20 Oscar-winning actors who weren't afraid to star in action films

To qualify for this list, actors had to continue to make action movies after winning an Oscar. So, say, if somebody left that behind them, we weren’t going to include them for pre-Oscar filmographies. Washington has scattered action movies all throughout his resume, but he’s been doing quite a bit of it as of late. He and Liam Neeson have cornered the market on men-of-a-certain-age shooting people on screen. The difference is that Washington has won two Oscars.

In 2016, Davis co-starred with Washington in “Fences.” That movie would win her an Oscar. In that same year, she played Amanda Waller in “Suıcide Squad.” Not only did she not eschew action filmmaking, she reprised the role of Waller in James Gunn’s “The Suıcide Squad.” She also starred in “The Woman King” which is essentially “elevated action” and starred in the 2025 action flick “G20.”

Larson won her Oscar while there was plenty of career left ahead of her. Of course, it’s not like Emma Stone went out there and started making action movies. Larson ended up subsumed into the Marvel Cinematic Universe playing Captain Marvel. Hopefully, in time, she’ll get to make some more interesting stuff that doesn’t involve punching green screens.

Smith first became a movie star in the world of action. He went from sitcoms to “Bad Boys” and “Independence Day” and the like. He was the type of movie star who then wanted to be taken seriously, and started to go for that Oscar. Finally, Smith got it with “King Richard,” though of course that was overshadowed by his slapping of Chris Rock. With his Oscar in tow, and his career now in flux, Smith went back to the action well and made “Bad Boys: Ride of Die.”

Now, this is a case of a film already being in the books, but in 2004 Foxx starred in “Ray” and won an Oscar. The next year he was in “Stealth,” a silly action movie about an automated fighter plane that goes rogue. Foxx would fully embrace the action movie once more, even playing a villain in the worst “Spider-Man” movie and also being in “White House Down.”

Cage’s reputation for picking movies is not one of discernment. This was true even before he bought dinosaur skeletons and castles until he had debts to pay off. We could just rattle off names of action movies (and make a few up that you would probably believe), but we’ll just say this: After he won the Oscar for “Leaving Las Vegas” his next three movies were “The Rock,” “Con Air,” and “Face/Off.”

After winning not one, but two, Oscars, De Niro made some quality action movies like “Midnight Run” and “Ronin.” Of course, he also has made movies like “Righteous Kill” and “Killer Elite.” De Niro also played one of the villains in “The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle.” That’s really more of a comedy with some action in it, but any chance to mention the fact De Niro was in “Rocky & Bullwinkle” is worth taking.

Speaking of well-received, quality action movies, Theron played Furiosa in “Mad Max: Fury Road.” Many consider that one of the very best examples of the genre. That’s just one of the action movies Theron has made since winning an Oscar for “Monster.” After all, she’s in the “Fast & Furious” universe as well.

“Monster’s Ball” came out before the first and second “X-Men” movies, so Berry was already in the action space. She went deeper down that road as time went on. Berry has the honor of being in the worst Bond movie (“Die Another Day”) and perhaps the worst superhero movie (“Catwoman”). However, the third “John Wick” is solid, and some enjoy “Kidnap” as a mindless thriller.

Blanchett was already a venerated actor before she appeared in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, though she’s not central to the action of those films, and those are really fantasy movies with some action. However, she rules in “Hanna” — going up against a young Saoirse Ronan — and was a lot of fun in “Thor: Ragnarok.” Blanchett, a two-time Oscar winner, is so talented, we thought for a second “Borderlands” might be good. Alas, not even Blanchett could salvage that one.

Just after winning her Oscar for “Black Swan,” Portman entered the MCU. Of course, Portman had so little to do as Jane Foster in the first two “Thor” movies she didn’t even show up for “Ragnarok.” That changed in “Love and Thunder,” wherein she got to take on the mantle of Thor. “Jane Got a Gun” and “Annihilation” are both also action-adjacent.

Nyong’o won an Oscar for her first feature movie role in  “12 Years a Slave.” Since then, she’s done as much action as anything. Of course, doing a voice in “Star Wars” isn’t really an “action star” thing. Nyong’o is in the MCU, though, and her second-ever movie was the Liam Neeson thriller “Non-Stop.”

“Entrapment” — and all the lasers therein — came out in 1999, which was before Zeta-Jones won her Oscar for “Chicago.” She hasn’t done a ton of action, but she has done a couple such movies. One is a sequel to a pre-Oscar movie, “The Legend of Zorro.” The other, though, is “Red 2,” a sequel she jumped onto after not being in the original.

Jolie won her Oscar fairly young, and she was likely already on the path to movie stardom, which meant a lot of opportunity to do action if she wanted to. Oh, and she evidently wanted to. Jolie has played Lara Croft twice. She made “Salt” and "Wanted.” Why, “Gone in 60 Seconds” came out the same year she received her Oscar for “Girl, Interrupted”! That’s not even including her voice work in the “Kung Fu Panda” franchise.

Speaking of winning Oscars early, Paquin was 11 when she won for “The Piano.” That didn’t mean she was destined to star in an action movie, or to star in a trashy supernatural show about vampires, but it did end up happening. Paquin was one of the stars of the original “X-Men” trilogy playing Rogue.

Man, what a 1988 Davis had. She starred in the goofy-but-fun musical “Earth Girls Are Easy,” was one of the leads of the hit “Beetlejuice,” and she was in “The Accidental Tourist,” which won her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. While Davis was in a few action-ish movies, she only really made a couple action films. Those are “Cutthroat Island” and “The Long Kiss Goodnight.” Those are both bad movies. They were also both directed by her then-husband Renny Harlin. The things we do for love.

Between his time as a child star and his out-of-nowhere Oscar win for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Quan worked as a stunt choreographer. As such, maybe it is not surprising that in his first film after this sudden — but well-deserved — career resurgence he got to star in an action movie. Quan starred in the action-comedy “Love Hurts,” but he also did some action on the small screen. He was one of the stars of Disney+’s “American Born Chinese.”

By the time he won his Oscar for “The Fighter,” Bale had already been playing Batman. As such, we won’t include “The Dark Knight Rises” among his post-Oscar action films. There are still a few in the mix, though, that show the actor didn’t give up on that genre. He was in “Out of the Furnace,” and “Ford v. Ferrari” has some action elements to it, especially for Bale’s character. We also can’t forget to mention that he played Gorr the God Butcher in “Thor: Love and Thunder.” Alas, his character couldn’t quite live up to that moniker in a so-so MCU offering.

We grant you that Clooney’s role in “Gravity” is, shall we say, brief, and Sandra Bullock does most of the action. There are other action offerings from Clooney post-Oscar, though. “Tomorrowland” is also sort of action-y, and “The American” is considered an action-thriller, even if it is more atmospheric than a lot of action flicks.

Whether or not you think Malek should have won Best Actor for “Bohemian Rhapsody” (we’re in the “not” camp), he won, and he’s gone down the action route a couple times since then. Like his fellow Oscar winner Christoph Waltz, he’s played a Bond villain. Now, he’s had a chance to be the star of an action movie as well. In “The Amateur,” Malek plays a desk agent in the CIA who goes on a revenge spree.