Top 10 martial arts actors in movie history

1. Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee was a Hong Kong and American martial artist, martial arts instructor, actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and philosopher.

2. Jackie Chan

Fang, known professionally as Jackie Chan, is a Hong Kong-born Chinese actor, filmmaker, martial artist, and stuntman.

He is known for his slapstick acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, and innovative stunts, which he typically performs himself.

3. Donnie Yen

Donnie Yen Ji-dan is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, film director, producer, action director, and choreographer. Yen is one of Hong Kong’s top action stars.

Yen is widely credited for bringing mixed martial arts into the mainstream Asian cinema by choreographing MMA in many of his films since the early 2000s.

4. Jet Li

Li Lianjie, better known by his stage name Jet Li, is a Chinese film actor, film producer, martial artist, and retired Wushu champion.

He is a naturalized Singaporean citizen. After three years of training with acclaimed Wushu teacher Wu Bin, Li won his first national championship for the Beijing Wushu Team.

5. Chuck Norris

Carlos Ray “Chuck” Norris is an American martial artist and actor. He is a black belt in Tang Soo Do, Brazilian jiu jitsu and judo.

After serving in the United States Air Force, Norris won many martial arts championships and later founded his own discipline Chun Kuk Do.

6. Tony Jaa

Tatchakorn Yeerum, better known internationally as Tony Jaa and in Thailand as Jaa Phanom, is a Thai martial artist, actor, action choreographer, stuntman, director, and traceur.

His films include Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior, Tom-Yum-Goong, Ong Bak 2: The Beginning, Furious 7 and SPL II: A Time for Consequences.

7. Michael Jai White

Michael Jai White is an American actor, director and martial artist. He was the first African American to portray a major comic book superhero in a major motion picture, starring as Al Simmons, the protagonist in the 1997 film Spawn.

8. Cynthia Rothrock

Cynthia Ann Christine Rothrock is an American martial artist and actress in martial arts films. Rothrock holds black belt rankings in seven styles of martial arts and was a high-level competitor in martial arts before becoming an actress.

9. Scott Adkins

Scott Edward Adkins is an English actor, producer, screenwriter, gymnast, and martial artist.

He has played Russian prison fighter Yuri Boyka in the 2006 film Undisputed II: Last Man Standing, and the antagonist in the 2020 film Ip Man 4: The Finale, ‘Gunnery Sergeant Barton Geddes’.

10. Jean-Claude Van Damme

Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg, known professionally as Jean-Claude Van Damme, is a Belgian actor, martial artist, filmmaker, and fight choreographer.