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Guy Madison
Acting
Biography
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…
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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)
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BODY OF WORK
Guy Madison's Filmography
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Crossbow: The Movie
as Gerrish
Red River
as Bill Meeker, Rancher
When the West Was Fun: A Western Reunion
as Self
Where's Willie?
as Tony Flore
Kolossal - The Magnificent Macisti
Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood
as Star at Screening
The Pacific Connection
as The Old Man
The Silk Worm
as Robert, Smeralda's ex-husband
Reverend's Colt
as Miller Colt
The War Devils
as Capt. George Vincent
Hell Commandos
as Major Carter
The Battle of the Last Panzer
as Lofty
A Place In Hell
as Major Mac Graves
Hell in Normandy
as Capt. Jack Murphy
This Man Can't Die
as Martin Benson
Superargo and the Faceless Giants
as Prof. Wendland Wond
Bang Bang Kid
as Bear Bullock
The Devil's Man
as Mike Harway
Son of Django
as Father Fleming
Payment in Blood
as Colonel Thomas Blake
LSD Flesh of Devil
as Rex Miller
Five for Revenge
as Tex
Legacy of the Incas
as Jaguar / Karl Hansen
Adventurer of Tortuga
as Alfonso di Montélimar
Kidnapped to Mystery Island
as Souyadhana
Gunmen Of The Rio Grande
as Wyatt Earp / Laramie
Return of Sandokan
as Yanez
Sandokan Fights Back
as Yanez
Gentlemen of the Night
as Massimo
Old Shatterhand
as Capt. Bradley
Blood of the Executioner
as Rodrigo Zeno
Women of Devil's Island
as Henri Vallière
Sword of the Conqueror
as Amalchi
Slave of Rome
as Marco Valerio
Jet Over The Atlantic
as Brett Murphy
Bullwhip
as Steve Daley
The Hard Man
as Steve Burden
Not One Shall Die
as Stefan Gross
Reprisal!
as Frank Madden
The Beast of Hollow Mountain
as Jimmy Ryan
Hilda Crane
as Russell Burns
On the Threshold of Space
as Capt. Jim Hollenbeck
The Last Frontier
as Captain Glenn Riordan
5 Against the House
as Al Mercer
Phantom Trails
as Wild Bill Hickok
The Matchmaking Marshal
as Wild Bill Hickok
Timber Country Trouble
as Wild Bill Hickok
The Tilted Tenderfoot
as Wild Bill Hickok
Trouble on the Trail
as Wild Bill Hickok
The Two Gun Teacher
as Wild Bill Hickok
Outlaw's Son
as Wild Bill Hickok
Marshals in Disguise
as Wild Bill Hickok
The Command
as Capt. Robert MacClaw
Secret of Outlaw Flats
as Marshal James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok
Border City Rustlers
as Wild Bill Hickok
Two Gun Marshal
as Wild Bill Hickok
Six Gun Decision
as Marshal James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok
The Charge at Feather River
as Miles Archer
Trail of the Arrow
as Wild Bill Hickok
The Yellow Haired Kid
as Wild Bill Hickok
Behind Southern Lines
as Wild Bill Hickok
The Ghost of Crossbone Canyon
as Marshal James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok
Red Snow
as Lt. Phil Johnson
Drums in the Deep South
as Maj. Will Denning
Massacre River
as Larry Knight
Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven
as Eddie Tayloe
Honeymoon
as Corporal Phil Vaughn
Till the End of Time
as Cliff W. Harper
Since You Went Away
as Harold E. Smith