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