Poll incoming…
To help our debate of who is or isn’t an action star in the world of women, it seems like it makes sense to get a feel for who is or isn’t an action star in the world of men.
Okay, who’s the one person who knows who Jackie Chan is but doesn’t think he’s an action star? 
Sorry, dude. I started to answer, but it was taking too long and I bailed.
That’s alright. I realized it was a large list, but it seemed worth doing something thorough for posterity.
I would say, though, for you or anyone that if you don’t know someone thoroughly enough to be able to answer whether they’re an action star in just a half second, then you should just say “I don’t know who they are” and skip by. If you have to look the person up then you’re liable to misjudge the answer.
It’s hard to know from a Wikipedia entry exactly what a person has gained stardom for, specifically. If you look at Christopher Lambert’s page, for example, it won’t necessarily jump out at you that he’s famous for The Highlander.
11 people know who Jean-Claude Van Damme is.
12 people think he’s an action star.
ETA: Jason Statham is a 9 & a 10 in those categories.
Some of these guys, I know are definitely action stars. Some of them, I know are definitely not action stars. But some of them, I know, but their status as action stars is iffy. I’m not sure how to answer for them.
Yeah, I wasn’t doing any research; but even just spending seconds on each name, it takes a while to get through all of them. And as Chronos said, some of them are hard to decide about, even knowing who they are.
Tom Cruise, for example, was a tricky one. Arguably, his work in the Mission Impossible movies qualifies him as an action star. But (unlike some of the names on the list) it would be ridiculous to claim that “action star” is “what he is,” even if it is one of the things that he is.
Cruise has done several other films which would probably qualify (the Jack Reacher films, The Mummy, Edge of Tomorrow), but I think that that’s an interesting distinction – he might be an action star, even if he’s not primarily an action star.
A few years ago, I came up with the concept of “genre kings” and “genre queens” – actors who did a significant amount of work in science fiction, fantasy, and/or superhero films. By the rules I imposed on the definition, an actor or actress only qualified if they had a significant role in at least three different movies or TV series in those genres (and playing the same character in multiple movies didn’t count).
One might try something similar to define who are actually “action stars” versus “actors who happen to sometimes act in action films.”
If I wasn’t sure I said no, they are not. Best example is Chow Yun-Fat, I absolutely know who he is and all the movies I’ve seen him in are action films and he’s certainly an action star in those, but I have a suspicion that he’s a much more diverse actor in his home country…so I said no.
Cruise is maybe the best test case here. He’s done a TON of action movies and probably his most successful enterprise is the Mission Impossible franchise where he’s unquestionably an action star. But, he’s done a bunch of great stuff where there’s no action at all, so by my definition he’s not. He’s a star…the “action” star qualifier is a limiter, not just an acknowledgement that has has the ability to play “action” roles.
In contrast, Schwarzenegger is absolutely an action star. He’s been cast against type a lot in comedies and was successful at it, but even then his physicality is an essential part of the character.
The two most interesting facts after 25 voters:
- Someone doesn’t think Dwayne the Rock Johnson (25) is an action star (24).
- Someone doesn’t know who chuck norris is (only 24 do) but they do opine he is an action star (25)
That’s gonna be a hell of a poll to parse.
ETA : to clarify my own voting choices : to me an action star is a guy who’s either only done action movies, or sucked at anything else they’ve tried that wasn’t shooting/punching people, or even if they didn’t simply don’t have a single “not action” movie role they’re recognized for. In this algo, the only “eeeeh” was Ron Perlman - because he mostly does tough guys and/or tough guys in heavy make-up… but then again and unforgettably Name of the Rose.
This was my defining criteria in looking over my assessment. Were they ultimately cast in a movie for their physicality.
Bruce Willis was the toughest decision for me, but ultimately what comes to mind when I think of him is sweating profusely (with a cigarette in his mouth?) and holding a gun.
Be conservative. Go ‘no’ if you think it’s iffy.
What, no Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, or other Bollywood action stars? Worldwide, some of the Bollywood stars are way bigger names than most of the ones on the list.
You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.
You also can’t prevent him from getting all methed up, running into the water, flipping on his back underwater, and start vacuum drinking until he’s barely able to crawl out to safety before drowning.
All of which is to say…dunno. Someone did something funky. But the people who have gotten the bonus point all seem to be fairly indisputable action stars so it probably doesn’t hurt.
If I understand correctly, this was not intended to be an exhaustive list, but rather a list of test cases, to help define what it means to be an “action star.”
Shouldn’t it read: John Wayne was an action star ?
I feel like stardom isn’t really something you lose with death. Newton is still a physics star. He’s not going to add anything, but he’s still among the list of stars.
That said, I made the list by writing:
I know who xxxxx is
xxxxx is an action star
And then I copy-pasted that a hundred times and could just double-click the xxxxx to quickly insert the names.
I counted Cruise and Will Smith as action stars, because, although they’ve both done a bunch that doesn’t fit the genre, both of them have basically successfully transitioned into having action (or action-comedy) as their primary genre, over the last decade or two.
Christian Bale seems to be in the process of trying to make the same transition that Cruise and Smith made, but I don’t see him crossing the line, and he certainly hasn’t, yet.