Person Details

Birthday: 1922-01-19 23:02:22

Death: 1996-02-06 23:02:22

Aliases: No known aliases

Gender: Male

Place of birth: Pumpkin Center, California, USA

Homepage:

Movie Involvements: 64

TV Involvements: 4


Most Famous Work

Biography

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)

Most Famous Work

What's My Line?
Average
7

What's My Line?

(1950) Self - Mystery Guest
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
Average
5

Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre

(1956) Jericho - Federal Agent
Old Shatterhand
Average
6

Old Shatterhand

(1964) Capt. Bradley
The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok
Average
4

The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok

(1951) Wild Bill Hickok
The Last Frontier
Average
6

The Last Frontier

(1955) Glenn Riordan
5 Against the House
Average
6

5 Against the House

(1955) Al Mercer
The Ford Television Theatre
Average
6

The Ford Television Theatre

(1952) John Harpurhey
The Rebels
Average
0

The Rebels

(1979) Lt. Mayo

Acting

Year Character Movie/Tv
2003 Cliff Harper in Till the End of Time (archive footage)
1988 Bill Meeker, Rancher
1979 Self
Lt. Mayo
1978 Tony Flore
1976 Star at Screening
1974 The Old Man
1973 Robert, Smeralda's ex-husband
1970 Reverend Miller Colt
1969 Capt. George Vincent
Major Carter
Lofty
Major Mac Graves
1968 Capt. Jack Murphy
Martin Benson
Prof. Wendland Wond
1967 Bear Bullock
Mike Harway
Father Fleming
Colonel Thomas Blake
Rex Miller
1966 Tex
1965 Jaguar / Karl Hansen
Alfonso di Montélimar
1964 Souyadhana
Wyatt Earp / Laramie
Yanez
Yanez
Massimo
Capt. Bradley
1963 Rodrigo Zeno
1962 Henri Vallière
1961 Amalchi
Marco Valerio
1959 Brett Murphy
1958 Steve Daley
1957 Steve Burden
Stefan Gross
1956 Frank Madden
Jericho - Federal Agent
Jimmy Ryan
Russell Burns
Capt. Jim Hollenbeck
1955 Glenn Riordan
Al Mercer
Wild Bill Hickok
Wild Bill Hickok
Wild Bill Hickok
Wild Bill Hickok
1954 Wild Bill Hickok
Wild Bill Hickok
Wild Bill Hickok
Wild Bill Hickok
N/A
Capt. Robert MacClaw
1953 Marshal James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok
Wild Bill Hickok
Wild Bill Hickok
Marshal James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok
Miles Archer
Adam Tenney
1952 Wild Bill Hickok
Wild Bill Hickok
Wild Bill Hickok
Marshal James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok
Lt. Phil Johnson
John Harpurhey
1951 N/A
Maj. Will Denning
Wild Bill Hickok
1950 Self - Mystery Guest
1949 Larry Knight
1948 Eddie Tayloe
1947 Corporal Phil Vaughn
1946 Cliff W. Harper
1944 Sailor Harold E. Smith
Year Character Movie/Tv

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