# Who is your most macho actor? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 27, 2012, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-most-macho-actor/635975 "2012-09-27T05:47:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-most-macho-actor/635975/1 "2012-09-27T05:47:01Z")
Just a little husband and wife debate. She says it’s a toss-up between Richard Castellano and Samuel Jackson Jr. Mine’s James Coburn (after the Carlsberg commercial, the beer drinking world was never the same.) People I ask are more ‘mainstream’ in their answers: Holden, Bogart, the Marlboro Man, Selleck, Marson (Wayne.) ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-most-macho-actor/635975/2 "2012-09-27T06:00:46Z")
Ricardo Montalban. No, Fernando Lamas. Actually…for current actors; I’ve got a thing for Antonio Banderas. For all time, it would be Humphrey Bogart. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-most-macho-actor/635975/3 "2012-09-27T06:12:31Z")
**Clint.** ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-most-macho-actor/635975/4 "2012-09-27T06:24:32Z")
Clint Eastwood, Lee Marvin & Robert Shaw ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-most-macho-actor/635975/5 "2012-09-27T06:31:02Z")
Steve McQueen. Pre-crazy Clint Eastwood is a close second. Honorable mentions to: Lee Marvin R. Lee Ermey The Duke of course Chow Yun Fat Mickey Rourke Charles Bronson Robert DeNiro Bruce Lee This list is incomplete at best. I’d wager that John Wayne would win in a poll, but that remains to be seen. All in favor of a poll? ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-most-macho-actor/635975/6 "2012-09-27T06:59:22Z")
I’d like to nominate Edward James Olmos. ---
**Author:** ![Greekfreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@Greekfreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greekfreak)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-most-macho-actor/635975/7 "2012-09-27T07:08:27Z")
My go-to list includes: Ernest Borgnine Burt Lancaster Robert Mitchum Sam Elliott Robert Shaw Oliver Reed Anthony Quinn Armand Assante Charles Bronson Kurt Russell ---
**Author:** ![phxjcc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phxjcc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phxjcc)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-most-macho-actor/635975/8 "2012-09-27T07:29:23Z")
Sorry, but it is Marvin, hands down. Read his bio, Saipan assault. Wayne does not qualify, did not serve. Eastwood and McQueen both did, but nothing like what Marvin went through. Rourke? You got to be kidding me. DeNiro? Please. Bruce Lee? Yeah, ok fine. It is different if one chooses to fight in a controlled environment with rules rather than face hostiles that are trying to kill you. Ermey. Different era than Marvin, and I believe he was in a support role in Nam and not in a patrol unit. Honorable mention: Robert Mitchum. When they were filming The Longest Day the actors were complaining that the water was too cold to jump into–and Mitchum told them to get their butts over the side because if the GI’s could get into the water while getting shot at on D-Day then these precious actors could sure as heck take a little cold water for the sake of a movie shoot. I’d put Jim Arness on your list, however. At 6’7", he would mop up the floor with precious Bobbie and/or Mickey. Served during the campaign in Anzio. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-most-macho-actor/635975/9 "2012-09-27T08:39:12Z")
> [@phxjcc](#): > > Honorable mention: Robert Mitchum. When they were filming The Longest Day the actors were complaining that the water was too cold to jump into–and Mitchum told them to get their butts over the side because if the GI’s could get into the water while getting shot at on D-Day then these precious actors could sure as heck take a little cold water for the sake of a movie shoot. When Jim Brown was running away from the house about to explode in “The Dirty Dozen,” he was running for his life. No stuntman in the crew could run faster than he can. Bronson was a tailgunner if I’m not mistaken. Scotty of Star Trek was also a vet. Jimmy Stewart made general and he’s as docile as a kitten. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-most-macho-actor/635975/10 "2012-09-27T09:23:11Z")
According to wiki, [Bronson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bronson) served in a B-29 crew in the Pacific theatre, and received a Purple Heart. Extra points because his real surname was “Buchinsky”. 