Richard B. Riddick (played by Vin Diesel), more commonly known simply as Riddick, is the fictional Furyan protagonist of a number of films, including Pitch Black, The Chronicles of Riddick, and The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury.

Riddick stands around 6 feet tall. He has a muscular, athletic frame, and is extremely fit. His head is shaved. His eyes glow softly with a silvery whitish blue glow, due to his eyeshine. Riddick usually wears welding goggles during the day, due to his sensitivity to light.

At the outset of Pitch Black, Riddick is viewed by the other survivors as a dangerous, cold-blooded killer. There is some truth to this; however, Riddick is by no means psychopathic. He usually kills out of necessity, much like a predator, when he is threatened, but feels little if any restraint when doing so. He seems to have a diminished opinion of the value of human life. He also appears to have a certain sense of honour-when Johns, a bounty hunter who captured him, "nearly" shot him so that Riddick would remember the way it could have gone, Riddick grabbed Johns' gun and did the same thing, apparently to ensure he wouldn't be indebted to Johns in the future.

It is revealed that the primary reason for Riddick's cooperation in Pitch Black is that he believes he will be set free after they escape. He was willing to leave the other survivors stranded, so long as he would escape. However, he eventually went back for the survivors, showing a lighter side to Riddick's "anti-hero" mentality. At the beginning of the movie, a survivor asks why the escaped Riddick would return to trouble them, then Johns states, "to work your nerves, or to take what you've got." Therefore, at the end of the movie, it appears he was simply trying to make it hard on Fry by initially presenting her the choice of whether to come with him or stay with the others.

Riddick is a brave individual; he is often willing to enter combat against unfavorable or even seemingly impossible odds, as evidenced by his facing one of the native creatures in Pitch Black even after almost everyone else who encountered them had been killed. He also escaped twice from Triple Maximum Security prisons. He has also instigated prison-wide riots and fought the Lord Marshal of the Necromongers, who is, considered by many, a quite formidable adversary. He is stealthy, always on his toes, and prefers to attack from the shadows.

He does have the capacity to care about others, although he doesn't show it often. The most obvious example of this is seen in his father/daughter relationship with Jack, a.k.a. "Kyra"; and his visible pain at her death in the last movie.

Riddick is apparently quite intelligent, and much more observant than most humans; in the film The Chronicles of Riddick, he quickly deduced almost exactly how a battle between a group of mercenaries and prison guards happened after the fact. He can also calculate how people can and will behave, after gathering enough information about them. After Riddick escapes in the opening of Pitch Black, he places his handcuffs on one side of the crash site, then heads in the opposite direction to confuse Johns, who has been chasing (and had recently captured) Riddick. Johns, being used to Riddick's trickery, knows what he is trying and heads in the right direction after Riddick anyway.

Riddick also seems to have a good knowledge of human anatomy and perhaps even xenobiology; he knows all the most lethal places to strike a human with a blade, and he is able to determine that the Grues, the antagonistic, nocturnal creatures in Pitch Black, have a blind spot by looking at a skeleton of one in the desert.

Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian, from the name of his homeland, Cimmeria) is a fictional character often associated with the low fantasy, sword-and-sorcery subgenre. He is perhaps the most famous fictional barbarian, and indeed one of the best known and most universally recognizable iconic figures in modern popular culture.[1]
Created by American writer Robert E. Howard in 1932 via a series of fantasy pulp stories sold to Weird Tales magazine, the character has since appeared in licensed books, comics, films, television programs and video games, contributing to his long-standing popularity.

Conan is a Cimmerian (not to be confused with the historical Cimmerians), a barbarian of the far north. He was born on a battlefield and is the son of a blacksmith. Conan matured quickly as a youth and, by age fifteen, he was already a respected warrior who had participated in the destruction of the Aquilonian outpost of Venarium. After its destruction, he was struck by wanderlust and began the adventures chronicled by Howard, encountering skulking monsters, evil wizards, tavern wenches and beautiful princesses. He roamed throughout Hyboria as a thief, outlaw, mercenary and pirate. As he grew older, he began commanding larger units of men and escalating his ambitions. In his forties, he seizes the crown of king of Aquilonia, the most powerful kingdom of the Hyborian Age, having strangled the previous ruler on the steps of the throne. Although Conan's adventures often result in him performing heroic feats, his motivation for doing so is typically his own survival or for personal gain; thus, he displays many of the characteristics of an anti-hero.

Conan has "sullen blue eyes" and a black "square cut mane". Howard describes him as having a hairy chest and, while comic book interpretations often portray Conan as wearing a loincloth or other minimalist clothing, Howard describes the character as wearing whatever garb is typical for the land and culture in which Conan finds himself. Though Howard never gave a strict height or weight for Conan in a story, only describing him in loose terms like "giant" and "massive," he did once state that Conan and Cormac Fitzgeoffrey, one of Howard's own favorite athletes, were "physical doubles" at 6'2" and 210 lbs (188 cm and 95 kg). In the tales no human is ever described as stronger than Conan, although several are mentioned as taller (such as the strangler Baal-pteor) or of larger bulk. Although Conan is muscular, Howard frequently compares his agility and way of moving to that of a panther (see for instance "Jewels of Gwahlur," "Beyond the Black River" or "Rogues in the House"). His skin is frequently characterised as bronzed from constant exposure to the sun. In his younger years, he is often depicted wearing a light chain shirt and a horned helmet, though appearances vary with different artists.

During his reign as King of Aquilonia, Conan was "... a tall man, mightily shouldered and deep of chest, with a massive corded neck and heavily muscled limbs. He was clad in silk and velvet, with the royal lions of Aquilonia worked in gold upon his rich jupon, and the crown of Aquilonia shone on his square-cut black mane; but the great sword at his side seemed more natural to him than the regal accoutrements. His brow was low and broad, his eyes a volcanic blue that smoldered as if with some inner fire. His dark, scarred, almost sinister face was that of a fighting-man, and his velvet garments could not conceal the hard, dangerous lines of his limbs." (The Hour of the Dragon which can be found in the anthology The Bloody Crown of Conan, pg. 89-90). He loses none of his vigour with age with the above description coming when he is in his mid-forties.

