Overview

• The certificate released July 17 lists cardiomyopathy, coronary artery disease, chronic alcoholism and thromboembolic disease as underlying causes of his cardiac arrest.
• Los Angeles County authorities closed the July 3 inquiry at his Malibu home without an autopsy after Madsen’s cardiologist signed off on the death certificate.
• Sources say the actor had been sober for several months before his sudden collapse, despite chronic alcoholism contributing to his heart failure.
• In his final years, Madsen was immersed in independent films and was editing a poetry collection titled Tears For My Father: Outlaw Thoughts and Poems.
• He is survived by his children and sister Virginia Madsen, who remembered him as “thunder and velvet” and “a poet disguised as an outlaw.”