🙂 [William Smith](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Smith_(actor)) had both macho and geek cred: > [@](#): > > The physically imposing 6’2" actor is a lifelong bodybuilder and has the distinction of being the final Marlboro Man before the cigarette ads were discontinued on TV. > > Smith won the 200 pound (91 kg) arm-wrestling championship of the world multiple times and also won the United States Air Force weightlifting championship. Smith is a record holder for reverse-curling his own bodyweight. His trademark arms measured 18 and 1/2 inches. Smith held a 31-1 record as an amateur boxer and studied martial arts with kenpo instructor Ed Parker for several years. Smith also played semi-pro football in Germany and competed in motocross and downhill skiing events. He entered films stunt doubling for former screen Tarzan Lex Barker in a French film. > > Smith earned a Bachelor of Arts from Syracuse and a Master’s degree in Russian Studies from UCLA. He taught Russian at UCLA before abandoning his Ph.D. studies for an MGM contract. He also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and the University of Munich while learning languages through the military. Smith is fluent in Russian, Serbo-Croatian, French and German. During the Korean War he was a Russian Intercept Interrogator and flew secret ferret missions over Russia. He had both CIA and NSA clearance and intended to enter a classified position with the U.S. government, but his marriage to a French actress meant the loss of security clearance ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-most-macho-actor/635975/11 "2012-09-27T10:21:36Z")
Kris Kristofferson, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-most-macho-actor/635975/12 "2012-09-27T11:19:09Z")
Acts macho, or acted/acted and did some pretty macho shit IRL? “Sabu the Elephant Boy” was a ball-turrent gunner Jackie “Uncle Fester” Coogan flew gliders: into clearings in the jungle. At night. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. staged fake beach landing to divert enemy forces from the actual landing sites. The enemy would bring the real thing, Fairbanks only had a box of firecrackers. Victor McGlaughlin probably would have beat 23-years younger John Wayne if the fight in The Quiet Man were real. He’d lasted six rounds against Jack Johnson, and during WWI had maintained order in occupied Baghdad. Many of the urbane, modest British actors of the 30’s: Basil Rathbone, Herbert Marshall, Claud Rains, Ronald Coleman, had fought in the trenches in WWI, secure enough in their masculinity to wear [gray skirts](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Scottish_Regiment) instead of pants. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-most-macho-actor/635975/13 "2012-09-27T11:49:06Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Victor McGlaughlin probably would have beat 23-years younger John Wayne if the fight in The Quiet Man were real. He’d lasted six rounds against Jack Johnson, and during WWI had maintained order in occupied Baghdad. George Lazenby served as an Army hand-to-hand combat instructor before earning the role of James Bond by breaking a stuntman’s nose during his audition. ---
**Author:** ![Hogfather65](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/7bcc69/32.png) [@Hogfather65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hogfather65)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-most-macho-actor/635975/14 "2012-09-27T13:20:42Z")
Don’t forget the 24 hour Irishman - [Audie Murphy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Murphy) may have been small but IRL tough. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-most-macho-actor/635975/15 "2012-09-27T14:00:46Z")
I’ll vote for Charles Bronson. My favourite bit from his Wikipedia article: He was considered for the lead in Escape from New York, but he was too tough-looking for the part. (Well, tough-looking and old.) ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-most-macho-actor/635975/16 "2012-09-27T15:02:45Z")
Audie.Murphy Neville.Brand William.Wellman(Lafayette.Flying.Corps) ---
**Author:** ![davekhps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@davekhps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davekhps)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-most-macho-actor/635975/17 "2012-09-27T15:13:53Z")
Can’t really beat the listing above (Lee Marvin is my personal favorite), but one other name to add: Powers Boothe. ---
**Author:** ![csupp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@csupp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/csupp)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-most-macho-actor/635975/18 "2012-09-27T15:35:50Z")
The correct answer is Lee Marvin. A close second is the too often overlooked, Sterling Hayden. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-most-macho-actor/635975/19 "2012-09-27T17:52:57Z")
Where is the love for Tim Curry? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![toast\_pakora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@toast\_pakora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toast_pakora)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-most-macho-actor/635975/20 "2012-09-27T18:08:24Z")
Well, if we’re talking real-world, then **Robert Ryan**. Graduated from Dartmouth, heavyweight boxer while in college, enlisted in Marines and was a drill instructor at Camp Pendleton. He was politically active, a pacifist, stood up to HUAC, and campaigned for civil-rights. “Ryan often found it a challenge playing sadistic and racist characters that very much were at odds with his own personal ideals.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-most-macho-actor/635975.md?page=2)