Guy Madison

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Guy Madison (January 19, 1922 – February 6, 1996) was an American film and television actor.

Born Robert Ozell Mosely in Bakersfield, California, Madison attended Bakersfield Junior College for two years and then worked briefly as a telephone lineman before joining the United States Coast Guard in 1942.

In 1944, while visiting Hollywood on leave from the Coast Guard, Madison's boyish good looks and manly physique caught the eye of Henry Willson, the head of talent at David O. Selznick's newly formed Vanguard Pictures. Willson was widely known for his stable of good-looking, marginally talented actors with unusual names he bestowed upon them, and he immediately cast the rechristened Madison in a bit part in Selznick's Since You Went Away. Following the film's release in 1944, the studio received thousands of letters from fans wanting to know more about him.

Madison was signed by RKO Pictures in 1946 and began appearing in romantic comedies and dramas, but his wooden acting style hurt his chances of advancing in films. In 1951, television came to the rescue of his faltering career when he was cast in The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, which ran for six years.

Following his television series, he appeared in several more films before leaving for Europe, where he found greater success in spaghetti westerns.

Madison was married to actresses Gail Russell (1949-1954) and Sheila Connolly (1954-1964). Both marriages ended in divorce. He had four children, three daughters and one son.

Madison died from emphysema at age 74 and was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Cathedral City, California.