Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Beer Blood and Ashes by Michael Madsen Mr Blonde's ambition. A fortnight before the American release of Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol 2, its star, Michael Madsen, sits on the upper deck of his Malibu beach home, smoking Chesterfields and watching the dolphins. There are four in the distance, jumping happy arcs through the waves. This morning, though, they're the only ones leaping for joy. 'It's hard, man. I got a big overhead,' says the actor, shaking his head. 'I'm taking care of three different families at the moment. There's my ex- wife, then my mom and my niece. And then there's all this.' He indicates the four-bedroom house behind him where he lives with his third wife and his five sons. It's a great place - bright, white and tall, every wall filled with old movie posters, lovingly framed. He bought it from Ted Danson, who bought it from Walt Disney's daughter, who bought it from the man who built it - Keith Moon of The Who. Since the boys are at school (the eldest is 16) the house is relatively quiet. Besides the whoosh of the Pacific on to his private beach below, all you can hear is his beautiful wife Deanna on the phone in the kitchen, his parrot Marlon squawking merrily downstairs, and Madsen's own quiet, whisky rasp, bemoaning his hard times. 'I'm trying to downscale,' he says. 'I already let two of my motorcycles go and I sold three of my cars - a Corvette, a little Porsche that I had and a '57 Chevy.' He sighs and shrugs. 'I'm flat-busted man, I need a job. If I don't go to work soon, I could lose all this. We're going to be living in a trailer park.' Judging from his CV, which shows over 100 credits, Michael Madsen has never wanted for work - rather, he has outworked most of his peers, sometimes making more than 10 films in a year. But appearances are deceptive. His credits mostly lack quality or clout. Ever since his career-defining Mr Blonde in Reservoir Dogs - the psychopath who hacks off a cop's ear to the sound of 'Stuck in the Middle With You' - Madsen has floundered, making a series of poor choices. Others were scarcely choices at all. For years, a combination of Malibu overheads and a draining custody battle with wife number two forced him to grab the first offer on the table rather than patiently plot his ascent to the realms of a Crowe, a Pitt or a Del Toro. It wasn't long before 'the Guy from Reservoir Dogs' - which would make a good epitaph, he jokes - slipped into the quicksand of dismal B-movies as a typecast rent-a-heavy, whittling down what Hollywood stock he had inherited from Mr Blonde. There were daisies among the weeds - his portrayal of mobster Sonny Black in Donnie Brasco, for example - but the embarrassments are sometimes the hardest to forget. 'You get these horrifying straight-to-video things for very little money, then you go to the Cannes Film Festival and they got some poster of you, 40ft high, in the worst movie in the world. You're like, "Oh my God. Take the fucking thing down!"' So for Madsen, a lot hinges on Kill Bill Vol 2 - nothing less than his resurrection, in fact. Since it was Tarantino that first thrust him into prominence with Dogs, he now senses a second chance, a shot at reviving 'my once promising career'. In 'my best role since Reservoir Dogs', Madsen plays the part of Budd, the brother of David Carradine's Bill, whom Uma Thurman has resolved for two movies to kill. More dimensional than Mr Blonde, Budd not only harnesses Madsen's gift for violence, he also serves as the social conscience of the movie, a part he's better equipped to play now that he's 46, a little older and weathered. He remains a big 6ft 2in, rangy and lantern-jawed, and his signature squint - peering between the rim of his Ray-Bans and his furrowed brow - remains menacingly intact. It has been a long 12 years since he worked with Tarantino. It wasn't supposed to take this long. For years, Madsen might have become De Niro to Tarantino's Scorsese, were it not for a few near misses along the way. First came True Romance, a Tarantino script, which Madsen tried to get made, but without any success. Then in the wake of Dogs, he was tipped for the lead in Natural Born Killers, another Tarantino script. 'Oliver Stone [the director] wanted me, but the studios offered him an extra $20m to cast Woody Harrelson.' It was Pulp Fiction, however, that proved the pivot to their relationship. Tarantino wanted Madsen for the part of Vincent Vega - the part that went to Travolta - but in a decision he rues to this day, Madsen made Wyatt Earp instead, a dreary Western that tanked at the box office. 