Tagged: Michael Madsen
Kill Me Again: Michael Madsen’s Leather Jacket
Vitals
Michael Madsen as Vince Miller, ruthless armed robber
Nevada, Spring 1989
Film: Kill Me Again
Release Date: October 27, 1989
Director: John Dahl
Costume Designer: Terry Dresbach
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
This year has seen the loss of screen legends across generations, from Gene Hackman and Robert Redford to Val Kilmer and Michael Madsen. On the first anniversary of Madsen’s September 25, 1957 birthday, let’s look at the one film where he and Kilmer starred together—the 1989 crime thriller Kill Me Again, where both men are drawn into a dangerous web spun by Fay, a femme fatale played by Kilmer’s then-wife Joanne Whalley.
Madsen steadily grew his career as a supporting actor through the ’80s in movies like WarGames (1982) and The Natural (1984) before appearing in Kill Me Again as the murderous thief Vince Miller, who could be argued as a template for the vicious villains he would play in movies like Reservoir Dogs (1992), The Getaway (1994), and Donnie Brasco (1997). Continue reading
Reservoir Dogs — Michael Madsen’s Black Suit and Cadillac as Mr. Blonde
Vitals
Michael Madsen as Vic Vega, cold-blooded professional thief
Los Angeles, Summer 1992
Film: Reservoir Dogs
Release Date: October 9, 1992
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Costume Designer: Betsy Heimann
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Many have been sharing tributes to the late Michael Madsen (1957-2025), who died just days ago on Thursday, July 3, of cardiac arrest at age 67.
Following the start of his career in the early 1980s with films like WarGames (1983) and The Natural (1984), Madsen performed his arguably most iconic role as the psychopathic Vic Vega—aka “Mr. Blonde”—in Quentin Tarantino’s breakthrough 1992 directorial debut, Reservoir Dogs. Continue reading

