Christian Madsen
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Christian Madsen is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the films ''
Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...
'' (2013)'' and Divergent'' (2014).


Life and career

Christian Madsen was born in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
to actors
Michael Madsen Michael Madsen (born September 25, 1957) is an American actor. Alongside his frequent collaborations with Quentin Tarantino—''Reservoir Dogs'' (1992), ''Kill Bill: Volume 2'' (2004), ''The Hateful Eight'' (2015), and ''Once Upon a Time in Hol ...
and Jeannine Bisignano. His aunt is actress
Virginia Madsen Virginia Madsen (born September 11, 1961) is an American actress. She is the recipient of two Critics' Choice Awards, an Independent Spirit Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Gl ...
and his grandmother is filmmaker and author Elaine Madsen. He began acting at the age of ten, when he appeared in a small role in one of his father's films, and spent time on the set of a number of other films, including ''
Free Willy ''Free Willy'' is a 1993 American Adventure film, adventure Drama (film and television), drama film, directed by Simon Wincer, produced by Lauren Shuler Donner and Jennie Lew Tugend, written by Keith A. Walker and Corey Blechman from a story by ...
'' and '' The Getaway''. His grandmother, filmmaker Elaine Madsen, encouraged him to pursue a career in acting after watching his performances in high school theater. His parents divorced when he was a child and he subsequently "bounced around a lot" between his parents' homes in Malibu, the
San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County, California. Situated to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it comprises a large portion of Los Angeles, the Municipal corpo ...
, Santa Fe, and
Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...
. He eventually moved in with his grandmother when he was 17, and she took him to the
Actors Studio The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights located on West 44th Street in Hell's Kitchen in New York City. The studio is best known for its work refining and teaching method actin ...
and introduced him to the head of its Hollywood branch,
Martin Landau Martin James Landau (; June 20, 1928 – July 15, 2017) was an American actor. His career began in the 1950s, with early film appearances including a supporting role in Alfred Hitchcock's '' North by Northwest'' (1959). His career breakthrough c ...
. Madsen's early film career consisted mainly of small roles with his father and
independent film An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is film production, produced outside the Major film studios, major film studio system in addition to being produced and distributed by independ ...
s. He took on other jobs while continuing to audition for acting roles. He had been auditioning without any successes for over two years and was about to be evicted from his Los Angeles apartment when he won a role in '' Divergent'', a film adaptation of
Veronica Roth Veronica Anne Roth (born August 19, 1988) is an American novelist and short story writer, known for her bestselling ''Divergent'' trilogy which has sold more than 35 million copies worldwide. Personal and early life Veronica Roth was born ...
's young adult novel of the same name. After filming ''Divergent'', Madsen was cast in the lead role of the independent film ''Prism'', in which he plays a young man who is reunited with his amnesiac father after 15 years. In 2013, he also appeared in ''
Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...
'', a drama film directed by
Gia Coppola Gian-Carla Coppola (born January 1, 1987), known professionally as Gia Coppola, is an American film director and screenwriter. A member of the Coppola family, she is the granddaughter of director Francis Ford Coppola. She made her feature film di ...
, and he has been cast in ''Jack Squared''.


Filmography


Film


Television


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Madsen, Christian Living people Male actors from Los Angeles American male film actors 21st-century American male actors Year of birth missing (living people)