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)
Acted in
Los Angeles Plays Itself
2004
as Cliff Harper in Till the End of Time (archive footage)
Red River
1988
as Bill Meeker, Rancher
When the West Was Fun: A Western Reunion
1979
as Self
The Rebels
1979
as Lt. Mayo
Where's Willie?
1978
as Tony Flore
Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood
1976
as Star at Screening
The Pacific Connection
1974
as The Old Man
The Silk Worm
1974
as Robert, Smeralda's ex-husband
Reverend's Colt
1970
as Reverend Miller Colt
The War Devils
1969
as Capt. George Vincent
Hell Commandos
1969
as Major Carter
The Battle of the Last Panzer
1969
as Lofty
A Place In Hell
1969
as Major Mac Graves
Hell in Normandy
1968
as Capt. Jack Murphy
This Man Can't Die
1968
as Martin Benson
Superargo and the Faceless Giants
1968
as Prof. Wendland Wond
The Bang-Bang Kid
1967
as Bear Bullock
The Devil's Man
1967
as Mike Harway
Son of Django
1967
as Father Fleming
Payment in Blood
1967
as Colonel Thomas Blake
LSD Flesh of Devil
1967
as Rex Miller
Five for Revenge
1966
as Tex
Legacy of the Incas
1965
as Jaguar / Karl Hansen
Adventurer of Tortuga
1965
as Alfonso di Montélimar
Kidnapped to Mystery Island
1964
as Souyadhana
Gunmen Of The Rio Grande
1964
as Wyatt Earp / Laramie
Return of Sandokan
1964
as Yanez
Sandokan Fights Back
1964
as Yanez
Gentlemen of the Night
1964
as Massimo
Old Shatterhand
1964
as Capt. Bradley
Blood of the Executioner
1963
as Rodrigo Zeno
Women of Devil's Island
1962
as Henri Vallière
Sword of the Conqueror
1961
as Amalchi
Slave of Rome
1961
as Marco Valerio
Jet Over The Atlantic
1959
as Brett Murphy
Bullwhip
1958
as Steve Daley
The Hard Man
1957
as Steve Burden
Not One Shall Die
1957
as Stefan Gross
Reprisal!
1956
as Frank Madden
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
1956
as Jericho - Federal Agent
The Beast of Hollow Mountain
1956
as Jimmy Ryan
Hilda Crane
1956
as Russell Burns
On the Threshold of Space
1956
as Capt. Jim Hollenbeck
The Last Frontier
1955
as Captain Glenn Riordan
5 Against the House
1955
as Al Mercer
Timber Country Trouble
1955
as Wild Bill Hickok
Phantom Trails
1955
as Wild Bill Hickok
The Matchmaking Marshal
1955
as Wild Bill Hickok
The Tilted Tenderfoot
1955
as Wild Bill Hickok
Trouble on the Trail
1954
as Wild Bill Hickok
The Two Gun Teacher
1954
as Wild Bill Hickok
Outlaw's Son
1954
as Wild Bill Hickok
Marshals in Disguise
1954
as Wild Bill Hickok
Climax!
1954
The Command
1954
as Capt. Robert MacClaw
Secret of Outlaw Flats
1953
as Marshal James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok
Six Gun Decision
1953
as Marshal James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok
Border City Rustlers
1953
as Wild Bill Hickok
Two Gun Marshal
1953
as Wild Bill Hickok
The Charge at Feather River
1953
as Miles Archer
General Electric Theater
1953
as Adam Tenney
Trail of the Arrow
1952
as Wild Bill Hickok
The Yellow Haired Kid
1952
as Wild Bill Hickok
Behind Southern Lines
1952
as Wild Bill Hickok
The Ghost of Crossbone Canyon
1952
as Marshal James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok
The Ford Television Theatre
1952
as John Harpurhey
Red Snow
1952
as Lt. Phil Johnson
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
1951
Drums in the Deep South
1951
as Maj. Will Denning
The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok
1951
as Wild Bill Hickok
What's My Line?
1950
as Self - Mystery Guest
Massacre River
1949
as Larry Knight
Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven
1948
as Eddie Tayloe
Honeymoon
1947
as Corporal Phil Vaughn
Till the End of Time
1946
as Cliff W. Harper
Since You Went Away
1944
as Sailor Harold E. Smith