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Female Action Movie Stars RELOAD - SUBSCRIBE TO EMAIL NEWS ABOUT THIS SITE

Ava Cadell
Hungarian model turned actress in four campy actioners from Malibu Bay films, she played 'Ava' in Do Or Die (1991), Hard Hunted (1992), Fit To Kill (1993) and Return To Savage Beach (1998).
Cadell also appeared in Jungle Warriors (1984) as Didi Belair, one of the fashion models captured by a South American drug lord. Here's another glamorous publicity shot of Cadell, courtesy of Andy & Arlene Sidaris.

Lori Cardille
Daughter of late-night horror host of Pittsburgh television's Chiller Theatre Bill 'Chilly Billy' Cardille - the reporter in George A. Romero's Night Of The Living Dead (1968) - Lori Cardille secured a starring role in Romero's third zombie film, Day Of The Dead (1985), as Sarah, the tough-as-nails research doctor who brandished an automatic weapon and machete with equal aplomb.
Cardille started her acting career on TV soap operas, such as The Edge Of Night and Ryan's Hope. She then moved into films, such as Mob Justice (1991), No Pets (1994), and TV movie Parole (1982). She is best remembered for Day Of The Dead, for which she received best actress awards from Spain's Film Festival and Paris' Cinema Du Fantastique. Her most recent venture has been a book, I'm Gonna Tell - an autobiography that chronicles her years of molestation by an uncle.

Octavio Ramos Jr

Hope Marie Carlton as Taryn Kendall in Savage Beach

Hope Marie Carlton
Apart from being Playboy's Miss July 1985, lithe blonde Hope Marie Carlton's claim to fame is her co-starring role (alongside Dona Speir) as undercover agent Taryn Kendall, in three films directed by Andy Sidaris. These are Hard Ticket To Hawaii (1987), Picasso Trigger (1988) and Savage Beach (1989).
Carlton has also appeared, as Christie, in murder mystery Terminal Exposure (1986), and played Krista Helpern in 'Elm Street' rip-off Hell Island (aka: Slaughterhouse Rock, 1987). She had walk-on parts in three episodes of BayWatch (1989), and more recently, was cast in a minor role, as Sally Campion, in Stephen King's TV serial of The Stand (1994).

Barbara Carrera in Never Say Never Again

Barbara Carrera
She played seductive villainess Fatima Blush in Never Say Never Again (1984), the unofficial remake of Thunderball. In her key action scene, she gets the drop on James Bond (Sean Connery, returning to the role that made his name), but ladykiller 007 manages to slay her anyway.

Tia Carrere
She played the villain's sultry associate, Juno Skinner, in James Cameron's spy adventure, True Lies, which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Joanna Cassidy
Her real name is Joanna Virginia Caskey, her birthday is 2nd August, and despite several fine performances in cinema productions and small screen fodder, A-list stardom has continued to elude Joanna Cassidy. After bit parts in various TV shows, she won female lead as Eleonora, opposite George C. Scott, in crime comedy Bank Shot (1974). Cassidy played a crook's wife - attractive but deceitful Laura Birdwell, in The Late Show (1977), and then character of Patti Johnson in cult mystery thriller Stunts (1977), which led her to the role of rescue helicopter pilot Morgan Wainwright in first season of TV series 240-Robert (1979-80), concerning the adventures of a Los Angeles based emergency services unit.
   She played Julie Miller in Roger Vadim's erotic farce Night Games (1980), and appeared in TV soap opera Falcon Crest (1981) playing Katherine Demery, before being cast as snake-charming stripper Zhora, an unarmed victim who gets shot in the back by android slayer (Harrison Ford), in Ridley Scott's influential SF thriller Blade Runner (1982). With a superb performance as radio reporter Claire, covering the war in Nicaragua, she acted alongside Gene Hackman and Nick Nolte in Roger Spottiswoode's excellent Under Fire (1983), before returning to TV as Patricia Winslow in Wes Craven's Invitation To Hell (1984) - a sci-fi version of Faust, and with the recurring role of Judge Carolyn Walker in drama series L.A. Law (1986).
   Although her roles as Russian spy Colonel Irina Vassilievna in The Fourth Protocol (1987), Allison Shapiro - one of four women campers (led by Lindsay Wagner) stalked by hunters in Nightmare At Bitter Creek (1988), and female lead of barmaid Dolores in 3D cartoon adventure, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988) - in which she was upstaged by the animated heroine, did little to revive her film career, Cassidy fared better when reunited with Gene Hackman for Cold War spy thriller The Package (1989), in which she played US military officer Eileen Gallagher. Cassidy was good as TV reporter Alana Powers in TV movie, Live! From Death Row (1992) - where she gets attacked by an inmate due to be executed, but her role as Sheriff Ruth in the TV miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's novel, The Tommyknockers (1993), lacks authority.
   She played Maggie McDermott in chase thriller Chain Reaction (1996), and 'First Lady' Elaine Fields in Executive Power (1997), but her most notable action role to date is Dr Arlene Whitlock, who releases dangerous alien spirits in John Carpenter's Ghosts Of Mars (2001).

