Michael Soren Madsen is an American actor. He is well known for his 'tough guy' image on screen.

Madsen was born in Chicago, Illinois to Cal Madsen, a fireman, and Elaine, an Emmy-winning poet, producer and playwright who often works for PBS;Madsen's mother left a career in corporate business to pursue a writing career. His sister is actress Virginia Madsen. He also has an older sister named Cheri, who owns a restaurant with her husband and three children, they live in Wisconsin. Madsen's paternal grandparents were Danish and his mother has Irish and Native American ancestry. Madsen's youth was characterized by unfortunate events: at age nine his parents separated and he frequently had to change schools. He began to steal and was sent to jail a few times. Madsen's acting career started at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, where he served as an apprentice actor under John Malkovich.

Soon after his apprenticeship, he was cast in a small role in his first movie WarGames (1983). He moved to Los Angeles and appeared in a series of minor film roles, including playing baseball player Bump Bailey in The Natural, a deranged killer in Kill Me Again (1989), and Susan Sarandon's tough but touching boyfriend "Jimmy" in Thelma & Louise (1991).

He played a razor-wielding, sadistic ex-con and jewel thief, "Mr. Blonde", in the film Reservoir Dogs. The film gained attention among film critics and fans, as did Madsen's performance and the brutality of his character. During the scene in Reservoir Dogs where Michael Madsen's character, Mr. Blonde, tortures Officer Nash, actor Kirk Baltz ad-libbed a line about being father of a young child. Madsen, who himself had just become a father, was so upset by this line that he had difficulty finishing the scene. On some copies of the DVD, as Baltz completes the line, a voice can be heard off-screen saying "Oh, no, no..." The line compounded Madsen's already mixed feelings about filming the scene because of his aversion to violence in real life.

Madsen's first marriage was to Georganne LaPiere, the half sister of Cher. He remarried, to Jeannine Bisignano, with whom he has two of his first sons, Max and Christian. Since 1996, he has been married to De Anna Morgan. Madsen has five children, all boys. His sons' names are Calvin who now has changed his name to Kalvin, Hudson, Luke and his other sons Max and Christian from his marriage to Bisignano. He has said that the five films he has acted in that he is proudest of are Reservoir Dogs, Donnie Brasco, Species, Free Willy, and Kill Bill.

Michael lives in a Malibu house that once belonged to the late Keith Moon, the original drummer of The Who but has recently moved but is still in Malibu.