When it comes to big-time, blockbuster action heroes with bulging biceps, Arnold reigns supreme. A string of box office hits and a boatload of bodybuilding titles—he won Mr. Olympia seven times—made Schwarzenegger a household name by the mid-1980s.
- Height: 5'10".
- Weight: 185 lbs.
- Claim to Fame: Celebrity trainer and fitness model.
Big action movies require big action movie stars, and Hollywood has had no dearth of leading men willing and able to bulk up to superhuman size to carry out such ass-kicking duties.
Ever since Arnold Schwarzenegger made the leap from bodybuilding to big-screen heroics, Hollywood has craved ever-larger leading men for their slam-bang extravaganzas.
This week's release of Generation Iron — a documentary about the competitive world of bodybuilding that follows in the footsteps of 1977's classic Pumping Iron, which first brought Schwarzenegger to the mainstream — again thrusts massive male physiques back into the cinematic spotlight.
In honor of this latest ode to bulging biceps and shredded abs, here's a look at the best of Hollywood's buff, when they were (of course) most buff.
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, IN COMMANDO.
The one, the only, the inimitable Arnold is the king of ridiculous cinematic physicality, an Austrian Goliath so inspiring colossal that he remains the standard against which all wannabe action-film He-Men are judged. While Pumping Iron captured him at his bodybuilding peak, he was never more jaw-droppingly gargantuan than in Commando, a film that rests solely on the substantial shoulders of its kill-'em-all headliner.
SYLVESTER STALLONE, IN BULLET TO THE HEAD.
Stallone may have made his name with Rocky, but he was downright flabby in that 1976 breakout hit when compared to how he looked just a few years later in Rocky IV. Still, as evidenced by his physique in recent actioned Bullet to the Head, Stallone has shown a remarkable ability to not only maintain his physique, but to improve it — albeit, as a 2007 airport incident brought to light, apparently with some help from HGH.
THE ROCK, IN PAIN AND GAIN.
Though his WWE career helped initially solidify his badass credentials, the wrestler-turned-actor has only gotten more gigantic as the years have passed, to the point that, in this past summer's Pain and Gain, he seemed ready to altogether crowd co-star Mark Wahlberg off the screen. He's a real-life Hulk, which is probably why it made sense for him to dress as the angry green giant for Halloween.
MICHAEL CLARKE DUNCAN, IN ARMAGEDDON.
The late Michael Clarke Duncan was a sensitive and soulful giant, one who seemed more comfortable as the kindhearted death-row inmate of The Green Mile than the evil Kingpin of Daredevil. For pure vastness, however, his greatest showcase was in Michael Bay's Armageddon, a film whose absurd scale and boundless melodramatic silliness was a perfect fit for the immense, and immensely charming and funny, star.
TINY LISTER, IN NO HOLDS BARRED.
Tommy "Tiny" Lister's career was jumpstarted by No Holds Barred, a WWE-produced film intended to launch the acting career of icon Hulk Hogan. It didn't, but the project — along with the accompanying in-ring WWE storyline created to promote it — did help shine a spotlight on Lister, whose physical enormity was never more impressive than when bench-pressing in this trailer.
TERRY CREWS, IN WHITE CHICKS.
There's a reason that, when they needed a pumped-up personality for their surrealistic über-macho deodorant commercials, Old Spice turned to Terry Crews. The character actor's body is a thing of frightening size and definition. Yet while it helps make him an intimidating presence in tough-guy outings like The Expendables, it also provides an amusing contrast to (and helps enhance) his goofy sense of humor, as in his attempts to romance a cross-dressing Wayans brother with club dancing in White Chicks.
DAVE BAUTISTA, IN THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS.
The latest wrestler determined to make the leap to the silver screen, former WWE Dave Bautista, is so huge, it's hard not to think he was created in some evil villain's laboratory. As a behemoth eventually encased in golden armor in The RZA's The Man with the Iron Fists, it's his ridiculous build that provides the greatest spectacle.
TOM HARDY, IN WARRIOR.
Best known for his work as Batman's diesel arch nemesis Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, Tom Hardy's true physical peak was achieved before that blockbuster, in 2011's underrated MMA drama Warrior. As a ferocious bruiser pitted against his brother in a championship bout, Hardy's body boasts not an ounce of fat, with the actor looking so bulked up that he comes across as infinitely more menacing than he did wearing his voice-altering Bane mask.
JEAN-CLAUDE VAN DAMME, IN BLOODSPORT.
Jean-Claude Van Damme may have been most renowned for his jump kicks and splits, as well as his awesome accent and frequently ridiculous hair, but there's no denying that on a purely physical level, the star was a ripped martial-arts machine, especially in Bloodsport. They didn't call him The Muscles From Brussels for nothing.
ED NORTON IN AMERICAN HISTORY X.
While many mainstream actors have often beefed up for certain roles, none did so as fearsome as Edward Norton in American History X. As a neo-Nazi, Norton displays a supersized, swastika-decorated body that's as daunting as his character's behavior is terrifying — culminating in an early scene in which the shirtless psycho delivers one of the movies' all-time most horrific killshots.
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