Though several later authors have referred to Conan as "Germanic-looking," Howard imagined the Cimmerians as a proto-Celtic people with mostly dark hair and blue or grey eyes. Racially the Cimmerians to which Conan belongs are descendants of the Atlanteans, though they do not remember their ancestry. In his pseudo-historical essay The Hyborian Age, Howard describes how the people of Atlantis (the land where his character King Kull originated) had to move east after a great cataclysm changed the face of the world and sank their island, settling where northern Scotland and Norway would eventually be located. In the same work, Howard also described how the Cimmerians eventually moved south and east after the age of Conan (presumably in the vicinity of the Black Sea, where the historical Cimmerians dwelt).

Despite his brutish appearance, Conan uses his brain as well as his brawn. The Cimmerian is a talented fighter, but due to his travels abroad, he also has vast experience in other trades, especially the thiefly one; he is also a talented commander, tactician and strategist, as well as a born leader. In addition, Conan speaks many languages, including advanced reading and writing abilities: in certain stories, he's able to recognize, or even decipher, certain ancient or secret signs and writings (like when he uses the sign of Jhebbal Sag in "Beyond the Black River") (but noticeably, he apparently is never shown by Howard reading Stygian, though he can speak it), and his very first appearance (in "The Phoenix on the Sword") shows him busy writing.

Another noticeable trait is his sense of humour, largely absent in the comics and movies, but very much a part of Howard's original vision of the character, particularly apparent in "Xuthal of the Dusk," also known as "The Slithering Shadow." He is a loyal friend to those true to him with a barbaric code of conduct that often marks him as more honourable than those more sophisticated people he meets in his travels. Indeed his straighforward nature and barbarism are constants in all the tales.

One fact that is often emphasized is that Conan is very difficult to defeat in hand-to-hand combat. Conan needs only to have his back to the wall so that he cannot be surrounded, and then is capable of engaging and killing opponents by the score. This is seen in several stories, such as "Queen of the Black Coast", "The Scarlet Citadel" and "A Witch Shall be Born". Conan is not superhuman, though: he did need the providential help of Zelata's wolf to defeat four Nemedian soldiers in the story The Hour of the Dragon. Some of his hardest victories have come from fighting single opponents of inhuman strength: one such as Thak, the ape man from "Rogues in the House," or the strangler Baal-Pteor in "Shadows in Zamboula." Conan is far from untouchable and has been captured several times (knocking himself out running into a wall drunk after being betrayed, although he still slays the people initially sent to arrest him, a fall from a wounded horse, by magical means) but never as a result of martial failings.

Hellboy is a fictional Dark Horse Comics character created by Mike Mignola. He first appeared in San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2.
As a demon named Anung Un Rama, Hellboy was brought to Earth as an infant by Nazi occultists. He was rescued by Allied forces and raised by the United States’ Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD). He grew up to be a large red-skinned demon with a tail, horns (which he files down to stumps), and a big stone right hand. Although a bit gruff, he shows none of the malevolence thought to be intrinsic to demons and works with other strange creatures in the B.P.R.D. He has been dubbed as the "World's Greatest Paranormal Investigator."
Hellboy has been featured in a sequence of comic book mini-series published by Dark Horse Comics, influenced by vintage adventure and horror fiction. They have been some of the most successful comics not published by Marvel, DC, or Image Comics.
The comics were adapted into a 2004 film starring Ron Perlman as Hellboy with a sequel and two straight to DVD animated films on the way.

Hellboy is a creature summoned in the final months of World War II by a fictional version of Grigori Rasputin, on a small island just off the coast of Scotland ('Tarmagant Island'), having been commissioned by the Nazis to change the tide of war ("Project Ragna Rok"). Hellboy appeared in a fireball in a ruined church in East Bromwich, England, December 23, 1944. He proved not to be a devil, but a little boy-like creature (with red skin, horns, a tail, and a large stone right hand) —hence the name given by Professor Trevor Bruttenholm (pronounced Broom).

Taken by the U.S. forces to an Air Force base somewhere in New Mexico, Hellboy was raised by the United States Army and by the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, a U.S. agency dedicated to combating occult threats. He was granted honorary human status by the United Nations in 1952.

As an adult, Hellboy became the primary agent for the B.P.R.D. alongside several other human and quasi-human agents. His fellow agents included Abe Sapien, an amphibian humanoid ("ichthyo sapien"); Liz Sherman, a pyrokinetic; and Roger, an unusually large homunculus.

In the comics Hellboy is at least semi-famous, having been granted "honorary human" status by the UN in the 1950s and being known as the "world's greatest paranormal investigator." As such he interacts regularly with normal humans, most of whom are not presented as overtly reacting to his strange appearance (though his primary interactions in the comics are with law enforcement officials from different organizations, the military, and various "scholars of the weird"). In the film version, however, he is kept under lock and key and considered simply an "urban legend" by the general populace.

Hellboy's adventures in the comics span the 1940s to the present day and involve elements such as sorcerers, Nazis, the Thule Society, hollow earth explorers, werewolves, vampires, ghosts, and other oddities such as the Ogdru Jahad.

Several of the storylines deal with Hellboy's Right Hand of Doom and its purpose in initiating the Apocalypse. Much in the same vein as fellow comic-book superheroes Daredevil, Batman, Blade, and Wolverine, Hellboy is a hero constantly haunted by the knowledge of his past.

