The Coolest Tough Actors and Characters
by MadMax1981 | created - 27 Jun 2012 | updated - 25 Jul 2012 | Public
1. Bruce Lee
Actor | Jing wu men
Bruce Lee remains the greatest icon of martial arts cinema and a key figure of modern popular media. Had it not been for Bruce Lee and his movies in the early 1970s, it's arguable whether or not the martial arts film genre would have ever penetrated and influenced mainstream North American and ...
2. Arnold Schwarzenegger
Actor | Terminator 2: Judgment Day
With an almost unpronounceable surname and a thick Austrian accent, who would have ever believed that a brash, quick talking bodybuilder from a small European village would become one of Hollywood's biggest stars, marry into the prestigious Kennedy family, amass a fortune via shrewd investments and...
Conan in "Conan The barbarian & Conan The Destroyer"
The Terminator in "The Terminator"
John Matrix in "Commando"
Dutch in "Predator"
3. Mel Gibson
Actor | Braveheart
Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson was born January 3, 1956 in Peekskill, New York, USA, as the sixth of eleven children of Hutton Gibson, a railroad brakeman, and Anne Patricia (Reilly) Gibson (who died in December of 1990). His mother was Irish, from County Longford, while his American-born father is ...
Mad Max in "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior"
Martin Riggs in "Lethal Weapon"
William Wallace in "Braveheart"
Lt. Col. Hal Moore in "We are soldiers"
4. Sylvester Stallone
Actor | Rocky
Sylvester Stallone is an athletically built, dark-haired American actor/screenwriter/director/producer, the movie fans worldwide have been flocking to see Stallone's films for over 40 years, making "Sly" one of Hollywood's biggest-ever box office draws.
Sylvester Stallone was born on July 6, 1946, ...
Rocky Balboa in "Rocky"
Rambo in "First Blood"
Lieutenant Marion in "Cobra"
Ray Quick in "The Specialist"
Robert Rath in "Assassins"
Barney Ross in "The Expendables"
5. Harrison Ford
Actor | Raiders of the Lost Ark
Harrison Ford was born on July 13, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois, to Dorothy (Nidelman), a radio actress, and Christopher Ford (born John William Ford), an actor turned advertising executive. His father was of Irish and German ancestry, while his maternal grandparents were Jewish emigrants from Minsk, ...
Han Solo in "Star Wars"
Indiana Jones in "Raiders of the Lost Ark"
6. Kevin Costner
Actor | The Postman
Kevin Michael Costner was born on January 18, 1955 in Lynwood, California, the third child of Bill Costner, a ditch digger and ultimately an electric line servicer for Southern California Edison, and Sharon Costner (née Tedrick), a welfare worker. His older brother, Dan, was born in 1950. A middle ...
Eliot Ness in "The Untouchable"
Robin Hood in "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves"
Wyatt Earp in "Wyatt Earp"
Mariner in "Waterworld"
7. Kurt Russell
Actor | Escape from New York
Kurt Vogel Russell was born on March 17, 1951 in Springfield, Massachusetts and raised in Thousand Oaks, California to Louise Julia Russell (née Crone), a dancer & Bing Russell, an actor. He is of English, German, Scottish and Irish descent. His first roles were as a child on television series, ...
Snake Plissken in "Escape From New York"
R.J. MacReady in "The Thing"
Todd 3465 in "Soldier"
8. Kyle MacLachlan
Actor | Twin Peaks: The Return
The "boy next door, if that boy spent lots of time alone in the basement", is how Rich Cohen described Kyle MacLachlan in a 1994 article for "Rolling Stone" magazine. That distinctly askew wholesomeness made MacLachlan a natural to become famous as the alter ego of twisted director David Lynch.
...
Paul Atreides in "Dune"
Lloyd Gallagher in "The Hidden"
9. Chuck Norris
Actor | Walker, Texas Ranger
Chuck Norris is familiar to fans worldwide as the star of action films such as The Hitman (1991), The Delta Force (1986) and Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection (1990). He also starred in Missing in Action (1984) and its sequels, Firewalker (1986) and Sidekicks (1992). He was an executive ...
Colt in "The Way of the Dragon
Sean Kane in "An Eye for an Eye"
Sheriff Dan Stevens in "Silent Rage"
J.J. McQuade in "Lone Wolf McQuade"
Col. James Braddock in "Missing in Action"
Matt Hunter in "Invasion U.S.A."
Maj. Scott McCoy in "The Delta Force"
10. Michael Paré
Actor | The Virgin Suicides
Michael Kevin Paré was born on October 9, 1958 in Brooklyn, New York City, to Joan (Moroney) and Francis Paré, who owned print shops. His father died of leukemia when Paré was five, leaving his mother to raise their large family of children. Paré was working as a chef in New York City when an agent...
Tom Cody in "Streets of Fire"
11. Christopher Lambert
Actor | Highlander
Though born in Great Neck, Long Island, Christopher Lambert's family left the US when he was only two years old. His father was a United Nations diplomat assigned to Switzerland and, as a result, Chris was educated at private boarding schools in Geneva. Inspired through his having appeared in a ...
