Robert Patrick is the only actor killed by these 3 iconic action stars

Some actors are just perfect for playing bad guys, and while Robert Patrick doesn’t always have a hard time, the films he’s best known for show him giving the good guys a hard time. Once a standout athlete at Bowling Green State University, he began acting in exploitation films directed by famed Filipino director Syrio H. Santiago (his 1976 action film Mooters is a must-see) and eventually found his way to Hollywood where he landed his breakthrough role as the liquid metal T-1000 James Cameron’s 1991 action classic Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Patrick showed real range in ’90s films like Fire in the Sky, Cold Surface, and The Strip, but mostly Hollywood knew he could deliver laugh-out-loud goods as a villain, and accepted those roles without hesitation. (He’s particularly hideous as the white supremacist DC supervillain Augustus “Aggie” Smith, aka the White Dragon, in Max’s Peacemaker series.) In doing so, Patrick often faced some of the most iconic action heroes in film history, meaning his characters rarely made it to the end credits with a pulse. But it’s a job, and Patrick is more than good at handling this situation. In fact, he prides himself on his many on-screen deaths, especially when dispatched by one of Hollywood’s action heroes.

In an interview with Den of Geek in 2008Robert Patrick was asked how he feels about being insulted by the holy trinity of wreaking havoc: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis (find out where these three rank on /Top 18 Action Actors List). He elaborated by adding a fourth star to his list of on-screen attackers. For Patrick:

“It is (a badge of honor), but let me give you a little extra badge of honor. Ready for it? First I was killed by Bruce Willis, Schwarzenegger, then Stallone. And in Charlie’s Angels 2, I was killed by the former Mrs. Bruce Willis (aka Demi Moore).”

This is a prestigious list of killers. For those of you keeping score, here’s how Patrick says goodbye to the living in each of these movies:

• Die Hard 2 (directed by Renny Harlin and released in 1990) had Willis’ John McClane shooting through a displaced vent in an airport terminal under construction.
• In Terminator 2: Judgment Day (again directed by James Cameron and released in 1991), Schwarzenegger, as the T-800, is hit in the stomach by a grenade and falls into a pool of molten metal (where he desperately trying to change itself before disappearing into oblivion).
• In Cop Land (directed by James Mangold, who made his 1997 debut), he runs out of his house, lunges at Freddie Heflin (Stallone) with a shotgun, and comes out the wrong way when they’re talking. bullets (much to his surprise, given the amusingly stunned expression on his character’s face as he dies).
• In Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (directed by McG and released in theaters in 2003), corrupt U.S. Marshal Patrick is smitten by ex-Angel-turned-villain Demi Moore at the Griffith Park Observatory.

Finally (and going back a bit), while John Cena isn’t yet an iconic action star, it’s worth noting that Patrick the White Dragon was struck in the head by a bullet fired by his own son, Cena’s titular character, in The Peacemaker. That’s some great big screen dying from Mr. Patrick, and we thank the once and future T-1000 for his lights-out services.