Action Legends
by Creedswede | created - 29 Mar 2022 | updated - 3 weeks ago | Public
1. James Coburn
Actor | The Great Escape
Lanky, charismatic and versatile actor with an amazing grin that put everyone at ease, James Coburn studied acting at UCLA, and then moved to New York to study under noted acting coach Stella Adler. After being noticed in several stage productions, Coburn appeared in a handful of minor westerns ...
The Magnificent Seven - 8 Major Dundee - 7 Our Man Flint - 9 In Like Flint - 4 Duck, You Sucker - 123 A Reason to Live, A Reason to Die - 26 Cross of Iron - 27 Firepower - 24
2. Lee Marvin
Actor | Paint Your Wagon
American actor Lee Marvin was born Lamont Waltman Marvin Jr. in New York City. After leaving school aged 18, Marvin enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve in August 1942. He served with the 4th Marine Division in the Pacific Theater during World War II and after being wounded in action ...
Hangman’s Knot - 8 The Professionals - 15 The Dirty Dozen - 5 Prime Cut - 10 The Spikes Gang - 7 The Klansman - 4 Shout at the Devil - 7 The Big Red One - 30 Gorky Park - 5 Dog Day - 9 The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission - 5 The Delta Force - 10
3. Steve McQueen
Actor | The Great Escape
He was the ultra-cool male film star of the 1960s, and rose from a troubled youth spent in reform schools to being the world's most popular actor. Over 40 years after his untimely death from mesothelioma in 1980, Steve McQueen is still considered hip and cool, and he endures as an icon of popular ...
Never So Few - 14 The Magnificent Seven - 13 Hell Is For Heroes - 9 The Sand Pebbles - 15 Bullitt - 3 The Getaway - 8 The Towering Inferno - 13 Tom Horn - 9
4. Takeshi Kitano
Actor | Zatôichi
Takeshi Kitano originally studied to become an engineer, but was thrown out of school for rebellious behavior. He learned comedy, singing and dancing from famed comedian Senzaburô Fukami. Working as a lift boy on a nightclub with such features as comic sketches and striptease dancing, Kitano saw ...
Violent Cop - 5 Boiling Point - 5 Sonatine - 46 Gonin - 9 Hana-Bi - 6 Brother - 17 Zatôichi - 45 Takeshis’ - 61 Glory to the Filmmaker! - 63 Outrage - 6 Outrage Beyond - 4 Ghost in the Shell - 4
5. Fred Williamson
Actor | From Dusk Till Dawn
Former Oakland Raiders/Kansas City Chiefs football star who rose to prominence as one of the first African-American male action stars of the "blaxploitation" genre of the early 1970s, who has since gone on to a long and illustrious career as an actor, director, writer, and producer! Burly, yet ...
The Legend of Nigger Charley - 11 Black Caesar - 8 The Soul of Nigger Charley - 6 That Man Bolt - 6 Hell Up in Harlem - 27 Three the Hard Way - 48 Boss Nigger - 18 Take A Hard Ride - 13 Mean Johnny Barrows - 7 Death Journey - 13 Joshua: The Black Rider - 17 Mr. Mean - 5 The Inglorious Bastards - 38 Vigilant - 3 1990: The Bronx Warriors - 2 One Down, Two to Go - 4 The New Barbarians: Warriors of the Wasteland - 27 The Big Score - 10 Warriors of the Year 2072/Fighting Centurions - 6 Foxtrap - 14 The Messenger - 18 Black Cobra - 14 Hell’s Heroes - 16 Delta Force Commando - 16 The Black Cobra 2 - 12 Black Cobra 3: The Manila Connection - 51 Detective Malone - 9 Three Days to a Kill - 10 Steele’s Law - 11 From Dusk till Dawn - 6 Original Gangstas - 11 Down ‘n Dirty - 5 Zombie Apocalypse: Redemption - 11 Atomic Eden - 12 VFW - 6
6. Yul Brynner
Actor | The King and I
Exotic leading man of American films, famed as much for his completely bald head as for his performances, Yul Brynner masked much of his life in mystery and outright lies designed to tease people he considered gullible. It was not until the publication of the books "Yul: The Man Who Would Be King" ...
Solomon and Sheba - 8 The Magnificent Seven - 7 Taras Bulba - 5 Kings of the Sun - 6 Return of the Seven - 12 The Long Duel - 19 Villa Rides - 10 The File of the Golden Goose - 8 The Battle on the River Neretva - 6 Adiós, Sabata - 52 Catlow - 8 Westworld - 2 The Ultimate Warrior - 16 Futureworld - 5 Death Rage - 11
7. Burt Reynolds
Actor | Boogie Nights
Enduring, strong-featured, and genial star of US cinema, Burt Reynolds started off in T.V. westerns in the 1960s and then carved his name into 1970s/1980s popular culture, as a sex symbol (posing nearly naked for "Cosmopolitan" magazine), and on-screen as both a rugged action figure and then as a ...