Hellboy's superhuman abilities stem from his demonic nature. While his specific powers and abilities have never been explicitly described in the comics, Hellboy is much stronger and more physically durable than an ordinary human being. He has been savagely beaten by large monsters on several occasions and survived, often with relatively minor injuries. On one occasion, he directly charged an MG-42 machine gun and took numerous bullets to the chest before destroying the gun.

The extent of Hellboy's strength is unclear, but he has, for example, torn down a large tree and hurled it at an opponent. He has also thrown opponents weighing at least four to five hundred pounds.

Hellboy's right hand, referred to as the Right Hand of Doom, consists of a large forearm and hand that seems to be made from red stone. The Hand is effectively invulnerable and feels no pain, and is much like a sledgehammer when used to punch an enemy. Of course, being far larger than an ordinary human hand, the Right Hand of Doom is not very suitable for use with most objects, so he relies on his average-sized left hand to operate weapons and devices, although it has proved flexible enough to catch a fly. Because of this, he is most likely ambidextrous.

More importantly, the Right Hand of Doom also is the key to "open the pit [of hell]" and has the "power to loose and command the dragon Ogdru Jahad;" in other words, it is a catalyst that will bring about Ragnarök/Armageddon/Apocalypse etc. The comic books themselves never actually mention how the Right Hand of Doom would actually perform these tasks, it is only ever announced that this is the case and that someone or something intends to do it with or without Hellboy's consent. It is made clear that it is not even necessary for the arm to be attached to Hellboy at all, even on its own it would perform its tasks, so to prevent it falling into the wrong hands Hellboy intends to keep the arm and protect it.

In addition to his natural gifts, Hellboy carries a variety of religious items--such as holy relics, horseshoes, and herbs--in his utility belt, as well as a variety of grenades and other demolition tools. These often come in handy when fighting supernatural beasts.

Hellboy commonly carries a large pistol. In the film adaptation, the gun is called the "Samaritan," and Hellboy states that he uses special bullets containing silver shavings, holy water, and other materials to ensure the weapon's effectiveness against supernatural creatures.

"I must break you." -To Rocky in the ring before the match starts.

Ivan Drago is an amateur boxer from the Soviet Union armed with a punch over 2000 psi, being outboxed in all characteristics solely by Rocky Balboa, who was responsible for his only defeat.

The Soviet officials were convinced that he would beat any boxer. Apollo Creed came out of retirement to challenge him to an exhibition match, and was helped trained by Rocky Balboa. But Drago was resistant to Creed's punches, and his own powerful blows killed Creed in the ring. To avenge Creed's death, Balboa gave up his heavyweight title and travelled to Moscow to fight the Russian. Drago was given hi-tech equipment and injected with an unknown substance, presumably performance enhanching drugs, to build up his strength, but ultimately lost to a determined Balboa. Even though Drago punched harder and more often, his inhuman strength was not enough to defeat Rocky's heart to avenge Apollo. Dolph Lundgren has said during an interview on VH1's I Love the '80s that Drago was definitely a "juicer."

Unlike the opponent from the previous movie, Clubber Lang, Drago is a man of few words. In the movie his wife always speaks for him during interviews. He seems to be a very cold hearted person as shown when he comments on Apollo's death: "If he dies, he dies". Drago appears to be fighting for his country but near the end of his fight with Rocky his promoter, a Soviet official insults him, prompting Drago to throw him off the ring and proclaim that he fights for himself. He is also a Soviet Gold Medalist as portrayed in the film Rocky IV.

John Coffey, one of the main characters in Stephen King's serial novel "The Green Mile". He is a black man who stands almost seven-foot tall. He is convicted of raping and killing two small white girls. He is notable because of his size and also for his strange behaviour; he is very quiet and prefers to keep to himself, he weeps almost constantly, and is afraid of the dark. Coffey is described as "know[ing] his own name and not much else", and lacks the ability to so much as tie a knot, yet he is convicted of luring the girls away from their home, disposing of the watchdog, carefully planning and using abilities he would otherwise not be expected to have. He's the calmest and mildest prisoner the warders have ever seen, despite his hulking form. Besides John Coffey, there are two other prisoners on the cell block during the main period the book focuses on. One of them, Eduard Delacroix, a convicted arsonist, rapist, and murderer, is small and cowardly (the actions which led to his conviction being described as "the only crime he had in him"). The other, William Wharton, is tough and boasting, claiming to be a modern Billy the Kid. When Paul looks even before the 1930's, he recollects about warding the Chief, a Native American named Arlen Bitterbuck, and the Prez, a former CEO who killed a relative, hoping to collect life insurance money.

The story also features Mr. Jingles, a small and unnaturally intelligent mouse who befriends Delacroix. He appeared much earlier than Delacroix, and Paul speculates he was looking for the Cajun. The mouse learns various tricks and appears to follow commands; Delacroix insists that the mouse whispers things in his ear. After the two meet, Delacroix practically falls in love with the mouse, and Mr. Jingles ceases his cell-searching.

Over time, the warders realize that there is something else special about John Coffey, as he is revealed to possess mystical healing abilities. These powers heal Paul's urinary infection, the warden's wife's brain tumor, and Mr. Jingles broken form (courtesy of Percy Wetmore, a prissy jailor who hated Delacroix). They are faced with the terrible truth that they must execute what they call a "gift from God". They finally execute Coffey, but not before he passes on an unnatural lifespan to both Mr. Jingles and Paul. In the end, Mr. Jingles dies of old age at the age of 64 in Paul's nursing home, Paul reveals to the reader how his wife died, and we learn that Paul is 104 years old, and how he wonders how much longer he's got to stay. The book ends with this quote: "We each owe a death, there are no exceptions, I know that, but sometimes, oh God, the Green mile is so long."

This is the first reincarnation of JCVD.

