Guy Madison

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 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)

Known For

Captain Glenn Riordan

The Last Frontier

Tony Flore

Where's Willie?

Capt. Bradley

Old Shatterhand

Sailor Harold E. Smith

Since You Went Away

Al Mercer

5 Against the House

Cliff Harper in Till the End of Time (archive footage)

Los Angeles Plays Itself

Jaguar / Karl Hansen

Das Vermächtnis des Inka

Self

When the West Was Fun: A Western Reunion

Martin Benson

I lunghi giorni dell'odio

Tex

I cinque della vendetta

Reverend Miller Colt

Reverendo Colt

Father Fleming

Il figlio di Django

Henri Vallière

Le prigioniere dell'isola del diavolo

Cliff W. Harper

Till the End of Time

Jimmy Ryan

The Beast of Hollow Mountain

Steve Daley

Bullwhip

Capt. Robert MacClaw

The Command

Brett Murphy

Jet Over The Atlantic

Maj. Will Denning

Drums in the Deep South

Colonel Thomas Blake

Sette winchester per un massacro

Capt. George Vincent

I diavoli della guerra

Bear Bullock

Bang Bang Kid

Russell Burns

Hilda Crane

Wyatt Earp / Laramie

Desafío en Río Bravo

Steve Burden

The Hard Man

Massimo

Il vendicatore mascherato

Frank Madden

Reprisal!

Yanez

Sandokan contro il leopardo di Sarawak

Rodrigo Zeno

Il boia di Venezia

Miles Archer

The Charge at Feather River

Capt. Jim Hollenbeck

On the Threshold of Space

Eddie Tayloe

Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven

Alfonso di Montélimar

L'avventuriero della Tortuga

Corporal Phil Vaughn

Honeymoon

Lofty

La battaglia dell'ultimo panzer

Amalchi

Rosmunda e Alboino

Wild Bill Hickok

Behind Southern Lines

Marco Valerio

La schiava di Roma

Yanez

Sandokan alla riscossa

Larry Knight

Massacre River

Lt. Phil Johnson

Red Snow

Major Carter

Comando al infierno

Souyadhana

I misteri della giungla nera

Wild Bill Hickok

The Yellow Haired Kid

Wild Bill Hickok

Trail of the Arrow

Wild Bill Hickok

Trouble on the Trail

Marshal James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok

Six Gun Decision

Marshal James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok

Secret of Outlaw Flats

Wild Bill Hickok

Two Gun Marshal

Wild Bill Hickok

The Tilted Tenderfoot

Wild Bill Hickok

Outlaw's Son

Wild Bill Hickok

Marshals in Disguise

Wild Bill Hickok

The Matchmaking Marshal

Major Mac Graves

Un posto all'inferno

Lt. Mayo

The Rebels

Prof. Wendland Wond

L'invincibile Superman

Wild Bill Hickok

Border City Rustlers

Capt. Jack Murphy

Testa di sbarco per otto implacabili

The Old Man

The Pacific Connection

Rex Miller

LSD - Inferno per pochi dollari

Mike Harway

Devilman Story

Bill Meeker, Rancher

Red River

Marshal James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok

The Ghost of Crossbone Canyon

Wild Bill Hickok

The Two Gun Teacher

Wild Bill Hickok

Phantom Trails

Wild Bill Hickok

Timber Country Trouble

Robert, Smeralda's ex-husband

Il baco di seta

Stefan Gross

Not One Shall Die

Star at Screening

Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood

Gerrish

Crossbow: The Movie

Personal Info

Known For

Acting

Known Credits

70

Gender

Male

Birthday

1922-01-19

Place of Birth

Pumpkin Center, California, USA

Also Known As

Гай Мэдисон