Navajo Joe - 58 100 Rifles - 10 Sam Whiskey - 7 Impasse - 4 The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing - 4 White Lightning - 3 Gator - 1 Sharky’s Machine - 4 City Heat - 5 Malone - 10 Raven - 24 Crazy Six - 13 In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale - 6
8. Anthony Quinn
Actor | Alexis Zorbas
Anthony Quinn was born Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (some sources indicate Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca) on April 21, 1915, in Chihuahua, Mexico, to Manuela (Oaxaca) and Francisco Quinn, who became an assistant cameraman at a Los Angeles (CA) film studio. His paternal grandfather was Irish, ...
Back to Bataan - 30 The Hunchback of Notre Dame - 17 The Guns of Navarone - 40 Lawrence of Arabia - 6 Lost Command - 38 Guns for San Sebastian - 80 Deaf Smith & Johnny Ears - 22 The Message - 13 The Passage - 8
9. Cüneyt Arkin
Actor | Dünyayi Kurtaran Adam
Fahrettin Cüreklibatir, better known by his stage name Cüneyt Arkin, is a Turkish film actor, director, and producer. Having starred in somewhere around 250 movies and also TV series, he is widely considered as one of the most prominent Turkish actors of all time. His films shown abroad credited ...
Battal Gazi Destani/Batal Khan - 92 Battal Gazi’nin Intikami - 155 Küçük kovboy/The Little Cowboy - 15 Savulun Battal Gazi Geliyor - 259 Çaresizler - 37 Kin - 45 Battal Gazi’nin Oglu - 77 Karateciler Istanbul’da/Karate on the Bosphorus - 10 Önce Vatan - 216 Kiliç Aslan/Lion Man - 316 Insan Avcisi/Manhunter - 41 Babanin Oglu - 16 Korkusuz Cengaver/Fearless Warrior - 142 Kara Murat: Denizler Hakimi/Kara Murat: The Ruler of the Seas - 32 Baba Ocagi/Father Quarry - 7 Su/Zombi 65: The Water That Killed Everyone - 6 Dünyayi Kurtaran Adam/The Man Who Saves the World - 163 En Büyük Yumruk/The Biggest Punch - 89 Ölüme Son Adim/Last Step to Death - 99 Vahsi Kan/Wild Blood - 29 Çöl/The Desert - 11 Ölüm Savasçisi/Death Warrior - 100 Kartal Bey - 13 Kanca - 18 Son Kahramanlar/The Last Heroes - 54 Eski Silah - 10
10. Jim Brown
Actor | Mars Attacks!
Often mentioned as the greatest player in NFL history, this ruggedly handsome African American fullback for the Cleveland Browns first appeared on movie screens in the western Rio Conchos (1964), followed by a strong supporting role as convict commando "Jefferson" in the terrific WWII action film ...
Rio Conchos - 9 The Dirty Dozen - 148 Dark of the Sun - 26 100 Rifles - 10 El Condor - 16 Slaughter - 16 Black Gunn - 10 Slaughter’s Big Rip-Off - 27 The Slams - 9 I Escaped from Devil’s Island - 5 Three the Hard Way - 55 Take a Hard Ride - 24 Vengeance - 6 Pacific Inferno - 5 One Down, Two to Go - 11 The Running Man - 3 Original Gangstas - 5 Mars Attacks! - 2
11. Shin'ichi Chiba
Actor | Kill Bill: Vol. 1
Sonny Chiba was born as Sadao Maeda in Fukuoka, Japan on January 22, 1939. His father was a military test pilot. During his youth, he had an interest in both theater & gymnastics. He was talented enough to make the Japanese Olympic Team until a chronic back injury ended his career. However, he took...
Drifting Detective: Tragedy in the Red Valley - 8 Delinquent Boss – Ocho, The She Wolf - 7 Yakuza Deka - 14 Yakuza Wolf – I Perform Murder - 56 Wandering Ginza Butterfly 2: She-Cat Gambler - 24 The Street Fighter - 26 Return of the Street Fighter - 36 Direct Hit! Hell Fist - 36 Sister Street Fighter - 6 The Street Fighter’s Last Revenge - 10 The Executioner II: Karate Inferno - 6 Wolf Guy - 29 Karate Bullfighter - 12 Doberman Cop - 9 Golgo 13: Assignment Kowloon - 13 Yagyu Clan Conspiracy - 12 The Fall of Ako Castle - 28 G.I. Samurai - 104 Shogun’s Ninja - 6 Legend of the Eight Samurai - 55 Geki Totsu: The Insanity of Emperor Iemitsu - 23 Aces: Iron Eagle III - 10 Immortal Combat - 17 Codename: Silencer - 12
12. Charlton Heston
Actor | Ben-Hur
With features chiseled in stone, and renowned for playing a long list of historical figures, particularly in Biblical epics, the tall, well-built and ruggedly handsome Charlton Heston was one of Hollywood's top leading men of his prime and remained active in front of movie cameras for over sixty ...
