Acting
Guy Madison
Handsome American leading man Guy Madison stumbled into a film career and became a television star and hero to the Baby Boom generation. As a young man he worked as a telephone lineman, but entered the Coast Guard at the beginning of the Second World War. While on liberty one weekend in Hollywood, he attended a Lux Radio Theatre broadcast and was spotted in the audience by an assistant to Henry Willson, an executive for David O. Selznick. Selznick wanted an unknown sailor to play a small but prominent part in Since You Went Away (1944), and promptly signed Robert Moseley to a contract. Selznick and Willson concocted the screen name Guy Madison (the "guy" girls would like to meet, and Madison from a passing Dolly Madison cake wagon). Madison filmed his one scene on a weekend pass and returned to duty. The film's release brought thousands of fan letters for Madison's lonely, strikingly handsome young sailor, and at war's end he returned to find himself a star-in-the-making. Despite an initial amateurishness to his acting, Madison grew as a performer, studying and working in theatre. He played leads in a series of programmers before being cast as legendary lawman Wild Bill Hickok in the TV series Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1951). He played Hickok on TV and radio for much of the 1950s, and many of the TV episodes were strung together and released as feature films. Madison managed to squeeze in some more adult-oriented roles during his off-time from the series, but much of this work was also in westerns. After the Hickok series ended Madison found work scarce in the U.S. and traveled to Europe, where he became a popular star of Italian westerns and German adventure films. In the 1970s he returned to the U.S., but appeared mainly in cameo roles. Physical ailments limited his work in later years, and he died from emphysema in 1996. His first wife was actress Gail Russell. Date of Birth 19 January 1922, Pumpkin Center, California Date of Death 6 February 1996, Palm Springs, California (emphysema)
Filmography
Crossbow: The Movie
Film · 1989
Red River
Film · 1988
Crossbow
Series · 1987
When the West Was Fun: A Western Reunion
Film · 1979
Where's Willie?
Film · 1978
Kolossal - The Magnificent Macisti
Film · 1977
Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood
Film · 1976
The Pacific Connection
Film · 1974
The Silk Worm
Film · 1974
Reverend's Colt
Film · 1970
The War Devils
Film · 1969
The Battle of the Last Panzer
Film · 1969
Hell Commandos
Film · 1969
A Place In Hell
Film · 1969
This Man Can't Die
Film · 1968
Superargo and the Faceless Giants
Film · 1968
Hell in Normandy
Film · 1968
Son of Django
Film · 1967
Payment in Blood
Film · 1967
Bang Bang Kid
Film · 1967
LSD Flesh of Devil
Film · 1967
The Devil's Man
Film · 1967
Five for Revenge
Film · 1966
Legacy of the Incas
Film · 1965
Adventurer of Tortuga
Film · 1965
Old Shatterhand
Film · 1964
Gunmen Of The Rio Grande
Film · 1964
Gentlemen of the Night
Film · 1964
Return of Sandokan
Film · 1964
Sandokan Fights Back
Film · 1964
Kidnapped to Mystery Island
Film · 1964
Blood of the Executioner
Film · 1963
Women of Devil's Island
Film · 1962
Sword of the Conqueror
Film · 1961
Slave of Rome
Film · 1961
Jet Over The Atlantic
Film · 1959
Bullwhip
Film · 1958
The Hard Man
Film · 1957
Not One Shall Die
Film · 1957
The Beast of Hollow Mountain
Film · 1956
Hilda Crane
Film · 1956
Reprisal!
Film · 1956
On the Threshold of Space
Film · 1956
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
Series · 1956
The Last Frontier
Film · 1955
5 Against the House
Film · 1955
The Tilted Tenderfoot
Film · 1955
The Matchmaking Marshal
Film · 1955
Phantom Trails
Film · 1955
Timber Country Trouble
Film · 1955
The Command
Film · 1954
Trouble on the Trail
Film · 1954
Outlaw's Son
Film · 1954
Marshals in Disguise
Film · 1954
The Two Gun Teacher
Film · 1954
Climax!
Series · 1954
The Charge at Feather River
Film · 1953
Six Gun Decision
Film · 1953
Secret of Outlaw Flats
Film · 1953
Two Gun Marshal
Film · 1953
Border City Rustlers
Film · 1953
General Electric Theater
Series · 1953
Behind Southern Lines
Film · 1952
Red Snow
Film · 1952
The Yellow Haired Kid
Film · 1952
Trail of the Arrow
Film · 1952
The Ghost of Crossbone Canyon
Film · 1952
The Ford Television Theatre
Series · 1952
Drums in the Deep South
Film · 1951
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
Series · 1951
The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok
Series · 1951
What's My Line?
Series · 1950
Massacre River
Film · 1949
Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven
Film · 1948
Honeymoon
Film · 1947
Till the End of Time
Film · 1946
Since You Went Away
Film · 1944