I don't know if any actor in the last 30 years could show up on screen and make me go “Uh oh” more than Michael Madsen. There was a vibe, man, and as iconic as he was, I don't think he really took advantage of it.

Didn't even matter who he was playing. He was the good boyfriend in “Thelma & Louise,” the good brother in “Wyatt Earp,” the good soldier (the one who can turn the key) at the beginning of “WarGames.” I never saw “Free Willy” but he plays the dad there, and a good dad, but I'm sure if I'd seen it I'd be like ... Get away from him, kid! Don't you know that's Mr. Blonde? He'll cut your ear off!!!!

Yeah, Madsen will always be known for that. It's such an iconic, horrifying moment that no one ... Oh, for fuck's sake, IMDb:

Shit, he's even third-billed in “Reservoir Dogs”! Where is he in “WarGames”? Zillionth?

Fuck 'em, the rest of us know. We'll never forget. It's not just cutting off the ear, it's the dance beforehand (a little like Trump's schtick, isn't it?); it's how he matter-of-factly toys with the cop, jokes, taunts, talks into the ear he's cut off, while Stealers Wheel's “Stuck in the Middle with You” plays on the transistor radio. Tarantino then takes it to another level but having the camera follow Mr. Blonde outside, to get the gas can from the trunk of the car, and in that moment we lose Stealers Wheel and see it's just an ordinary afternoon in LA, with cars driving by. This horror is happening in the middle of this ordinary fucking day. Can't somebody stop it? But everyone keeps moving. And Mr. Blonde returns to the room, and when we hear Stealers Wheel again it's like Alex DeLarge hearing Beethoven in “A Clockwork Orange” after he's been programmed: nauseating. Fucking brilliant. 

That character, ultimately shot to death by Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), the undercover cop, had a name: Vic Vega. In those days Tarantino was imagining a noirish/pulp fictiony version of the world of J.D. Salinger, who included members of the Glass family in different short stories before he brought them all together in “Zooey” and “Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters.” For Tarantino, for example, Vic was supposed to be the brother of “Pulp Fiction”'s Vincent Vega. And the guy he originally wanted to play him? Madsen. But Madsen was busy playing Virgil Earp is Lawrence Kasden's “Wyatt Earp” and couldn't do it. He's called it the biggest mistake of his career since the role went to John Travolta and remade him a star. But here's the thing: Would it have done that for Madsen? Would he have brought what Travolta brought? To be honest, I'm not seeing it. I can't imagine him flirting with or hanging with or doing the twist with Uma Thurma's Mia Wallace in the same goofy, breezy manner. Not seeing it. Sorry, bud. Could be the ear still talking to me. I still haven't gotten over the ear.

He was Virginia's sister. I never knew that until reading the obits. And he was the guy who reprised the role of Mickey Rourke's Boogie from “Diner” for the Barry Levinson-directed TV movie? That makes some sense. Show didn't catch on so he had to play Bump Bailey, the most charmless prima donna ballplayer ever in “The Natural.”

Madsen also went deep into crap. He has 327 acting credits, 17(!) upcoming, and so much of it is straight-to-video or straight-to-the-garbage-can awfulness (“DinoGator”? “The Wraith Within”? “Demon Pit”?) that you wonder if he didn't have gambling debts or a drug addiction or just bad judgment. But he deserved better. Someone needed to tell him that. Or he needed to hear that. He deserved better. 

Mother and children reunion