'It was like three hours of nausea,' he says. Tarantino was none too pleased either at Madsen's choice, and for years they didn't speak. Only when he was finishing off the Kill Bill script did they become friendly again. Then, one day, Madsen was over at Tarantino's house, reading the script by his pool over a bottle of Icelandic schnapps and right there Tarantino cast him as Budd. And, as far as Madsen is concerned, that changed the course of his career. 'I'm pretty sure we're going to make more pictures together,' he says. 'I know he's walking around with, like, four, five screenplays in his mind, so I just gotta hang in there,' he laughs. 'Quentin's the only one that's ever going to give me a job!' Madsen is flummoxed by the patchiness of his career. 'Maybe I was just born in the wrong era, man,' he shrugs. 'I'm a bit of a throwback to the days of black and white movies. Those guys back then, they had a certain kind of directness about them. A lot of the screenplays, the plots were very simplistic - they gave rise to a type of anti-hero that maybe I suit better.' Madsen is not a 'new man'. He belongs to that tradition of aggressively manly actors who regard acting as not exactly a manly profession. 'All the putting on make-up and dressing up in clothes,' he says. 'And you got to be a bit self-centred to pull it off. I guess it's just the way I was brought up. For me, it's more masculine to dig ditches or drive a tow truck.' A friend of such American originals as Dennis Hopper, Harry Dean Stanton and Nick Nolte, Madsen is cut from a classic mould - a straight- shooting, blue-collar individualist, with a passion for classic cars, Harleys, unfiltered cigarettes and guns. He was raised in Chicago by a fireman father, Cal, who didn't stop worrying about his son's frivolous choice of profession until after Donnie Brasco, in 1997. His mother, Elaine, became an Emmy-winning writer and producer, but they divorced when Michael was nine, and he spun off into a tearaway youth, culminating in a couple of juvenile jail terms for stealing cars, assault, disorderly conduct and burglary. Madsen freely admits 'I've been in a few brawls in my time' and he is proud to speak up for bikers. This is a man who worked as a car mechanic, a landscaper and a hospital orderly before turning to acting. Madsen is also a poet, with four books published - Beer, Blood and Ashes, Eat the Worm, Burning in Paradise and The Blessing of the Hounds, the last two of which feature glowing introductions by Dennis Hopper and Tarantino respectively. It's poetry in the riffing, beat sense, more of a collection of thoughts and sketches, a memoir of a travelling actor in his mid-forties with a career to resurrect and too many families to support. Many were scribbled on to the nearest thing he could find. 'Hotel napkins, bar bills, beer mats. I wrote a poem on my leg once, on the skin,' he laughs. Whatever his poems lack in polish, they make up for with stark, evidently cathartic honesty. Take Tuesday, from The Blessing of the Hounds: 'I am lost. Alone. And suicidal. Although not likely to act upon the latter./I am some sort of freak. Admired by other freaks because I play freaks.' Yet, though Madsen leans to the dark - he has a machine that plays him storm sounds when he's away on tour - there is levity of sorts. Like his throwaway poem Hammerhead: 'Man, I think the hammerhead shark is the/most bizarre looking creature I've ever seen./What is the deal with that head?' From his poetry, Madsen emerges as a likeable raw nerve - a dude curmudgeon, unprecious to a fault. He is depressed by strip clubs and phoney news anchors and by the fact that people still send the Osmonds fan mail. He misses Sinatra and Joe DiMaggio - any death disturbs him deeply - and he's pretty sure 'acting is not what it's cracked up to be'. For the most part, his poems are anecdotes - he's a natural storyteller. This morning, he's on a roll, reminiscing about his earliest career in Hollywood right up to the time they found a gun in his bag at Cannes - 'it was only a little .32,' he chuckles. 'They locked me up for a few hours.' He recalls his first job in Hollywood, as a pump jockey. 'My very first customer was Fred Astaire,' he says. 