Joan Chen
Chinese leading lady, Joan Chen (alias Chen Chong), won many awards in her native country since she began acting as a teenager. She played opposite Bryan Brown in James Clavell's Tai-Pan (1986), before taking on role of Empress Wang Jung, alias Elizabeth, in Bernardo Bertolucci's period drama, The Last Emperor (1987). Since then, she has appeared in post-holocaust sci-fi quest adventure Salute Of The Jugger (aka: The Blood Of Heroes), and hi-tech prison movie Wedlock (both 1990), played the mysterious timber mill owner Josie Packard in David Lynch's enigmatic TV series, Twin Peaks (1990), and an Eskimo environmentalist named Masu in eco-aware action thriller On Deadly Ground (1994). However, her top action girl role to date was as villainess Ilsa in Judge Dredd (1995), where she fought against Judge Hershey (Diane Lane).

Claudia Christian
She's was a guest-star on the TV spinoff series Highlander, and the regular female lead character on Babylon 5 (1994) as Commander Susan Ivanova, but her best action girl role was as alien-possessed stripper Brenda in Jack Sholder's excellent bullet-fest, The Hidden (1987).

Margaret Colin
As star of TV series, Legwork (1987), created by Frank Abatemarco, Margaret Colin made a good impression as streetwise private investigator Claire McCarron. She tended to avoid shootouts but carried a gun anyway, just in case, and wasn't afraid to use it on the bad-guys. Frances McDormand played Claire's lawyer best friend, Willie Pipal.
Sadly, they only made 10 episodes.

Tony Lee

Courteney Cox
A former cosmetics model best known to TV audiences for her role as Monica in popular sitcom Friends (since 1994), Cox was born in Alabama, 1964 and made her big screen debut as Julie Winston in SF fantasy Masters Of The Universe (1987). She played pilot 'Freddy' de Lancel in the TV adaptation of Judith Krantz' Till We Meet Again (1989), and Melissa, publicist for the Miami football team, in Jim Carrey vehicle Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994). Her TV work includes series Family Ties (1982-89), and Misfits Of Science (1985-86), and TV movies Curiosity Kills (1990), and Sketch Artist 2: Hands That See (1995), while her other notable film appearances include Down Twisted (1989), Mr Destiny (1990), Shaking The Tree (1992), The Opposite Sex And How To Live With Them (1993), and Commandments (1996).
Cox achieved cinema stardom as ambitious TV reporter Gale Weathers in Wes Craven's Scream (1996) - in which she uses a gun to defend herself against the serial killer, returning to this reformed-bitch role in sequels Scream 2 (1997) and Scream 3 (2000). This success led to her being cast as the femme fatale Cybil Waingrow in heist thriller 3000 Miles To Graceland (2001). Cox married actor David Arquette in 1999, and is now credited on screen as Courteney Cox Arquette. Recently, she played Alice in Alien Love Triangle (2002).

Jamie Lee Curtis
Playing rookie cop Megan Turner in Kathryn Bigelow's tough thriller Blue Steel (1990), ended her slasher movie 'scream queen' status once and for all. After she shoots an armed robber dead, Megan is stalked by a loony stockbroker (played by Ron Silver) who wants to see her kill again...
Jamie Lee's next action girl role was Helen Trasker, a bored wife unknowingly married to heroic but jealous secret agent Harry (Arnold Schwarzenegger), who reluctantly uses the codename 'Doris' to join her husband on a mission to save America from terrorists, in James Cameron's sub-Bondian adventure, True Lies (1994).

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