Jean-Claude Van Damme (born Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg, on October 18, 1960), is a Belgian-born martial artist and actor who is most known for his large catalogue of action movies. His Belgian background gave rise to the nickname "The Muscles from Brussels". Van Damme has been called the "King Of The Belgians" due to his international superstardom.

Van Damme began martial arts at the age of 10, enrolled by his father in a shotokan karate school. He eventually earned his black belt in karate, later winning the European Professional Karate Association's middleweight championship (although he has claimed that he was "twice world champion"). He also started lifting weights to improve his physique, which eventually led to a Mr. Belgium bodybuilding title. At the age of 16 he took up ballet, which he studied for five years. He says of ballet that it "is an art, but it’s also one of the most difficult sports. If you can survive a ballet workout, you can survive a workout in any other sport."

At the age of 18, Van Damme opened up the California Gym in Brussels, which one article claimed brought in $15,000 a month.[4] Van Damme was first seen on screen in the French-made Rue Barbare, released in 1984, followed in the same year with Monaco Forever, where he was credited as ('Gay Karate Man').

This gave Van Damme the impetus to give up his profitable fitness business in favor of acting. He left for America in the early 1980s (having first tried Hong Kong), initially sleeping in a rented car and doing odd jobs until he broke into film.

Van Damme has studied Taekwondo and Muay Thai, along with Shotokan Karate.


Early films

He appeared as an extra in Breakin during one of the breakdance scenes.

In 1985, he played Ivan Krushensky in No Retreat, No Surrender, which starred Kurt McKinney in the starring role.

Van Damme was scheduled to play the part of the camouflaged extraterrestrial monster in the Arnold Schwarzenegger action film Predator, but wearing the heavy alien costume in the jungle was too difficult, and Van Damme, unhappy with his role, left the production. How he left the picture is disputed: some sources say he quit, others say he was replaced when the character was revised. Van Damme claims he intentionally got fired so he could move on to other movies.

Van Damme's breakthrough role came in Bloodsport, a film that earned him a nomination as "Worst New Star" in the 1988 Golden Raspberry Awards. The critics were unimpressed, but Bloodsport proved to be Van Damme's stepping stone to more lucrative roles. The movie became a cult classic and is seen as one of the major contributors to the rise in popularity of Mixed Martial Arts.[citation needed]

Van Damme became well known for his ability to do full splits while performing stunts, and his better than average flexibility, even for a martial arts practitioner. Many of his movies feature scenes showcasing him performing such splits.


Mainstream movies

Van Damme worked his way up to Hollywood mainstream in the 1990s, often working with acclaimed foreign directors. Notable movies include Kickboxer (1989), Double Impact (1991), Universal Soldier (1992), Nowhere to Run (1993), Hard Target (1993),Sudden Death (1995) and his most critically acclaimed work, Timecop (1994). Many of these roles included doppelgänger or Lazarus themes involving Van Damme's characters, an aspect unusual for the action movie genre.


Later career

By the end of the 1990s, Van Damme's high-profile career had faded but he continues to star in smaller, often direct-to-video movies. One of the main reasons for the downfall was his film Double Team which co-starred Dennis Rodman.[citation needed] After that Van Damme's films began to tank at the box office. Knock Off and Legionnaire were two of these unsuccessful films. He tried to jump start his falling career by doing a sequel to one of his more successful films, Universal Soldier. Universal Soldier: The Return did not do well at the box office or with his fans. After the failure of Universal Soldier: The Return, he started to star in direct to video films, such as Replicant and Derailed. Fans and critics do say that Van Damme's acting has improved recently with films like Wake of Death and In Hell.[citation needed] Van Damme's more recent films, Second in Command and The Hard Corps have featured less action and more drama, which bothers fans.[citation needed] His movies have earned over $1 billion worldwide, earning him a place in the action movie world along with others like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. In 2007 he stars in the gritty thriller Until Death.

In 1998, Van Damme and his former bodyguard Chuck Zito were involved in a fist-fight at a New York strip-tease bar called Scores. The event became notorious in the news and a scandal for Van Damme.


Quotes:
* "You need a flash when you photograph a rabbit that already has red eyes."
* "If you work with a jackhammer during an earthquake, stop, otherwise you are working for nothing."
* "According to statistics, one person out of five is disturbed. If there are four people around you who seem normal, that's not good."
* "If you phone a psychic and she doesn't answer the phone before it rings, hang up."
* "In the year 3,000, people are going to speak with sound waves. Don't think I'm crazy, the whales do it. Dolphins too."
* "A cow eats three acres. With three acres I could make two thousand kilos of rice. With three acres I could feed Avignon!"
* "My wife is not my best sexual partner, but she's good with the housework."
* "A cookie has no soul, it's just a cookie. But before it was milk and eggs. And in eggs there's the potential for life."
* "Showing myself nude from behind doesn't pose any problems but from the front that's another story. I don't want to lose all my fans!"
* "I'm fast, why? Because I eat vegetables."
* "Obviously I've taken drugs."
* "When I walk across my living room from my chiminey to my window, it takes me ten seconds, but for a bird it takes one second, and for oxygen zero seconds!"
* "I am fascinated by air. If you remove the air from the sky, all the birds would fall to the ground. And all the planes, too."
* "Air is beautiful, yet you cannot see it. It's soft, yet you cannot touch it. Air is a little like my brain."

Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris (born March 10, 1940) is an American martial artist, action star, Hollywood actor, and recently, an internet phenomenon.

Beginnings

A native of Ryan, Oklahoma, Norris has two younger brothers, Wieland and Aaron Norris, the latter of whom is a Hollywood producer. Norris was born to an alcoholic father, half Irish and half Cherokee. Norris's mother is also half Irish and half Cherokee.[1] Norris is very proud of his Native American heritage, and frequently referred to his origins on his hit show Walker, Texas Ranger. When Norris was ten, his parents divorced[2] and he later relocated to Prairie Village, Kansas and then Torrance, California with his mother and brothers.[3] Norris describes his childhood as downbeat. He was nonathletic, shy, and scholastically mediocre. Other children taunted him about his mixed ethnicity, and Norris daydreamed about beating up his tormentors. Norris mentioned in his autobiography that his father had a very serious problem with drinking and "wasn't there" a lot for him growing up. Norris admitted that he loved his father but did not like him. However, he professed that he only felt pity for the man because "that was just how he was, and he missed so much."