'He gave me a $100 bill to change his tyre. I thought, "Wow, I'm in Hollywood now!"' He remembers his first audition for Thelma & Louise, and how Ridley Scott laughed at him for refusing to play the part of the rapist, and insisting instead on playing Sarandon's loyal boyfriend, Jimmy (it worked). But there remains a sense that something's eating at him, that he is battle-scarred. His first two marriages exacted a heavy emotional toll. His first wife was Cher's half-sister, Georgeanne LaPiere, a bizarre match, given their backgrounds. He recalls once taking his father Cal to Cher's house and Cal saying to him, 'Michael, what the fuck are we doing here?' The second marriage, however, to Jeannine Bisignano, yielded two sons, and the divorce became a wounding custody battle. 'It was a living nightmare,' he says. 'Five years. It really did me in. I mean, if you want to fuck with someone really bad, go after the kids, you know?' Just as he was trying to avoid typecasting as a Mr Blonde-style heavy, his reputation as an icon of screen violence leaked into his custody hearings. 'They said, "Oh he's an actor, so he's always going out of town" and, "He plays all these vicious characters." You got to turn into Joseph of Nazareth to be considered redeemable. You got to rise from the fucking dead.' For a year during this time, he moved to the Chateau Marmont hotel on Sunset Boulevard, with his two Rottweilers. 'That was mayhem,' he grins. 'Bungalow four, man. Crazy times. The room-service guys wouldn't come in, because the male would always attack them.' He laughs, but there's a sadness there, because the male, Blue, died. 'It was one of the saddest things that ever happened to me. I was crying for about three days. I had him for 14 years. I still have dogs, but after Blue died, I find it hard to invest myself emotionally in animals. Sooner or later something's going to happen. And I had enough grief in my life.' He might have said the same for marriage - certainly, after such a bitter experience, he swore never to tie the knot again. But then he did. He married Deanna, a girl whom he was introduced to by his second wife, and then later by his friend, the actor Elias Koteas, who had designs on her himself. Madsen is adamant that nothing happened until his second divorce was under way, and he had told his friend Koteas that he was in love with Deanna, too. They married in 1996. He was shooting Donnie Brasco in Miami, when he found himself with a couple of days' leave. So he whisked Deanna off to Ocho Rios, Jamaica for a break. 'Deanna was driving me insane. She wanted to drive into town and get jerk chicken, and I wanted to stay at the hotel. I needed a plan to keep her at the hotel, so I said, "Let's get married!" She had a gold bikini on, I had my Donnie Brasco wardrobe. It wasn't planned at all, I had no idea. It wasn't till the jerk chicken thing came up.' He laughs. 'And you should have heard Al [Pacino] when I told him about it. He was disgusted with me.' He slips into a perfect Al Pacino impression, gruffly admonishing Madsen for his impetuosity. Memories of Donnie Brasco, however, are discoloured: 'Great film, sure, but not a payday. Al and Johnny [Depp] got all the money. There was none left for me.' There are other grievances, too: 'I should have at least got a meeting with Spielberg for Private Ryan.' for example, and 'LA Confidential was written with me in mind, but Russell Crowe got the part. Go figure.' But beyond this lurks a deeper sense of betrayal. 'When I was really down and out, and I was just fucking ready to flatline, you would think that an element of Hollywood would try to hold you up, just keep you going. I mean, everybody pretty much knows that I'm a father. A lot of people have made a lot of money with me involved in their projects, so if only for that reason. But no - nothing was happening.' The dark ages may yet be over for Madsen. Tarantino's epic may usher in a new dawn for Hollywood's nearly man. He feels good at 46 - 'it's a good age for an actor', and Madsen's desk is full. He's the executive producer of a crime caper, set in London, called Red Light Runners, starring Peter O'Toole and Harvey Keitel. It hit funding troubles recently, but it should be on track soon. Then there's a project he's looking to fund, about Pretty Boy Floyd, the Depression-era bank robber, not to mention the possibility of resurrecting the entire Dirty Harry franchise. 'I could pull that off; I could be son of Harry,' he says. Most tantalisingly, however, Kill Bill may well lead to more work with Tarantino. The movie that has long rattled about in the mind of the director is the story of the Vega brothers, a prequel to Reservoir Dogs. It would star Madsen as Vic Vega, aka Mr Blonde, and Travolta as Pulp Fiction's Vincent Vega, and, if it ever happens, it will be a huge event. A payday is guaranteed. Perhaps this is how it should be for Madsen - a triumphant final act to his own hero's journey. After years in the doldrums, struggling valiantly against a tide of dross, he returns, all the more deserving, to his former glory. Madsen is philosophical. 