The Savage - 7 Pony Express - 10 The Ten Commandments - 148 Ben-Hur - 4 El Cid - 36 Major Dundee - 11 The War Lord - 12 Planet of the Apes (1968) - 1 Julius Caesar (1970) - 7 Beneath the Planet of the Apes - 48 The Omega Man - 11 Soylent Green - 5 Midway - 133 The Mountain Men - 19
13. Richard Burton
Actor | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Probably best-remembered for his turbulent personal life with Elizabeth Taylor (whom he married twice), Richard Burton was nonetheless also regarded as an often brilliant British actor of the post-WWII period.
Burton was born Richard Walter Jenkins in 1925 into a Welsh (Cymraeg)-speaking family in ...
Alexander the Great - 12 Where Eagles Dare - 52 Raid on Rommel - 12 The Medusa Touch - 48 The Wild Geese - 21
14. 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 ...
The Big Boss - 16 Fist of Fury - 11 The Way of the Dragon - 1 Enter the Dragon - 6 Game of Death - 12 Game of Death II - 5
15. Telly Savalas
Actor | Kojak
Of Greek descent on both sides, the son of immigrants, Savalas was a soldier during World War II, although most of his enlistment records were destroyed in a fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1973. He later studied psychology at Columbia University under the ...
Battle of the Bulge - 27 The Assassination Bureau - 11 Land Raiders - 7 Kelly's Heroes - 20 Pancho Villa - 22 Redneck - 8 Escape to Athena - 13 The Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission - 12 The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission - 10
16. Richard Roundtree
Actor | Shaft
Richard Roundtree shot to fame as the ultra-hip, flamboyantly-dressed -- not to mention charismatic-- private eye John Shaft. The film Shaft (1971) spawned a genre, two sequels and a series. It made Roundtree a household name, and, for a while, one of the hottest box-office stars in Hollywood. As ...
Shaft (1971) - 2 Shaft's Big Score! - 8 Shaft in Africa - 10 Escape to Athena - 9 One Down, Two to Go - 5 Miami Cops - 11 Getting Even - 17 Shaft (2019) - 4
17. Charles Bronson
Actor | Death Wish
The archetypal screen tough guy with weatherbeaten features--one film critic described his rugged looks as "a Clark Gable who had been left out in the sun too long"--Charles Bronson was born Charles Buchinsky, one of 15 children of struggling parents in Pennsylvania. His mother, Mary (Valinsky), ...
Target Zero - 9 Machine-Gun Kelly - 7 When Hell Broke Loose - 7 The Magnificent Seven - 6 Master of the World - 10 The Dirty Dozen - 8 Villa Rides - 44 Once Upon a Time in the West - 7 You Can’t Win ‘Em All - 54 Violent City - 8 Red Sun - 22 Chato’s Land - 8 The Mechanic - 24 The Stone Killer - 10 The Valdez Horses - 8 Mr. Majestyk - 7 Death Wish - 10 Breakheart Pass - 13 The White Buffalo - 10 Love and Bullets - 16 Death Hunt - 5 Death Wish II - 10 The Evil That Men Do - 9 Death Wish 3 - 54 Murphy’s Law - 6 Death Wish 4: The Crackdown - 37 Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects - 6 Death Wish V: The Face of Death - 7
18. Clint Eastwood
Actor | Million Dollar Baby
Clinton Eastwood Jr. was born May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, to Clinton Eastwood Sr., a bond salesman and later manufacturing executive for Georgia-Pacific Corporation, and Ruth Wood (née Margaret Ruth Runner), a housewife turned IBM clerk. He grew up in nearby Piedmont. At school Clint took ...
A Fistful of Dollars - 16 For A Few Dollars More - 14 The Good, The Bad and the Ugly - 11 The Witches - 22 Where Eagles Dare - 99 Kelly’s Heroes - 16 Two Mules for Sister Sara - 24 Dirty Harry - 3 Joe Kidd - 10 High Plains Drifter - 10 Magnum Force - 10 The Outlaw Josey Wales - 57 The Enforcer - 5 Sudden Impact - 14 City Heat - 9 Pale Rider - 11 The Dead Pool - 10 The Rookie - 6 Unforgiven - 6
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