Connor 'The Highlander' MacLeod in "Highlander"
12. Rutger Hauer
Actor | Hobo with a Shotgun
Blond, blue-eyed, tall and handsome Dutch actor Rutger Hauer enjoyed an international reputation for playing everything from romantic leads to action heroes to sinister villains. Hauer was born in Breukelen, a Dutch town and former municipality in the province of Utrecht.
He was the son of Teunke ...
Wulfgar in "Nighthawks"
Roy Batty in "Blade Runner"
Captain Etienne Navarre in "Ladyhawke"
Nick Parker "Blind Fury"
13. Bruce Willis
Actor | Die Hard
Actor and musician Bruce Willis is well known for playing wisecracking or hard-edged characters, often in spectacular action films. Collectively, he has appeared in films that have grossed in excess of $2.5 billion USD.
Walter Bruce Willis was born on March 19, 1955, in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany,...
Officer John McClane in "Die Hard"
John Smith in "Last Man Standing"
The Jackal in "The Jackal"
Lieutenant A.K. Waters in "Tears of the Sun"
Hartigan in "Sin City"
14. Keanu Reeves
Actor | The Matrix
Keanu Charles Reeves, whose first name means "cool breeze over the mountains" in Hawaiian, was born September 2, 1964 in Beirut, Lebanon. He is the son of Patric Reeves, a showgirl and costume designer, and Samuel Nowlin Reeves, a geologist. Keanu's father was born in Hawaii, of British, Portuguese...
Neo in "The Matrix"
15. Alec Baldwin
Actor | The Departed
Alec Baldwin is the oldest, and best-known, of the four Baldwin brothers in the acting business (the others are Stephen Baldwin, William Baldwin and Daniel Baldwin). Alexander Rae Baldwin III was born on April 3, 1958 in Massapequa, New York, the son of Carol Newcomb (Martineau) and Alexander Rae ...
Lamont Cranston / The Shadow in "The Shadow"
16. Peter Weller
Actor | RoboCop
Peter Frederick Weller was born in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, to Dorothy Jean (Davidson) and Frederick Bradford Weller, a federal judge and career helicopter pilot for the United States Army. He traveled extensively as his father literally flew around the world. Before he was out of his teens, he ...
Officer Alex J. Murphy / RoboCop in "RoboCop"
17. Dolph Lundgren
Actor | Rocky IV
Dolph Lundgren was born as Hans Lundgren in Stockholm, Sweden, to Sigrid Birgitta (Tjerneld), a language teacher, and Karl Johan Hugo Lundgren, an engineer and economist for the Swedish government. He lived in Stockholm until the age of 13, when he moved in with his grandparents in Nyland, ...
Drago in "Rocky IV"
He-Man in "Masters of the Universe"
Andrew Scott / GR13 in "Universal Soldier"
Det. Jack Caine in "Dark Angel"
18. Steven Seagal
Actor | On Deadly Ground
Steven Frederic Seagal was born in Lansing, Michigan, to Patricia Anne (Fisher), a medical technician, and Samuel Seagal, a high school math teacher. His paternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants, and his mother had English, German, and distant Irish and Dutch, ancestry. The enigmatic ...
Nico Toscani in "Above the Law"
Mason Storm in "Hard to Kill"
John Hatcherin "Marked for Death"
Det. Gino Felino in "Out for Justice"
Casey Ryback in "Under Siege"
19. Daniel Day-Lewis
Actor | There Will Be Blood
Born in London, England, Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is the second child of Cecil Day-Lewis, Poet Laureate of the U.K., and his second wife, actress Jill Balcon. His maternal grandfather was Sir Michael Balcon, an important figure in the history of British cinema and head of the famous Ealing ...
Hawkeye (Nathaniel Poe) IN "The Last of the Mohicans"
20. Liam Neeson
Actor | Kinsey
Liam Neeson was born on June 7, 1952 in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, to Katherine (Brown), a cook, and Bernard Neeson, a school caretaker. He was raised in a Catholic household. During his early years, Liam worked as a forklift operator for Guinness, a truck driver, an assistant architect and an ...
Peyton Westlake / Darkman in "Darkman"
Bryan Mills in "Taken"
21. Clive Owen
Actor | Children of Men
British actor Clive Owen is one of a handful of stars who, though he is best known for his art house films, can handle more mainstream films with equal measures of grace and skill. Owen is typically cast as characters whose primary traits are a balance of physical strength, intellect, conflicting ...
Dwight in "Sin City"
Smith in "Shoot 'Em Up"
22. Michael Ironside
Actor | Starship Troopers
Michael Ironside has made a strong and indelible impression with his often incredibly intense and explosive portrayals of fearsome villains throughout the years. He was born as Frederick Reginald Ironside on February 12, 1950 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Ironside was a successful arm wrestler in ...
Darryl Revok in "Scanners"
Jester in "Top Gun"
Richter in "Total Recall"
Jean Rasczak in "Starship Troopers"
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