'You know, if I did Pulp Fiction, the Vega Brothers could never exist, because I'd have been playing my own brother. So you have to convince yourself to look at the bright side of things sometimes. I'm a bit of a loner, you know. I'm not easy to live with, ask Deanna. And if you're that way, you're prone to focus sometimes on the negative. And you can't.' He looks again at the dolphins leaping out at sea. 'That's why I've really tried hard to stay in the sunshine.' Michael Madsen. Michael Madsen is a American actor, producer, director, writer, poet, and photographer. He is perhaps best known for his collaborations with director Quentin Tarantino, appearing in Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill, and The Hateful Eight. He has appeared in over 150 films and is also known for his roles in Thelma & Louise, Wyatt Earp, Free Willy, Donnie Brasco, Sin City, Species , and it's sequel Species II . Madsen has guest starred in numerous TV series and is also credited with voice work in several video games, including Grand Theft Auto III, True Crime: Streets of L.A., Dishonored, Dishonored 2, DRIV3R, The Walking Dead: Season Two, and Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Contents. Early Life [ edit | edit source ] Madsen was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Elaine Madsen (née Melson), a filmmaker and author, and Calvin Madsen, a firefighter. His parents divorced in the 1960s, and his mother left a career in finance to pursue a career in the arts, encouraged by film critic Roger Ebert. His siblings are Cheryl Madsen, an entrepreneur, and Academy Award-nominated actress Virginia Madsen. Madsen's father was Danish, while his mother is of English, German, Irish, Native American, and Scottish ancestry. Career [ edit | edit source ] Madsen's acting career began at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, where he served as an apprentice under actor John Malkovich. In 1982, Madsen was cast by Edward McDougal for the lead in an independent film, Against All Hope, his first movie. He then played a small role in the studio picture WarGames in 1983. That same year, he appeared in a bit part in Edward Zwick's 1983 television movie Special Bulletin. Soon after, Madsen was cast as a psychopathic gunman who took Mary Beth hostage in the Cagney and Lacey episode "Heat", which aired October 22, 1984. He moved to Los Angeles and appeared in other films, including as arrogant baseball player Bump Bailey in The Natural (1984), a deranged killer in Kill Me Again (1989), and as the tough but touching boyfriend of Susan Sarandon in Thelma & Louise (1991). Then came a memorable role as the razor-wielding, sadistic ex-con and jewel thief "Mr. Blonde" in the bloody Quentin Tarantino crime story Reservoir Dogs. The film brought Madsen attention among critics and fans. Madsen was then cast in a variety of major studio films, including Free Willy, Mulholland Falls, Wyatt Earp, Species and with Johnny Depp and Al Pacino in the critically acclaimed Donnie Brasco. He was unable to play the role of Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction as he couldn't get out of rehearsals for Wyatt Earp, which he had just decided to do. The role instead went to John Travolta, relaunching his career. Since the mid-1990s, Madsen has appeared in lower-budget films released directly to video or television. Notable exceptions include his featured role in Tarantino's Kill Bill, in the James Bond adventure Die Another Day and in the film version of the Frank Miller graphic novel Sin City. He appeared in Scary Movie 4 in 2006 parodying Tim Robbins's character from War of the Worlds. He was also in the film 44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shoot-Out in 2003. In 2004, Tarantino discussed an idea for a movie starring Madsen and John Travolta as the The Vega Brothers. The film would have seen Madsen and Travolta reprising their roles as Vic (Mr. Blonde) from Reservoir Dogs and Vincent from Pulp Fiction. However, in 2007, because of the age of the actors and the onscreen deaths of both characters, Tarantino said the project (which he intended to call Double V Vega) was "kind of unlikely now". In 2008, Madsen had a starring role as "The Gent" in Hell Ride, written and directed by Larry Bishop and executive produced by Tarantino. Madsen has been in