5) Jon Foo
Our number five contender has worked with the best of the best of action cinema. He made his debut in the Jackie Chan-produced action comedy House Of Fury under the martial arts direction of the legendary Yuen Wo Ping, and also made a brief appearance in Universal Soldier: Regeneration. His martial arts talent has won over fans worldwide and while he headlined the adaptation of the popular video game Tekken, it wasn’t that well received critically or financially.
Tekken should’ve been Jon Foo’s big break, but bringing a successful interpretation of a video game into film (especially these days) is notoriously difficult to do. He did star as Ryu in Joey Ansah’s Street Fighter: Legacy short and the recent Bangkok Revenge, so he is certainly not short of work, nor is he aligning himself with substandard projects which will possibly hinder his advancement in the action world. We all have to start somewhere small to then get somewhere big, Jon Foo just should’ve made it there long ago.
4) Cyril Raffaelli
Many of the contenders on this list are multitalented, and Cyril Raffaelli is no different as he serves as actor, stunt coordinator, fight choreographer and parkour specialist. He is probably best known to audiences internationally as the smaller-half of the deadly twins who face off against Jet Li in Kiss Of The Dragon and as the smooth moving parkour-utilizing police officer in the adrenaline pumping hit District B13 and its sequel.
Seriously, this guy is astounding. He is trained in Wu Shu and Shotokan Karate, and can do the craziest acrobatics this side of a circus troupe. His use of parkour brings a definitive quality to the projects he’s involved in and while he has had a big break of sorts with his District B13 films, and also appearing opposite Bruce Willis in Live Free Or Die Hard, he deserves to be in much bigger projects. He is incredibly charismatic, and if District B13 is anything to go by, he has a lot more to offer than what we’ve seen.