What about Jackie Chan? Or is he in his own category?
Jason Statham is IMO the current actor who most embodies–and embraces–the “action hero” title.
The Rock, Vin Diesel, Milla Jovovich, and others mentioned above are good choices.
Sam Worthington also deserves a mention for Avatar, Terminator Salvation, and the Titans movies.
Absolutely this.
See also Liam Neeson.
I don’t think there really is one in the sense that there was in the 80’s-90’s, but if I had to throw a name into the mix, I think Jeremy Renner is starting to fit into what passes for that sort of thing today.
I think you could still make a decent case for Willis and Stallone (at least as decent as any of the relative n00bs). Arnie, depends on how things go post Expendables 2. Taking all that time off during the 00’s kinda hurt him there.
Downey, Jr. also has the Sherlock Holmes movies.
Will Smith also just had MIB3 come out, and has Bad Boys 3, Hancock 2, and I, Robot 2 in the works as well as an M. Night Shamalyan movie (WITH JADEN! thankfully Night didn’t write it).
Weirdly enough though, it very well might be Jeremy Renner. Hawkeye, Mission Impossible, Bourne, and to a lesser degree, hurt locker, swat, and 28 weeks later.
Not sure. Smith doesn’t really go around kicking ass, most of the time. I’d categorize him more as an Adventure Hero than an Action Hero.
Looking at this list, I’m still going with Tom Cruise…
Mission: Impossible 5 (announced)
Top Gun 2 (announced)
Van Helsing (announced)
2013 All You Need Is Kill (pre-production)
2013 Oblivion (post-production)
2012 Jack Reacher (completed)
2011 Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
2010 Knight and Day
2006 Mission: Impossible III
2005 War of the Worlds
2004 Collateral
2002 Minority Report
2001 Vanilla Sky
2000 Mission: Impossible II
Jeremy Renner is a dark horse for this.
I’ll fourth or fifth this. He’s pretty much the 80’s action star of today. It’s why they have him in the Expendables.
That just says that he likes to take action roles, not that anyone thinks he’s particular great at it.
Not to mention that Vanilla Sky and Collateral are 100% not action films and it’s arguable whether Minority Report is.
Christian Bale? Chris Hemsworth?
I came in to mention him. He’ll be in the next Mission Impossible, he’s Hawkeye in the Avengers, he was in the last Mission Impossible (and stole the scenes he was in) and he’s the new replacement for Jason Bourne.
He was also awesome in The Hurt Locker, for which he won an Academy Award nomination for best actor. That puts him in pretty exclusive company of Action stars who can act. Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson, Clint Eastood, a few others.
Mark Wahlberg – who earned Academy Award nominations for both THE DEPARTED and THE FIGHTER – is pretty much Hollywood’s go-to guy when the protagonist-with-the-odds-against-him is a cop, or a hitman, or a Navy SEAL, or an Air Force captain, or an Army sergeant, or an ex-Marine on the run, or an ex-con roped back in for one last crime, or a football player who needs to score the big touchdown, or whatever.
(I see he’s now gearing up to play a military officer working to rip off mobsters opposite Denzel Washington of the DEA, which sounds about right.)
I’d say Jason Statham too, although lately his movies are about 50/50 hit/miss.
Waaaaa?
John Wayne
Kirk Douglas
Burt Lancaster
Clint Eastwood
Do I really need to go on?
I disagree. An “action movie” is one about a relentless chase, an ongoing battle, with the action and violence more or less the core of the movie. I don’t think any of these guys did action movies by that definition. If I had to make a name for it, I’d say they did “tough guy movies”. I think of action movies as starting around the time of Ahnold and Terminator (which IMO pretty much defines the genre), and the like. Though I’m sure someone else can come up with an earlier example.
Don’t forget playing John Connor, in TERMINATOR: SALVATION. (And ol’ Bruce Wayne gets steady work as the second-billed actor who can plausibly stand up to Russell Crowe in a western, or take apart Hugh Jackman with a ready gun; sure, cast Johnny Depp as John Dillinger – but only if Christian Bale is hunting him for the win.)
Nope. I don’t agree. “Westerns” and “war movies” are “action movies”.
John Wayne’s name brought movie goers in. Quite a few of his Westerns didn’t have much plot. Eastwood was another action star (as opposed to being known for their dramatic chops).