television series, including the short-lived Vengeance Unlimited and as "Don Everest" in the poker-themed ESPN series Tilt. He was in Michael Jackson's 2001 music video "You Rock My World" and has provided voice work for several video games, including Grand Theft Auto III, True Crime: Streets of L.A. and DRIV3R. He provided voice work for the movie version of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as Maugrim the wolf, captain of the White Witch's secret police. He also provides narration for Animal Planet and is heard in the PlayStation 2 game Yakuza, where he voices the role of Futo Shimano, the violent and unforgiving leader of a Yakuza family. Madsen played Sam Spade in Yuri Rasovsky's Grammy-nominated sonic dramatization of The Maltese Falcon, which also features Sandra Oh and Edward Herrmann. In August 2008, Madsen co-starred in Coma, a Web series on Crackle. Madsen went to Mexico City to co-star in the 2009 boxing film The Kid: Chamaco with Martin Sheen and Kirk Harris for director Miguel Necoechea. In September 2009, he filmed the comedy feature Magic Boys in England and Hungary, co-starring with Vinnie Jones, directed by Robert Koltai and written by screenwriter Ivo Marloh. The film was scheduled for general release in late 2012. Madsen guest-starred in the final season of 24 in April 2010. He played Jim Ricker, an old friend of main character Jack Bauer. Let the Game Begin, opened in May 2010. The film also features Adam Rodriguez and Stephen Baldwin. Madsen played the lead role in the independent horror film Infected. He is one of the stars in the western thriller The Sorrow with Kirk Harris, John Savage, newcomer Ryan Ballance and Yvonne Delarosa. On 5 January 2012, Madsen entered the Celebrity Big Brother house. He finished in 4th place in the final of Celebrity Big Brother. In February 2014, filming in Las Vegas was completed for the movie Death in the Desert, directed by Josh Evans and starring Madsen as casino mogul Ted Binion (named Ray in the film), Shayla Beesley as Sandra Murphy (played as Kim), Binion's live-in girlfriend, and Paz de la Huerta as Kim's friend Margo. The screenplay was written by John Steppling, based on the book Death in the Desert by crime writer Cathy Scott.The film premiered at the Tucson Film Festival on October 9, 2015. Distribution was scheduled for 2016 by Osiris Entertainment. In August 2014, he starred in the Kill Bill-themed music video by Iggy Azalea for the song "Black Widow," featuring Rita Ora. In late 2015, Madsen collaborated once more with Quentin Tarantino in his mystery western The Hateful Eight. Personal life [ edit | edit source ] Madsen has five sons. One of them, Christian Madsen, is also an actor. In 2002, Madsen was presented an award for his work with the Shriners Hospital for Children, and he gave his casting director friend Bruno Rosato a Porsche 928. In September 2009, Madsen announced his participation in the Love Ride 26to help raise money for local charities and those less fortunate. Love Ride began in 1981 and has included celebrities Malcolm Forbes, Peter Fonda, and Larry Hagman with musical entertainment from Billy Idol, Bruce Springsteen, and others. The event was to have taken place on October 25, 2009 but was canceled two weeks before the event due to poor ticket sales and a decline in sponsorship and vendor support. Madsen has done several films with Daryl Hannah. They include Kill Bill, The Last Days of Frankie the Fly, Shannon's Rainbow, Vice, Eldorado, as well as the film Garbage, in which they play friends called Daryl and Michael. Hannah took part in the 2007 fictional documentary Being Michael Madsen. Madsen also has a line of hot sauces. Other Ventures [ edit | edit source ] Madsen has been writing poetry since the early 1990s. Madsen began his writing on match books, napkins and hotel stationery in between his time working on movie sets and traveling around the world. In 2005, 13 Hands Publications compiled all of his poetry and released The Complete Poetic Works of Michael Madsen, Vol I: 1995–2005. The original books released were Beer, Blood and Ashes (1995), Eat the Worm (1995), Burning in Paradise (1998), and the now out-of-print A Blessing of the Hounds (2002), 46 Down; A Book of Dreams and Other Ramblings (2004) and When Pets Kill (2005). Madsen's friend and fellow actor Dennis Hopper described his poetry as a throwback to the Beat Generation: "I like him better than Kerouac: raunchier, more poignant, he's got street language, images I can relate to, blows my mind with his drifts of gut-wrenching riffs; this actor is a poet and he is cool, of course, he is Michael Madsen."