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