Top 10 Action Movie Stars

Top 10 list of Action Movie Stars

In the next couple of days im going to post a list of my Top 10 Action Stars. This post is going to focus on the most influential action stars from the last 3-4 decades.
Guys that made me and many others love the action genre. Without them nothing would be the same. This is a very short list of only 10 of the most successful stars out there. I had many more actors in mind for this list that could easily fit but after long thinking process those are my top 10 action stars.

10. Clint Eastwood

There is something about Clint Eastwood that generates some sort of unique coolness, toughness and a very strong presence of authority. Eastwood has this special talent of portraying this bad ass character on screen and in real life as well, a talent that few actors have. Clint Eastwood is not a kid anymore but he is considered as one of the pioneers in the genre of action. His movies are still remembered by many to this day. His most memorable movies were: Dirty Harry movies, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, The Rookey ...

9. Wesley Snipes

Wesley Snipes participated in a lot of good action flicks between the early 90' and the beginning of the 2000 era with films like: Blade trilogy, Passenger 57, Undisputed, Demolition Man.
Unfortunately recently he disappeared from the scene (Prison). I don’t really know what happened to Wesley Snipes, I know that he was doing not very memorable movies in the last few years. None of those movies really interested the big audiences like his movies used to do in the earlier stages of Snipes's career.

8. Chuck Norris

Chuck Norris was relatively very big in the 70's and the 80's. Chuck made a lot of movies about the Vietnam War like: The Delta Force, Missing in Action, in dedication to his older brother who lost his life during that war. He had his successive TV Show Walker Texas Ranger in the late 90's and the early 2000. Recently he appeared in Stallone’s The Expendables 2 but other than that we have not seen him do nothing special lately. The younger generation most likely will remember Chuck Norris for the Chuck Norris facts / jokes that run wild on the internet since 2005.

7. Dolf Londgren

I personally really liked Dolf Londgren films in the late 80's and the beginning of the 90's like: Showdown in Little Tokyo, Universal Soldier, Masters of the Universe.
Unfortunately like most of Dolf’s colleagues in the field of the action genre the quality of his movies deteriorated with time and his late movies were low budget flicks that were difficult to watch. I personally can’t see how Dolf Londgren recovers and returns back to his earlier status in the action genre but we can always hope that I’m wrong.

6. Jecky Chan

Initially I was not sure if Jecky Chan should appear in this category because all his movies were more of a comedy than action. After a while I figured out that this Top 10 Action Movie list would not be the same without him.
I think he is one of the most deserving members in this list, actually he is probably the most deserving member of this Top 10 Action Stars because in all of his movies he has done all of his stunts by himself. Jecky Chan's most memorable movies were: Armor of God, Rumble in the Bronx, Police Story. The problem was with his latest movies that were shot and produced in the US, those movies were financially more successful but for some reason I couldn’t tolerate his side kicks in those movies.

5. Steven Seagal

I will admit that Steven Seagal is one of the biggest action stars that has fallen to the lowest hall ... I mean professionally.
The dude was making this fresh, bad ass movies like: Above the Law, Under Siege and Hard to Kill. Steven Seagal practically broke every known to men body part / bone when it came to his enemies but the movies he makes now are insulting not only to his fans but mostly to him. i stopped following him a few years ago, and its all because he didnt adapt to his currant status of being pretty old and the stuff that worked for him when he was 30 dont work for him when he is 50.

4. Bruce Willis

Bruce Willis never had the physic or any special fighting talent he just made bunch of cool movies with bunch of shooting around and blowing everything in sight.
He used his intensity which he brought to every movie he participated in. Even today when Bruce Willis participates in an action flick you can see that he didn’t lose a thing with the years and he can keep on doing movies from the Action genre as long as he wants. My favorite movies with Bruce Willis are: The Die Hard Series, Armageddon, Sin City and The Fifth Element.

3. Jean-Claude Van Damme

This guy had it all, we'll almost all. Jean-Claude Van Damme had the physic, the look, the persona to melt every woman's hart and make the guys route for him and he knew how to use his legs.
Muscles from Brussels used his heavy French / Belgium accent as an advantage and not the other way around. Jean-Claude Van Damme was one of the major action superstars during the 80's and the 90's with movies like: Bloodsport, Kickboxer, Hard Target, Double Impact and few others. Unfortunately after suffering few box office failures Van Damme deteriorated to making waste of space b movies until he finally found his way back to the big stage in the Expendables 2. I hope that the Expendables will help him to revive his dying career and we will see Van Damme back in Hollywood spotlight again.

2. Arnold Schwarzenegger

No doubt Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of the biggest, and probably the biggest action stars the world has ever seen. I don't really know how exactly he elevated himself to his current status of unbelievable stardom.
The guy barely spoke English and when he did speak you couldn't miss his heavy German / Austrian accent. That leaves us with his monsters physic and sharp business sense. Despite all of his disadvantages Arnold managed to become a phenomena in the Action genre with unforgettable movies like: The Terminator Franchise, Conan, Predator, The Running Man, Commando and the list can go on and on.

1. Sylvester Stallone

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone were probably the only 2 guys from this least that sustained a decent level of appearances in action movies.
The only difference between the 2 is the fact that Arnold took a 10 year break from the film industry to become governor of California. That small detail gave the crown of the biggest action star of our generation to Sylvester Stallone.
If you look at Stallone’s filmography you will not find low budget movies that would make you regret getting the DVD or going to see it in the Cinema. All of Sly's movies were big in every aspect. Sly took part in some of the biggest action flicks there were ever made, movies like: The Rambo Franchise, Rocky Movies, Cobra, Demolition Man, Tango & Cash and The Specialist. Most importantly he created the Expendables project. Like I mentioned in my Expendables 2 Review the Expendables movies were not good but that is not the issue. In the Expendables movies Sylvester Stallone managed to gather all of the biggest action stars in our generation, put them on one stage and let us witness how they shine again.




About Sasha Shapiro

Sasha is the founder and editor of Cool Reviews Rule. He is very passionate about Movies, TV Shows and some Books. His favorite genres are: Action, Fantasy, History, Horror, Sci-fi and Adventure.
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