Chuck Norris finished high school and soon married his girlfriend, Diane Holechek. In 1958 Norris joined the United States Air Force as a Air Policeman and was sent to Osan Air Base, South Korea. It was in South Korea that Norris acquired the nickname Chuck and began his training in Tang Soo Do (tangsudo), an interest that would lead to black belts in that art, as well as Taekwondo, and Shito ryu Karate, and a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu[citation needed]; and the founding of the Chun Kuk Do ("Universal Way") form and the education associations United Fighting Arts Federation and "KickStart", formerly "Kick Drugs Out of America", a middle school– and high school–based program intended to give at-risk children a focus point in life through the martial arts. When he returned to the United States he continued to act as an AP at March Air Force Base California. Norris was discharged in August of 1962. He worked for the Northrop Corporation and opened a chain of karate schools, which Chad McQueen, Steve McQueen's son, attended.[3] Chuck made history in 1997 when he was the first Westerner in the documented history of Taekwondo to be given the rank of 8th Degree Black Belt Grand Master. [4] On July 1, 2000 he was presented the Golden Lifetime Achievement Award by the World Karate Union Hall of Fame.

Currently, Norris lives in Dallas and owns a ranch between Navasota, Texas and Anderson, Texas. He works for KickStart, which is located in Dallas and Houston.

Rise to fame

Chuck's entrance into tournament karate began on a losing note. He was defeated in his first two tournaments, dropping decisions to Joe Lewis and Allan Steen. However, by 1967, Norris began to demonstrate his skill and scored victories over the likes of Joe Lewis, Skipper Mullins, Arnold Urquidez, Victor Moore, Ron Marchini, and Steve Sanders. In early 1968, Chuck suffered the fifth and last loss of his career, losing an upset decision to Louis Delgado. However, on November 24, 1968, Chuck avenged his defeat to Delgado and in the process won the Professional Middleweight Karate champion (non-contact) title, which he held for six consecutive years.[5] In 1969, he won Karate's triple crown for the most tournament wins of the year, and the fighter of the year award by Black Belt Magazine. It was also in 1969 that Norris made his acting debut, in the Dean Martin movie The Wrecking Crew.

In 1970, his younger brother Weiland was killed in Vietnam. Norris later dedicated his Missing in Action films to his brother's memory.

At a martial arts demonstration in Long Beach, Norris met the soon-to-be famous martial artist Bruce Lee. In 1972, he acted as Bruce Lee's nemesis in the movie Way of the Dragon (also known as Return of the Dragon), which is widely credited with launching his way into stardom. In Asia, he is still known primarily for this role.

In 1974, McQueen encouraged him to begin acting classes at MGM. Chuck Norris retired with a karate record of 65–5, having avenged all of his defeats.

Norris' first starring role was 1977's Breaker! Breaker!, and subsequent films such as The Octagon (1980), An Eye for an Eye (1981), and Lone Wolf McQuade proved his increasing box office bankability. In 1984, Norris starred in Missing in Action, the first of a series of POW rescue fantasies produced by Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus and released under their Cannon Films banner. Also in that year, he was offered the part of the sensei of the Kobra Kai dojo in the movie The Karate Kid, but declined the part. He reportedly did not want to take part in depicting martial artists in an unfavorable light[6]. However, Norris disputes this story. On a February 9, 2006 episode of Adam Corolla's radio show, Norris said that he was never offered the role. Norris noted that he was already playing leading roles by the time The Karate Kid was in production.

Over the next four years, Norris became Cannon's most prominent star, appearing in eight films, including Code of Silence, The Delta Force, and Firewalker, in which he co-starred with Academy Award winner Louis Gossett, Jr..

In 1986, he was involved in the production of the Ruby Spears cartoon Karate Kommandos.

Walker, Texas Ranger

By the close of the 1980s, Cannon Films had faded from prominence, and Norris' star appeal seemed to go with it. He reprised his Delta Force role for MGM, which had acquired the Cannon library after the latter's Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Norris went on to make several more largely ignored films before making a transition to television. In 1993, he began shooting the series Walker, Texas Ranger, which lasted eight years on CBS and continued in heavy syndication on other channels.

On October 16, 2005, CBS Premiered the Sunday night "Movie of the Week" Walker, Texas Ranger: Trial By Fire. The production was a continuation of the series, and not scripted to be a reunion movie. Norris reprised his role as Cordell Walker for the movie. He has stated that future Walker, Texas Ranger "Movie of the Week" projects are expected. This is severely impaired by CBS' 2006–2007 season decision to no longer regularly schedule MOWs on Sunday night.

Chuck Norris created the martial art Chun Kuk Do, which is based primarily on Tang Soo Do and includes elements from every combat style Chuck knows. Like many other martial arts Chun Kuk Do includes a code of honor and rules to live by. These rules are from Chuck Norris' personal code. They are:

1. I will develop myself to the maximum of my potential in all ways.
2. I will forget the mistakes of the past and press on to greater achievements.
3. I will always be in a positive frame of mind and convey this feeling to every person that I meet.
4. I will continually work at developing love, happiness and loyalty in my family and acknowledge that no other success can compensate for failure in the home.
5. I will look for the good in all people and make them feel worthwhile.
6. If I have nothing good to say about a person, I will say nothing.
7. I will give so much time to the improvement of myself that I will have no time to criticize others.
8. I will always be as enthusiastic about the success of others as I am about my own.
9. I will maintain an attitude of open-mindedness toward another person's viewpoint while still holding fast to that which I know to be true and honest.
10. I will maintain respect for those in authority and demonstrate this respect at all times.
11. I will always remain loyal to God, my country, family and my friends.
12. I will remain highly goal-oriented throughout my life because that positive attitude helps my family, my country, and myself.

