Guy Madison

Acting

Guy Madison

Born 1922-01-19 · Pumpkin Center, California, USA

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)

Acting credits

Reprisal! poster
6.9

New ranch owner Frank Madden, half Indian but posing as white, arrives just as an all white jury finds the three white Shipley brothers who lynched three Indians innocent. There is soon trouble between Frank and the Shipleys who are using Frank's land to graze their cattle. When the brother of one of the Indian victims kills a Shipley, Frank is accused and put in jail. The Shipleys then organize a lynch mob and head for the jail.

Reprisal!

1956

The Pacific Connection poster
5.3

Ben is a farm boy who comes into conflict with the Evil Spanish Governor and his two sons. To assist in their oppression the Governor hires a Samurai to teach his son the Japanese Katana sword. To counter this, Ben studies under a blind Franciscan monk to obtain some advanced fighting secrets and develop his warrior senses. Additionally Ben must search for the legendary “Iron Reed”. A mystical stick so strong that grows in the lava of an active Volcano.

The Pacific Connection

1974

Old Shatterhand poster
6.2

Renegades trying to get the army to abandon their fort get the Indians addicted to whiskey, then convince them to attack and drive out the soldiers.

Old Shatterhand

1964

The Last Frontier poster
6.1

Three trappers become scouts for a cavalry captain who loses his fort to a hated colonel.

The Last Frontier

1955

Red Snow poster
5.7

An Eskimo Army Sergeant is sent to his Arctic tribal village to gather information about a mysterious unmarked black airplane which shadows military planes in northern Alaska and equally-mysterious flashings lighting up the sky from Siberia across the Bering Strait. He soon discovers Soviet espionage at work. Along the way he must also deal with an ice-floe evacuation, an air-ice rescue, a fight with a polar bear and marriage to his fiancee.

Red Snow

1952

Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood poster
4.4

A would-be filmmaker and actress shake up the industry with a trick dog who gets discovered by a studio bus driver in the 1920s.

Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood

1976

Gunmen Of The Rio Grande poster
5.6

Wyatt Earp comes to a small town, Rio Bravo, to help the woman saloon owner against the town villain and to save a mine owner from robbery.

Gunmen Of The Rio Grande

1964

The Hard Man poster
5.2

A Texas Ranger turns deputy sheriff; a woman wants him to kill her cattle-baron husband.

The Hard Man

1957

Hell in Normandy poster
5.0

The movie is set during World War II in the days just prior to the D-Day invasion. A special parachute unit is sent to destroy a German flame thrower installation on Omaha Beach.

Hell in Normandy

1968

Red River poster
6.4

Remake of the 1948 John Wayne feature about a man who rebels against his tyrannical guardian during a crucial cattle drive.

Red River

1988

Since You Went Away poster
6.6

In 1943, several people enter, re-enter, and exit the difficult life of a Midwestern family whose patriarch has been called up to war, leaving behind his wife and two teen daughters.

Since You Went Away

1944

The Ghost of Crossbone Canyon poster
9.0

Two episodes of the TV series "Wild Bill Hickok" edited together and released as a feature.

The Ghost of Crossbone Canyon

1952

The Command poster
6.4

Once the commanding officer of a cavalry patrol is killed, the ranking officer who must take command is an army doctor.

The Command

1954

5 Against the House poster
5.9

Former war-time Army buddies now students in college decide to rip off a Reno casino.

5 Against the House

1955

The War Devils poster
7.0

A German Captain and an American Captain help each other survive the North African desert during WWII. They meet again a year later during combat operations in France.

The War Devils

1969

Till the End of Time poster
6.4

Three former marines have a hard time readjusting to civilian life. Perry can't deal with the loss of the use of his legs. William is in trouble with bad debts. And Cliff can't decide what he wants to do with his life, although he gets encouragement from war widow Pat Ruscomb.

Till the End of Time

1946

Crossbow: The Movie poster
6.3

A made-for-tv movie based on tv series 'Crossbow'.

Crossbow: The Movie

1989

Drums in the Deep South poster
5.3

Two old friends find themselves on opposite sides during the Civil War in a desperate battle atop an impregnable mountain.

Drums in the Deep South

1951

The Charge at Feather River poster
5.9

A frontier scout leads prisoners on a death mission to save a railroad and rescue two women.

The Charge at Feather River

1953

Legacy of the Incas poster
6.3

During the 1800s, Peru's government sends 2 envoys to negotiate peace with the rebellious Incas but a treasure-hunter bandit shoots the Inca ruler and his son, leaving the 2 envoys to take the blame for it.

Legacy of the Incas

1965

On the Threshold of Space poster
6.0

In the early stages of the space program, Capt. Jim Hollenbeck undergoes any experiment needed to ensure success in the new Air Force branch -- even though he's not required to be a subject in the tests. Always remaining a constant source of support, his wife, Pat, accepts his unwavering commitment to scientific progress. When Maj. Ward Thomas becomes the new head of the program, Hollenbeck must convince him of the necessity of taking the extra steps.

On the Threshold of Space

1956

Trouble on the Trail poster
8.0

"Trouble on the Trail" is two episodes of the "Wild Bill Hickok" television series edited together and released as a feature film by Allied Artists.

Trouble on the Trail

1954

Reverend's Colt poster
5.4

Reverend Miller arrives in Tucson where he wants to build a church. But on the very day of his arrival a gang carries out a raid on the bank and the people of Tucson, who are suspicious of the new reverend because he carries a gun, immediately blame him for the robbery. The sheriff saves him from lynching by putting him in jail. Then he asks the priest to find the gang and the booty; thus Miller becomes the Reverend Colt. His exceptional skill means that he can shoot hats off people's heads and their pistols from their pockets, but he never kills.

Reverend's Colt

1970

Son of Django poster
5.5

The son of Django searches for the murderer of his father and is thereby involved in a war between two factions headed by former acquaintances of his famous parent.

Son of Django

1967