The Best Female Action Stars of All Time

jarrod

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rhona mitra & kate beckensale? i mean, i dont mind looking at them, but they don't pop to mind when i think "action star".

jf
 

Sukerkin

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I agree, Jarrod.

I recall muttering (whilst wathching the second Underworld movie) about how if they were going to put a sword in the beautiful Ms Beckensale's hand then they should train her how to use it :lol:.

Also, Carol, as soon as I saw the thread title, can you guess whose name sprung into my mind :D? Yep, that's her, Cynthia Rothrock. I really need to get around to buying her older films on DVD from abroad so I can get them uncut. For some reason martial arts are heavily edited by our board of censors here, which tends to leave us with a film with bad acting, bad plot, bad music and no martial arts action ROFL.
 

MA-Caver

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According to the poll (thus far) Linda Hamilton (of Terminator series) has the most votes at 29%.
I voted for Rothrock because when you hear a phrase "of ALL TIME" you gotta look over the entire length of the genre. Still Pam Grier shouldn't be ignored.
Thing is action now a days (for female roles) have changed dramatically (for the better) since the 70's and 80's when the concept of a tough fighting woman was *ahem* acceptable to theater audiences... ok, excuse me American theater audiences since women fighters dominated the Asian theater for decades.
So it's not unusual to see a woman sporting guns, and generally kicking *** in today's action genre. Rothrock was the one of the ones who kicked that glass ceiling to be sure... literally. Just too bad that they couldn't hand her a really great script and even better director back then. Still, work is work and you do the best that you can with what you're given.

Surprised that Kiera Knightly didn't make the list (Pirates franchise, Domino)... she's a tough gal and can hold her own.

THIS widdle lady is the future I think... :D
 

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Andy Moynihan

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According to the poll (thus far) Linda Hamilton (of Terminator series) has the most votes at 29%.
I voted for Rothrock because when you hear a phrase "of ALL TIME" you gotta look over the entire length of the genre. Still Pam Grier shouldn't be ignored.
Thing is action now a days (for female roles) have changed dramatically (for the better) since the 70's and 80's when the concept of a tough fighting woman was *ahem* acceptable to theater audiences... ok, excuse me American theater audiences since women fighters dominated the Asian theater for decades.
So it's not unusual to see a woman sporting guns, and generally kicking *** in today's action genre. Rothrock was the one of the ones who kicked that glass ceiling to be sure... literally. Just too bad that they couldn't hand her a really great script and even better director back then. Still, work is work and you do the best that you can with what you're given.

Surprised that Kiera Knightly didn't make the list (Pirates franchise, Domino)... she's a tough gal and can hold her own.

THIS widdle lady is the future I think... :D

She's off to a good start.She's already got far better trigger discipline than any hollywood sap I'VE ever seen handle a gun onscreen.
 

Sukerkin

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And she is 110% cute too :). One of yours Caver?

As to Sigourney, well, I may earn myself a slap for this but she is not an action star to me (nor to herself either). Ripley is an iconic character, no doubt but the actress herself is not really interested in the genre ... and is about as anti-gun as you can get and still be sane.
 

jarrod

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And she is 110% cute too :). One of yours Caver?

As to Sigourney, well, I may earn myself a slap for this but she is not an action star to me (nor to herself either). Ripley is an iconic character, no doubt but the actress herself is not really interested in the genre ... and is about as anti-gun as you can get and still be sane.

that may be, but she still played a character who duct taped a flamethrower to a machine gun/grenade launcher.

that's just awesome.

jf
 

MA-Caver

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No Lucy Liu?
Liu only (memorable) action roles has got to be Charlie's Angels (1 & 2) and Kill Bill (1 & 2) but then so were Weaver and Hamilton. If they wanted to include Liu then they could have added Barrymore and Diaz. :idunno:

And she is 110% cute too :). One of yours Caver?
Sadly no, though I'd love a beautiful little thing like that for one of my own... but of course I'd need an (much) older version to make one... still working on procuring the older model first :uhyeah:

As to Sigourney, well, I may earn myself a slap for this but she is not an action star to me (nor to herself either). Ripley is an iconic character, no doubt but the actress herself is not really interested in the genre ... and is about as anti-gun as you can get and still be sane.
Well I'd have to go with what Jarrod had to say about her.

that may be, but she still played a character who duct taped a flamethrower to a machine gun/grenade launcher.

that's just awesome.

jf
Awesome indeed, going right into the queen's lair and destroying whatever possibility she had to reproduce... then fighting her by strapping herself into a walking forklift ... tuff lady I'll say that!

Vasquez (played by Jenette Goldstein) was just as bad *** for a minor character. She also appeared in Terminator 2 as the foster mother Janelle.

Likewise no mention of Kristanna Loken who was the hyped up version of a T-1000 terminator T-X and starred in the action/sci-fi Painkiller Jane.
 

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As long as they have Michelle Yeoh there, I don't much care what else they say... it's fine with me! :lol:
 

David Weatherly

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And she is 110% cute too :). One of yours Caver?

As to Sigourney, well, I may earn myself a slap for this but she is not an action star to me (nor to herself either). Ripley is an iconic character, no doubt but the actress herself is not really interested in the genre ... and is about as anti-gun as you can get and still be sane.


Well, I agree with you about Sigourney Weaver. I just don't consider her an action star.

David
 

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