Bruce Jun Fan Lee (November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was an American-born Chinese martial artist, instructor, and martial arts actor widely regarded as one of the most influential martial artists of the 20th century. Lee's films, especially his performance in the Hollywood-produced Enter the Dragon, elevated the traditional Hong Kong martial arts film to a new level of popularity and acclaim. His pioneering efforts paved the way for future martial artists and martial arts actors such as Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Chuck Norris.

Bruce Lee's films sparked the first major surge of interest of Chinese martial arts in the West. The direction and tone of his films changed and influenced martial arts and martial arts films in Hong Kong, China, and the rest of the world. Lee became an iconic figure particularly to Chinese; as he portrayed Chinese national pride and Chinese nationalism in his movies.

Many see Lee as a model blueprint for acquiring a strong and efficient body, as well as developing a mastery of martial arts and hand to hand combat skills. Lee began the process of creating his own martial arts fighting system based on philosophy known as Jeet Kune Do. Bruce Lee's evaluation of traditional martial arts doctrines is nowadays seen as the first step into the modern style of mixed martial arts.

Young Bruce learned the fundamentals of Wu style Tai Chi Chuan from his father, Lee Hoi Cheun. Lee's Wing Chun Sifu, Yip Man, was also a colleague and friend of Hong Kong Wu family teacher Wu Ta-chi. He always held that the principles of Tai Chi Chuan influenced his view of martial arts all through his life as an actor and a martial artist. While it is obvious that the style studied by his father was the Wu style, Lee was seen on at least one occasion demonstrating the 108 Basic Movements of the Yang form.

Lee started training in Wing Chun at the age of 14 under Hong Kong Wing Chun master Yip Man. Lee was introduced to Yip Man in early 1954 by William Cheung, then a live-in student of Yip Man. Like most martial arts schools at that time, Sifu Yip Man's classes were often taught by the highest ranking students. One of the highest ranking students under Yip Man at the time of Lee's training was Wong Shun-leung, who is understood to have had the largest influence. Yip Man trained Lee privately after some students refused to train with Lee due to his ancestry.[9] Lee would leave before learning the entire Wing Chun curriculum, but Wing Chun formed a base for his later explorations of martial arts.

In between the learning of Tai Chi and Wing Chun, Lee also learned bits and pieces of the Hung Gar style from a friend of his father. There are photographs of Bruce demonstrating animal stances and forms found within its teachings.


Jun Fan Gung Fu


Lee began the process of creating his own martial arts system after his arrival in the United States in 1959. Lee called his martial arts Jun Fan Gung Fu (literally Bruce's Gung Fu), which consisted mostly of Wing Chun, with elements of Western Boxing and fencing. Lee taught friends he met in Seattle, starting with Judo practitioner Jesse Glover as his first student and who later became his first assistant instructor. Before moving to California Lee opened his first martial arts school, named the Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute, in Seattle.

In 1964, Lee was challenged by Wong Jack Man, a practitioner of Northern Shaolin. Lee claimed that, after arriving in San Francisco, his theories about martial arts and his teaching of "secret" Chinese martial arts to non-Asian students gave him enemies in the martial arts community. In contrast, Wong stated that he requested a bout with Lee as a result of Lee's open challenge during a demonstration at a Chinatown theater; Lee had claimed to be able to defeat any martial artist in San Francisco, according to Wong. The two fought in December, 1964, at a kung fu school in Oakland, California. Lee and Wong provided significantly different accounts of the private bout, which was not filmed. Afterwards, Lee stated in an interview, without naming Wong as the loser, that he had defeated an unnamed challenger. In response, Wong wrote his description of the fight as well as an invitation to Lee for a public match, which was printed on the front page of Chinese Pacific Weekly, a Chinese-language newspaper in San Francisco. Lee did not fight Wong again.


Jeet Kune Do


The match with Wong influenced Lee's philosophy on fighting. Lee believed that the fight had lasted too long and that he had failed to live up to his potential. He took the view that traditional martial arts techniques were too rigid and formalistic to be practical in scenarios of chaotic street fighting. Lee decided to develop a system with an emphasis on "practicality, flexibility, speed, and efficiency". He started to use different methods of training such as weight training for strength, running for endurance, stretching for flexibility, and many others which he constantly adapted.

Lee emphasized what he called "the style of no style". This consisted of utilizing a non-formalized approach which Lee claimed was not indicative of traditional styles. Because Lee felt the system he called Jun Fan Gung Fu was too restrictive, it was transformed to what he would come to describe as Jeet Kune Do or the Way of the Intercepting Fist, a term he would later regret because Jeet Kune Do implied specific parameters that styles connotate whereas the whole point of the system was to exist outside of parameters and limitations. Some confuse the Jeet Kune Do system with the personal version that Bruce Lee practiced. Jeet Kune Do can be seen as both a process and a product, the latter deriving from the former.

Bruce Lee certified three instructors: Taky Kimura, James Yimm Lee (no relation to Bruce Lee) and Dan Inosanto. James Yimm Lee, a close friend of Bruce Lee, died without certifying additional students. Taky Kimura, to date, has certified one person in Jun Fan Gung Fu: his son and heir Andy Kimura. Dan Inosanto continues to teach and certify select students. Prior to his death, Lee told his then only two living instructors Inosanto and Kimura (James Yimm Lee had died in 1972.) to dismantle his schools. Both Taky Kimura and Dan Inosanto were allowed to teach small classes thereafter without using the name Jeet Kune Do.

