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