to the Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson) and Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins).
Once Upon A Time in Hollywood – Sheriff Hackett
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’s deleted scenes.