As a result of a lawsuit between the estate of Bruce Lee (also known as Concord Moon) and the Inosanto Academy, the name "Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do" was legally trademarked, and the rights were given solely to the Lee estate. "The name is made up of two parts: 'Jun Fan' (Bruce's given Chinese name) and 'Jeet Kune Do' (the Way of the Intercepting Fist). The development of Bruce Lee's art from 1961 until the end of his life was one smooth and indivisible path. In the beginning, he referred to his teachings simply as Jun Fan Gung Fu.

Some martial arts instructors, in an effort to promote themselves or their martial arts schools, make dubious claims about learning from or teaching Bruce Lee. Yet, only three were certified by Lee.


On July 20, 1973, Lee was in Hong Kong, due to have dinner with former James Bond star George Lazenby, with whom he intended to make a film. According to Lee's wife Linda, Lee met producer Raymond Chow at 2 P.M. at home to discuss the making of the movie Game of Death. They worked until 4 P.M. and then drove together to the home of Lee's mistress Betty Ting Pei, a Taiwanese actress who was to have a leading role in the film. The three went over the script at her home, and then Chow left to attend a dinner meeting.

A short time later, Lee complained of a headache, and Ting Pei gave him an analgesic. At around 7:30 P.M., he laid down for a nap. After Lee did not turn up for the dinner, Chow came to the apartment but could not wake Lee up. A doctor was summoned, who spent ten minutes attempting to revive him before sending him by ambulance to Queen Elizabeth Hospital. However, Lee was dead by the time he reached the hospital. There was no visible external injury; however, his brain had swollen considerably, from 1,400 to 1,575 grams (13%). Lee was thirty-two years old. On October 15, 2005, Chow stated in an interview that Lee was allergic to Equagesic. When the doctors announced Bruce Lee's death officially, it was coined as "Death by Misadventure."

However, the exact details of Lee's death are controversial. Bruce Lee's iconic status and unusual death at a young age led many people to develop many theories about Lee's death. Such theories about his death included murder involving the triads, a curse on Lee and his family etc. The theory of the curse carried over to Lee's son Brandon Lee also an actor who died nearly 20 years after his father in a bizarre accident while filming The Crow.

Upon his death his wife, Linda, returned to her home town of Seattle and had Bruce buried at lot 276 of Lakeview Cemetery. His son Brandon is buried beside him. Pallbearers at his funeral on July 31, 1973 included Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Danny Inosanto, Taky Kimura, Peter Chin, and his brother, Robert Lee. To this day, over 30 years after his death, fresh flowers are found on his gravestone every day.

Steven Seagal (born April 10, 1951) is an American action movie actor, producer, writer, director and a singer. A 7th-dan black belt in aikido, Seagal began his adult life as an aikido instructor in Japan, before moving to the Los Angeles, California area where, after being noticed by entertainment executives, he made his film debut in 1988. Since this time, Seagal has become a well recognized action star, and his movies have gone on to earn over $600 million worldwide.

Seagal has used his fame as an action star to cross over to other industries, as he is also a recording artist and the founder of Steven Seagal Enterprises. In addition to his professional achievements, he is also known as an environmentalist, Aikido pioneer (Takeshigemichi), eco-warrior, animal rights activist, and has been recognized as a reincarnated Buddhist Lama (Tertön Chungdrag Dorje).

Born in Lansing, Michigan, Seagal relocated to Fullerton, California in his youth, and began studying the martial arts under the direction of renowned Shito-ryu karate master Fumio Demura and aikido under Rod Kobayashi, the President of the Western States Aikido Federation. This was the beginning of his life-long focus on Asian culture, with a particular emphasis on Japan. In his late teens, Seagal became part of Demura's Karate Demonstration Team and performed daily demonstrations in the former Japanese Village and Deer Park, in Southern California. In 1974, he was promoted by Kobayashi-sensei to shodan in Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido.

He graduated from Buena Park High School in Buena Park, California, and held one of his first jobs at a Burger King. After college, Seagal moved to Japan c. 1970 with then-girlfriend Miyako Fujitani, native of Japan whom he later married, and lived with her parents, who owned an aikido school; allegations surfaced that he left in order to avoid the Vietnam draft at the time, and married Ms. Fujitani in order to provide reasonable evidence to his remaining there in spite of a possible draft-call.

During his time in Japan, Seagal changed affiliation from Koichi Tohei's Ki Society and Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido to the Aikikai. Seagal claims that he battled the yakuza (Japanese mafia) over the rights to the Tenshin Dojo, which he claims that his wife's father lost in a gambling game; however, his former wife Miyako Fujitani, claims "it's a lie", and that he yelled at some drunks, but "never fought anyone".

Seagal initially returned to Taos, New Mexico with senior student and later stuntman Craig Dunn. There, they opened a dojo, but Seagal spent much of his time pursuing a film career and other ventures. Under the title Master Take Shigemichi, Seagal was reputedly the first foreigner ever to own and operate an aikido dojo in Japan: the Aikido Tenshin Dojo in the city of Osaka. Dunn stayed in New Mexico and is there to this day, still running the dojo. Seagal returned to Japan, and came back to the U.S. with senior student Haruo Matsuoka in 1983. The two opened an aikido dojo. This school was initially located in Burbank, California, but later moved to the city of West Hollywood. Seagal left Matsuoka in charge of the dojo, which he ran until the two parted ways in 1997.

Seagal's years in Japan have been a source of pride in recent times: "I was raised in Japan. I was schooled in martial arts. I was given the title of master. They take a movie The Last Samurai. They have a five foot two inch little guy, whether he was straight or gay, I don't know. I don't care. He had never been to Japan. He doesn't speak Japanese. He has never held a sword. They make him the last samurai."


