Guy Madison
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- Jan 19, 1922
- Died
- Feb 6, 1996 (aged 74)
- Place of birth
- Pumpkin Center, California, USA
- Credits
- 77
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
Old Shatterhand
1964Movie
Capt. Bradley
The Beast of Hollow Mountain
1956Movie
Jimmy Ryan
Since You Went Away
1944Movie
Harold E. Smith
5 Against the House
1955Movie
Al Mercer
The Last Frontier
1955Movie
Captain Glenn Riordan
What's My Line?
1950TV
Self
Filmography
Crossbow: The Movie
1989Movie
Gerrish
Red River
1988Movie
Bill Meeker, Rancher
Crossbow
1987TV
When the West Was Fun: A Western Reunion
1979Movie
Self
Where's Willie?
1978Movie
Tony Flore
Kolossal - The Magnificent Macisti
1977Movie
Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood
1976Movie
Star at Screening
The Pacific Connection
1974Movie
The Old Man
The Silk Worm
1974Movie
Robert, Smeralda's ex-husband
Reverend's Colt
1970Movie
Miller Colt
The War Devils
1969Movie
Capt. George Vincent
Hell Commandos
1969Movie
Major Carter
The Battle of the Last Panzer
1969Movie
Lofty
A Place In Hell
1969Movie
Major Mac Graves
Hell in Normandy
1968Movie
Capt. Jack Murphy
This Man Can't Die
1968Movie
Martin Benson
Superargo and the Faceless Giants
1968Movie
Prof. Wendland Wond
Bang Bang Kid
1967Movie
Bear Bullock
The Devil's Man
1967Movie
Mike Harway
Son of Django
1967Movie
Father Fleming
Payment in Blood
1967Movie
Colonel Thomas Blake
LSD Flesh of Devil
1967Movie
Rex Miller
Five for Revenge
1966Movie
Tex
Legacy of the Incas
1965Movie
Jaguar / Karl Hansen
Adventurer of Tortuga
1965Movie
Alfonso di Montélimar
Kidnapped to Mystery Island
1964Movie
Souyadhana
Gunmen Of The Rio Grande
1964Movie
Wyatt Earp / Laramie
Return of Sandokan
1964Movie
Yanez
Sandokan Fights Back
1964Movie
Yanez
Gentlemen of the Night
1964Movie
Massimo
Old Shatterhand
1964Movie
Capt. Bradley
Blood of the Executioner
1963Movie
Rodrigo Zeno
Women of Devil's Island
1962Movie
Henri Vallière
Sword of the Conqueror
1961Movie
Amalchi
Slave of Rome
1961Movie
Marco Valerio
Jet Over The Atlantic
1959Movie
Brett Murphy
Bullwhip
1958Movie
Steve Daley
The Hard Man
1957Movie
Steve Burden
Not One Shall Die
1957Movie
Stefan Gross
Reprisal!
1956Movie
Frank Madden
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
1956TV
Jericho - Federal Agent
The Beast of Hollow Mountain
1956Movie
Jimmy Ryan
Hilda Crane
1956Movie
Russell Burns
On the Threshold of Space
1956Movie
Capt. Jim Hollenbeck
The Last Frontier
1955Movie
Captain Glenn Riordan
5 Against the House
1955Movie
Al Mercer
The Matchmaking Marshal
1955Movie
Wild Bill Hickok
The Tilted Tenderfoot
1955Movie
Wild Bill Hickok
Phantom Trails
1955Movie
Wild Bill Hickok
Timber Country Trouble
1955Movie
Wild Bill Hickok
Trouble on the Trail
1954Movie
Wild Bill Hickok
Outlaw's Son
1954Movie
Wild Bill Hickok
Marshals in Disguise
1954Movie
Wild Bill Hickok
The Two Gun Teacher
1954Movie
Wild Bill Hickok
Climax!
1954TV
The Command
1954Movie
Capt. Robert MacClaw
Six Gun Decision
1953Movie
Marshal James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok
Secret of Outlaw Flats
1953Movie
Marshal James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok
Two Gun Marshal
1953Movie
Wild Bill Hickok
Border City Rustlers
1953Movie
Wild Bill Hickok
The Charge at Feather River
1953Movie
Miles Archer
General Electric Theater
1953TV
Adam Tenney
Behind Southern Lines
1952Movie
Wild Bill Hickok
The Yellow Haired Kid
1952Movie
Wild Bill Hickok
Trail of the Arrow
1952Movie
Wild Bill Hickok
The Ghost of Crossbone Canyon
1952Movie
Marshal James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok
The Ford Television Theatre
1952TV
John Harpurhey
Red Snow
1952Movie
Lt. Phil Johnson
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
1951TV
Drums in the Deep South
1951Movie
Maj. Will Denning
The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok
1951TV
Wild Bill Hickok
What's My Line?
1950TV
Self
Massacre River
1949Movie
Larry Knight
Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven
1948Movie
Eddie Tayloe
Honeymoon
1947Movie
Corporal Phil Vaughn
Till the End of Time
1946Movie
Cliff W. Harper
Since You Went Away
1944Movie
Harold E. Smith