[citation needed] Madsen has noted influences for his style of poetry as being Jack Kerouac and Charles Bukowski. In 2008, Madsen was invited and appeared in Norway for the Norwegian translation and release of Burning In Paradise. In November 2010, he was the guest of honor for his poetry at the Crossing Border Festival at The Hague. Another book of poetry, American Badass, was released on September 25, 2009. Madsen dedicated the book to the memory of his friend and Kill Bill co-star David Carradine. His latest book, Expecting Rain, was released in October 2013 with an introduction by Jerry Hopkins. Madsen is also an accomplished photographer. In 2006, he released his first book of photography entitled Signs of Life, published by 13 Hands Publications, which also contains new selections of his poetry. He dedicated the book to the memory of his friend and fellow actor Chris Penn, who starred with Madsen in Reservoir Dogs and Mulholland Falls. MICHAEL MADSEN. Michael Madsen, who plays an FBI informant in the new TV drama “Big Apple,” is known for his raspy voice and rugged demeanor. He claims his smooth style is purely an accident. “I think being cool is in the eyes of the beholder,” says the 6-foot-2 slickster. “I’ve seen an awful lot of people trying to be cool, but I don’t really think it’s something that’s . . . actable.” And although a humble Madsen also insists that his fashion sense is as random as the characters he has played – from the ear-slicing Mr. Blond in “Reservoir Dogs” to the sweet father in “Free Willy” – he brings to the screen a sexiness that can’t be emulated. Maybe that stems from his grounded, Chicago upbringing, where he pumped gas and worked as an apprentice actor under John Malkovich at the Steppenwolf Theatre, saving money to chase his dream of becoming a race-car driver. On the recommendation of a director, though, Madsen moved to Los Angeles and landed guest-starring roles on “Miami Vice” and “Cagney & Lacey,” then made his film debut in “War Games.” The 42-year-old, blue-eyed tough guy (and brother of actress Virginia Madsen) has since starred in more than 80 movies and TV series, including “Thelma & Louise,” “Wyatt Earp” and “Donnie Brasco.” He’s also published three books of poetry about his life experiences, the most recent titled “Beer, Blood and Ashes.” While not working in Manhattan (where his series is filmed), the thrice-married actor – who has tattoos all along his shoulders and arms – spends his time at his Malibu, Calif., home, where he lives with his wife, De Anna Morgan, and four sons, ages 10, 7, 5 and 3. Q: Describe your personal style. A: I’ve become a little more aware of clothes in the last year, and I have a few more suits than I used to have. But I pretty much kick around in jeans. Q: Favorite designers? A: Since I’ve been here in New York, I got hooked up with Dolce & Gabbana and Hugo Boss. I’ve got some pretty nice stuff now. Q: Do you enjoy getting dressed up in designer clothes? A: I’m kind of investigating that feeling. I want to see what that’s like. And it is kind of nice to comb my hair once in a while. Q: What do you wear when relaxing? A: I spend my time in flannel pajamas. I don’t know what brands they are. They’re just plaid blue-and-white pajamas. One of them has pictures of Cracker Jacks all over them. I used to have one with horses and wagons and cowboy-looking stuff. I don’t know what happened with those. Somebody ran off with them. Q: What do you wear to go out at night? A: I dress pretty casual. I just put on whatever I’ve got. If I wear a leather jacket, it’s not a costume. It’s only because it’s my jacket. I mean, I didn’t realize people wore leather jackets as costumes until I moved to California. And I’ve been wearing that since high school; it was just because that was the jacket I had. It wasn’t because I was trying to imitate James Dean, you know? Q: Do you ever pamper yourself or go to salons? A: I haven’t been to any salon in my whole lifetime. But I do go to the gym. I work out, and I like to sit in the steam room. I like body lotions. I like to keep my skin soft. Q: Which lotions do you use? A: I like Ginger Cloud from Origins. Q: What about cologne? A: I like all that white-trash cologne, like Karate. Q: How do you work out? A: I use free weights. But I can’t go on one of those cardio machines, because after a while I feel like a bunny rabbit. And I’ve never been able to have the patience for it. Q: What do you do to relax when not working? A: My sons jump on me and beat me up, and I’m