1990s: the action hero years

From there, Seagal began work on his first film, Above the Law (also known as Nico in Europe and Canada), with director Andrew Davis. Following its success, Seagal made three more pictures (Hard to Kill, Marked for Death, and Out for Justice) that were decent box office hits, marking him as an action hero. Hard to Kill grossed $47 million in the United States. Seagal found wider mainstream success in 1992 with the release of Under Siege. The film reunited Seagal with the director Andrew Davis and was a blockbuster in America and abroad, grossing $156.4 million worldwide.

After the success of Under Siege, Seagal made his directorial debut with On Deadly Ground (1994) in which he also starred, alongside Michael Caine. The movie was a failure with both audiences and critics, and made a financial loss, costing an estimated $50 million to make and grossing less than $39 million in the United States.

To try and recoup popularity, Seagal filmed a sequel to Under Siege titled Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995) and a cop drama (The Glimmer Man) (1996). In 1996, Seagal also had his first supporting role, in the Kurt Russell film Executive Decision, in which Seagal was incorrectly billed as having a starring role. He then tried again to make an environmentally-conscious film. In Fire Down Below (1997), Seagal played an EPA agent fighting industrialists dumping toxic waste in the Kentucky hills region, but the movie was not a commercial success.


Retreat to video

The next year, Seagal made The Patriot, another environmental thriller which was his first direct-to-video release in the United States (though it was released theatrically in most of the world). Seagal produced this film with his own money, and the film was shot on-location on and near his farm in Montana.

After taking a couple years to produce Prince of Central Park, Seagal released Exit Wounds in March 2001. The film had fewer martial arts scenes than Seagal's previous films, but it was a commercial success. However, his next two projects, Ticker co-starring Tom Sizemore and filmed in San Francisco, and Half Past Dead, starring rap star Ja Rule, were commercial failures.

As of November 2006, every film Seagal has made since 2003 has been released direct-to-video in North America, with only limited theatrical releases in the rest of the world. However, the regularity at which these films are produced makes Seagal one of the most prolific actors in the movie industry and the relative commercial and critical failure of recent efforts has done nothing to temper this. Steven Seagal is working on a comeback for 2007 with Action films Once Upon A Time In The Hood and Prince of Pistols which he will direct.

Seagal intends to leave his cinematic canon to the ages; "I am hoping that I can be known as a great writer and actor some day, rather than a sex symbol." Indeed, he has been explicit regarding the intentions of his filmcraft; "Above the Law was a politically conscientious movie. On Deadly Ground was environmentally conscientious so I want to keep making movies like that which are more geared with a certain entertainment value but also bring people forward into contemplation."

Seagal has produced many of the movies that he stars in, and has also participated in writing and directing. Seagal's roles do not fit the standard action hero archetype; instead, Seagal's characters are usually "born perfect", displaying no limitations, character flaws, or character development (as is typically included in the story arc for most action heroes). His characters are often associated with attributes given to action movie antagonists or villains, such as clandestine government associations (Under Siege), great wealth and high-level corporate ties (On Deadly Ground), high-level biochemical research skill (The Patriot), et cetera. Seagal's characters are normally nigh-on invincible and are unable to be beaten or even slowed down. Reports state that Seagal insists on such roles, even allegedly becoming hysterical when his character was scripted to die even a heroic death in the movie Executive Decision, when director Stuart Baird insisted he must do it as scripted. Seagal held up filming for a few days, and finally acted the death scene as scripted after threat of contractual breach.

While his acting performance in Above The Law gained praise from the likes of Roger Ebert, Seagal has repeatedly faced criticism from both actors and fans who accuse him of playing the same character in many of his movies, as well as displaying a lack of emotional range.

Others have surmised that Seagal's unorthodox approach to film is actually an elaborate joke. This is supported by Seagal's statement regarding humor: "I’m a very funny guy, if you’ll forgive me for saying so. When I did The Glimmer Man with Keenan Ivory Wayans, he and I were talking about who was funniest, and...I kicked his ass every day."

This is the first (in a line of many to come presumably) reincarnation of Jason Bourne

Mr. Bourne is a fictional character in a series of novels by Robert Ludlum and later Eric Van Lustbader, who picks up where Ludlum left off. He first appeared in The Bourne Identity (1980). This novel was adapted for both television in 1988 and a film by the same name in 2002 – see The Bourne Identity (film). The character, currently, has since been in three more novels and one other film

Real Name: David Webb

Aliases: Delta One, Jason Bourne, Cain, John Michael Kane, Charles Briggs, George P. Washburn

Jason Bourne has a long and mysterious past which continues to torture him throughout his lifetime. His real name is David Webb, a career foreign service officer and a specialist in Far Eastern affairs. Before the events in Identity, Webb had a wife named Dao and two children named Joshua and Alyssa in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. During the Vietnam War, an aircraft strayed into Cambodia dropping two bombs and strafed a spot near the Mekong River, unintentionally killing Webb's wife and two children. Due to Cambodia's neutrality in the war, every nation disclaimed the plane, since no one wanted to be responsible for the incident. Having nothing left, Webb went to Saigon and trained for a special, top secret unit called Medusa (many years later the unit and its actions would still remain top secret.) At this point, Webb was known as Delta, his codename within the unit.

In the films, the character of Jason Bourne (played by Matt Damon) is a much more simplified character as opposed to the one portrayed in the novels. He was a CIA assassin working on a job when he had a sudden attack of conscience, failed his mission, and was shot multiple times in the back attempting to escape. Similar to the novel, he was left for dead in the Mediterranean Sea and woke up with no memory. Near the end of The Bourne Supremacy, Bourne learns that his real name is actually David Webb and that he was born 1971-04-15 in Nixa, Missouri. In the films, he speaks fluent French, Russian, Dutch, German, Italian, and English rather than French and "Eastern dialects," as in the novels. However, the movies make no mention of Carlos the Jackal - the real Carlos was in prison by the time the films were made.