List of action heroes

This is a list of action heroes who appear in a number of genres including action films, adventure films, swashbuckler films, television Westerns, old-time radio, adventure novels, dime novels, pulp magazines, and folklore. These heroes often display exaggerated physical characteristics such as extreme physical stature and/or fitness.

Male action heroes

Actors

[
Denzel Washington]

*Eric Bana
*Antonio Banderas
*Humphrey Bogart
*Charles Bronson
*Jackie Chan
*Sean Connery
*Kevin Costner
*Tom Cruise
*Matt Damon
*Mark Dacascos
*Vin Diesel
*Michael Dudikoff
*Clint Eastwood
*Douglas Fairbanks
*Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
*Harrison Ford
*Errol Flynn
*Clark Gable
*Mel Gibson
*Tommy Lee Jones
*Shia LaBeouf
*Tom Laughlin
*Bruce Lee
*Jet Li
*Dolph Lundgren
*Ralf Möller
*Chuck Norris
*Tyrone Power
*Brad Pitt
*Basil Rathbone
*Keanu Reeves
*The Rock
*Arnold Schwarzenegger
*Steven Seagal
*Will Smith
*Wesley Snipes
*Sylvester Stallone
*Jason Statham
*Robert Taylor
*Jean-Claude Van Damme
*Denzel Washington
*John Wayne
*Bruce Willis
*Chow Yun-Fat
*Toshiro Mifune
*Rajinikanth
*Ajithkumar

Cinema

*James Bond (film series) - James Bond (character)
*Rocky Balboa (character) in the "Rocky (film series)"
*Billy Jack (four films between 1967 and 1977)
*Indiana Jones
*"The Terminator" films - Kyle Reese and Terminator (character)
*John Rambo in the "Rambo films"
*John McClane from the "Die Hard" series
*Casey Ryback from the Under Siege films.
*Snake Plissken
* Raj Malhotra from the Khiladi series.
*Luke Skywalker from the Star Wars films.
*Paul Kersey from Death Wish (film) and its four sequels
*"Zorro"
*Mani from "Brotherhood of the Wolf"
*Napoleon Wilson from "Assault on Precinct 13 (1976 film)"
*Xander Cage from the "XXX" (2002 film)
*Jason Bourne from "The Bourne Identity", "The Bourne Supremacy", and "The Bourne Ultimatum"
*Neo from "The Matrix" trilogy
*Frank Martin from "The Transporter" and "The Transporter 2
*Ethan Hunt from the "" film series
*Harry Callahan from the "Dirty Harry film series"
*Max Rockatansky from the Mad Max film series
*John Shaft from the Shaft series
*Martin Riggs from the Lethal Weapon series

Literature and pulp fiction

* "Iliad" and "Odyssey": Odysseus and a number of other characters
* Beowulf (hero) in "Beowulf"
* King Arthur
* "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"
* Robin Hood
* D'Artagnan - "The Three Musketeers"
* "The Count of Monte Cristo"
* "The Scarlet Pimpernel"
* "Ben Hur"
* "Ivanhoe"
* "Zorro"
* James Bond in James Bond novels (Ian Fleming)
* "Doc Savage"
* "The Shadow"
* "The Spider"
* "Conan the Barbarian"
* "Tarzan"
* "Drizzt Do'Urden"
* "Dirk Pitt"

Radio

* "The Green Hornet"
* "The Lone Ranger"

Television

* Walker on "Walker, Texas Ranger"
* Jack Bauer from the "24" television series
* Jack Harkness from the "Doctor Who" and "Torchwood" television series

Games

* Link from the "Legend of Zelda" series
* Gordon Freeman from the "Half-Life" series
* Solid Snake from the "Metal Gear Solid" series
* Sam Fisher from the "Splinter Cell" series
* Master Chief from the Halo series
* Leon S. Kennedy from the Resident Evil series
* Duke Nukem from the Duke Nukem series
* Christopher Blair from the "Wing Commander" series
* Siegfried Schtauffen of the Soul Calibur series
* Jin Kazama of the Tekken series

Female action heroes

Actresses

*Jessica Alba
*Devon Aoki
*Kate Beckinsale
*Halle Berry
*Honor Blackman
*Neve Campbell
*Tia Carrere
*Lynda Carter
*Connie Chan Po-chu
*Holly Marie Combs
*Geena Davis
*Angie Dickinson
*Tamara Dobson
*Shannen Doherty
*Eliza Dushku
*Priyanka Chopra
*Vivica A. Fox
*Anne Francis
*Jennifer Garner
*Sarah Michelle Gellar
*Summer Glau
*Teresa Graves
*Pam Grier
*Linda Hamilton
*Lena Headey
*Gloria Hendry
*Darryl Hannah
*Angelina Jolie
*Famke Janssen
*Milla Jovovich
*Keira Knightley
*Lucy Lawless
*Iyari Limon
*Lucy Liu
*Angela Mao
*Rose McGowan
*Nora Miao
*Alyssa Milano
*Demi Moore
*Carrie-Anne Moss
*Diana Rigg
*Sharon Stone
*Uma Thurman
*Lindsay Wagner
*Sigourney Weaver
*Peta Wilson
*Michelle Yeoh

Further reading

*Ho, Sam. "Licensed to Kick Men: The Jane Bond Films." "The Restless Breed: Cantonese Stars of the Sixties". Hong Kong: Urban Council of Hong Kong, 1996. ISBN 962-7040-50-9
*Inness, Sherrie A. (ed.) "Action Chicks: New Images of Tough Women in Popular Culture", Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
*Kim, L. S. " [http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc48.2006/womenWarriors/index.html Making women warriors: a transnational reading of Asian female action heroes in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.] " " [http://www.ejumpcut.org/home.html Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media] ." No. 48, Winter, 2006.
*Magoulick, Mary. " [http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/action/showFullText?submitFullText=Full+Text+HTML&doi=10.1111%2Fj.1540-5931.2006.00326.x Frustrating Female Heroism: Mixed Messages in Xena, Nikita, and Buffy] ." "The Journal of Popular Culture", Volume 39 Issue 5 (October 2006).
*Osgerby, Bill, Anna Gough-Yates, and Marianne Wells. "Action TV : Tough-Guys, Smooth Operators and Foxy Chicks." London: Routledge, 2001.
*Tasker, Yvonne. "Action and Adventure Cinema." New York: Routledge, 2004.
*———."Spectacular Bodies : Gender, Genre, and the Action Cinema". London and New York: Routledge, 1993.

External links

* [http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/gallery/female_superheroes/ Female action heroes photo gallery] - "Boston Globe"
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/01/AR2006090100360_pf.html The Lost Action Hero] - "Washington Post"