a referee. And then Daddy lays down and takes a nap. Q: Do you follow a special diet? A: I never have, and I eat just about everything. I think it’s more important to exercise a lot, and I’ve never been good at following any kind of a diet. Q: What are some of your favorite things in life? A: My sons. And my motorcycles. I used to have four Harleys, but I only have two now. Q: Whose style do you most admire? A: Robert Mitchum’s – I thought he had style. He didn’t seem too preoccupied with himself. Q: What about accessories? A: I really love Ray-Bans, but the problem with sunglasses is that I always lose the damn things and I am constantly buying them. I can’t seem to hold on to a pair. Q: What don’t you ever leave home without or always carry? Beer Blood and Ashes by Michael Madsen. Well-known character actor Michael Madsen, who most memorably played Mr. Blonde in Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 movie Reservoir Dogs , is a published poet, and he’s way more serious about it than, say, Ally Sheedy (just a single volume of poetry: Yesterday I Saw the Sun ). Contrariwise, Madsen has published a whole shelf of ‘em: Beer, Blood and Ashes , Eat the Worm , Burning in Paradise , A Blessing of the Hounds , 46 Down: A Book of Dreams and Other Ramblings , American Badass , and Expecting Rain . Madsen’s poetry fits squarely (ahem) into the Beat tradition, unrhymed, discursive sentence-like verse à la Allen Ginsberg. Sometimes he ventures into shape poetry in the manner of E.E. Cummings. In 2005, 13 Hands published The Complete Poetic Works of Michael Madsen . 13 Hands is also running a blog dedicated to Madsen’s poetry. Here’s a poem from Madsen’s 1995 collection Eat the Worm : “Clint Eastwood” One night in Arizona: I was just out of jail and walking across a parking lot with a guy named Mike. We both got released at the same time. There were some Mexicans in a car and they wanted us to come over. They had bad intentions, so we kept walking. Then Mike turned back and said, “Fuck you, stupid spics.” and the—shit—hit—the—fan. I got one in a headlock and got a few good shots to his face. Mike ran off and the others made themselves happy jumping on my back and kicking the living—shit—out—of—me. I held me own for as long as I could; even walking up the street while they kept kicking and punching me, yelling for me to run, but I thought about it and didn’t want to give them the satisfaction, so I just walked and took the hits until they gave up. When I got to the corner Mike was crying, “I’m sorry man… I pussied out.” over and over again. My face was puffed up and one eye I couldn’t open. Right before we were let out of jail I had thought Mike looked like Clint Eastwood… all I could think of at that moment, was that he sure didn’t act like him. Michael Madsen Net Worth. Michael Madsen net worth: Michael Madsen is an American actor, poet and photographer who has a net worth of $6 million. Madsen's net worth would be higher, but he filed for bankruptcy in 2009 and was sued by a former landlord for racking up $80,000 worth of unpaid rent on a house in Malibu. At the time of his bankruptcy filing, Madsen claimed his monthly income was just $3,300. His career and finances have recovered nicely since then, thanks mainly to the fact that Michael has appeared in dozens of movies to clear his debts. Michael Madsen is best known for his performances in the Quentin Tarantino movies "Reservoir Dogs," "Kill Bill," "The Hateful Eight," and "Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood." He has also appeared in numerous other films including "The Getaway," "Wyatt Earp," "Donnie Brasco," and "Sin City," and on television in "Our Family Honor," "Vengeance Unlimited," and "Tilt," among other programs. Early Life and Career Beginnings: Michael Søren Madsen was born in 1957 in Chicago, Illinois to mother Elaine, an author and filmmaker, and father Calvin, a World War II Navy veteran and Chicago Fire Department firefighter. He has two siblings, entrepreneur Cheryl and actress Virginia, who earned an Oscar nomination for her role in the 2004 film "Sideways." Madsen is of Danish ancestry on his father's side, and of German, English, Irish, Scottish, and Native American ancestry on his mother's side. In Chicago, Madsen got his start working at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company as an apprentice under actor John Malkovich; he also appeared in a production of Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men." After appearing in the 1982 film "Against All Hope," Madsen landed a notable, small film