10 Things You Didn’t Know About The Greatest Villains in Action Cinema

There are action movie fanatics out there who can recite every line from their favorite action movie.

There are action movie fanatics out there who have hundreds of action movies in their personal collection.

There are action movie fanatics out there that will travel near and far to meet their favorite action movie stars at conventions.

And then there are action movie fanatics like Timon Singh, who has taken his love of the genre to new heights with the release of his first book, Born To Be Bad.

Born To Be Bad is a collection of  in-depth interviews that Timon conducted with the greatest villains in action cinema. And when I say the greatest it is not an exaggeration… the talented performers that Timon was able to interact with is a who’s who of action cinema. There are two Kryptonian super villains, the terrorists from Die Hard, BIlly Drago, Sven-Ole Thorson, Bob Wall, Julian Glover, Matthias Hues, Martin Kove and the list goes on and on. The book also has foreward written by Steven E. De Souza. Yes the mastermind behind Die Hard, The Running Man and Commando, wrote the forward to Born To Be Bad, if this is not a huge stamp of approval, I don’t know what is.

In this very special edition of 10 Things You Didn’t Know, I will give you a taste of what you can expect if you pick up Born To Be Bad (something I highly recommend). Timon’s book has hundreds of detailed stories and this list includes just ten tidbits from some of the interviews that Timon conducted…

1. Vernon Wells was not the first choice to play Bennett in Commando. Wells was called in three weeks before shooting was scheduled to begin after Arnold Schwarzenegger had concerns that the original actor cast to play Bennett did not match up well physically with Arnold and that their fight scenes would lack authenticity.

2. Sarah Douglas, who played Ursa in Superman and Superman II, shot down the long standing Internet rumors that she was offered the part of Evil-Lyn in Masters of the Universe.

3. Robert Wall confirmed the rumors that some of the establishing scenes for his character Oharra in Enter the Dragon were cut because Director Robert Clouse did not like him and he did not like Clouse.

4. Carl Weathers accidentally kicked Dennis Hayden in the balls in Action Jackson. The inadvertent nut shot occurred when Weathers’ Jericho Jackson is preventing Hayden’s Shaker from barbecuing him!

5. Ronny Cox, who played one of the greatest villains in action movie history in RoboCop, thought that the sequel, RoboCop 2 sucked!  Cox has also refused to watch the remakes of both RoboCop and Total Recall.

6. Benny “The Jet” Urquidez, who squared off with Jackie Chan in an epic fight in Wheels on Meals, found himself in an actual Bloodsport like Kumite situation after he exchanged words with a heckler in the crowd during an interview Urquidez did on Hong Kong television in the 70’s… the details of this story are must read!

7. Al Leong was originally scheduled to take on Sylvester Stallone in the stick fighting scene at the beginning of Rambo III, but his Die Hard commitments prevented him from doing so.

8. Paul Freeman, who could not seem to get the Nazi stink off of him after his performance as Belloq in Raiders of the Lost Ark, had pitched some script changes to Director John Glen when Freeman found himself playing a Nazi in Aces: Iron Eagle III. Glen was very receptive and intimated that the changes would be made. When it came time to shoot, the script was completely unchanged.

9. When William Sadler first agreed to the script for Die Hard 2, there was not a nude scene in it. Sadler’s naked Tai Chi scene was actually an idea of Renny Harlin. Sadler agreed to do it, if they could move the scene to the end of the shoot and if he could be provided a personal trainer to get his ass in shape for its moment in the sun.

10. Jack O’Halloran, who played the massive Kryptonian villain Non in the first two Superman movies turned down the role of Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me. In fact, The Spy Who Loved Me was one of six roles that O’Halloran turned down that ultimately went to Richard Kiel… but the most interesting things shared by O’Halloran in Born To Be Bad concerned his family life… I was shocked at who his father was and the fact that I did not know about it until I read the book.

Born To Bad is currently available at BearManor Media and Amazon. And be sure to follow the author Timon Singh on Twitter