part in the 1983 Cold War thriller "WarGames." Big Screen Breakthroughs: Throughout the rest of the 80s, Madsen appeared in films including "Racing with the Moon," "The Natural," "The Killing Time," "Shadows in the Storm," and "Kill Me Again." However, his first major film role came in 1991, when he was cast as Jimmy in the buddy road film "Thelma & Louise," starring Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis. An even bigger part came the next year in "Reservoir Dogs," the directorial debut of Quentin Tarantino. Madsen played Mr. Blonde, a cruel mobster who, in the film's most famous scene, taunts and slices the ear off of a bound police officer. Madsen continued to land significant roles throughout the rest of the decade, including in the comedy thriller "Fatal Instinct," the crime film "Trouble Bound," the family drama "Free Willy," the action thriller "The Getaway," the Western "Wyatt Earp," the science-fiction horror film "Species," and the neo-noir "Mulholland Falls." In 1997, he starred in the gangster film "Donnie Brasco" alongside Al Pacino and Johnny Depp, and in 1998 had leading roles in the war film "Surface to Air" and the sequel to "Species," "Species II." In 1999, Madsen appeared alongside his sister Virginia in "The Florentine." LOIC VENANCE/AFP/Getty Images. Continued Film Career: In the early 2000s, Madsen was in "The Alternate," the James Bond film "Die Another Day," and the romcom "My Boss's Daughter." In 2003, he re-teamed with Quentin Tarantino for "Kill Bill: Volume 1," in which he played the assassin Budd, and subsequently appeared in "Kill Bill: Volume 2" in 2004. His credits after this included "Sin City," "Chasing Ghosts," "BloodRayne," "The Last Drop," "Living & Dying," "Tooth and Nail," "The Killing Jar," "Loosies," "Amsterdam Heavy," and "Along the Roadside." Madsen had a big year on the big screen in 2015. He was in seven films, including the British action movie "Skin Traffik," the Canadian drama "No Deposit," the psychological thriller "Flipped," and the crime drama "Death in the Desert." He was also part of the ensemble of Tarantino's Western film "The Hateful Eight." Subsequent credits have included "Vigilante Diaries," "Rock Paper Dead," "Papa," "The Garden Left Behind," "Welcome to Acapulco," and another Tarantino film, "Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood." Television Career: Madsen made his first appearance on television in 1983, in two episodes of the medical drama "St. Elsewhere." He was in the television film "Special Bulletin" that same year. Following this, Madsen was in episodes of "Cagney & Lacey," "Miami Vice," and "The Hitchhiker." From September 1985 to January of 1986, he was part of the ensemble of the ABC drama series "Our Family Honor." Later credits include "Almost Grown," "Tour of Duty," "Quantum Leap," "The Outsiders," and the crime drama "Vengeance Unlimited," on which he starred opposite Kathleen York. The show ran for 16 episodes. Madsen has been on many other shows, including "Big Apple," the miniseries "Tilt," "CSI: Miami," "24," "The Mob Doctor," "Hawaii Five-0," and "Powers," an online streaming series. He has also been in a surfeit of made-for-television films such as "Montana," "Baby Snatcher," "Beyond the Law," "High Noon," "Sacrifice," "Frankenstein," "Croc," and "Megalodon." Poetry and Photography: In addition to acting, Madsen is an accomplished poet and photographer. Having begun writing in the early 90s, he released the volumes "Beer, Blood and Ashes," "Eat the Worm," and "Burning in Paradise." In 2005, he released the poetry collection "The Complete Poetic Works of Michael Madsen, Vol 1: 1995 – 2005." Later works have included "American Badass" and "Expecting Rain." Madsen has cited Charles Bukowski and Jack Kerouac as influences on his poetic style. In 2006, Madsen released his debut book of photography, called "Signs of Life." Published by 13 Hands Publications and dedicated to his late friend Chris Penn, the book also contains selections of Madsen's poetry. Personal Life and Philanthropy: In 1984, Madsen married Georganne LaPiere; two years later, they divorced. In 1991, he wed his second wife, Jeannine Bisignano. After having two children, including future actor Christian, they divorced in 1995. The following year, Madsen married DeAnna Madsen, with whom he has three children. Madsen has been recognized for his philanthropic involvement, including his work with the Shriners Hospital for Children. In 2016, to benefit those with pediatric cancer, he hosted an event called "An Intimate Evening with Michael Madsen."