If you grew up in the 90s, you’re rapidly approaching the point in life where your best years are behind you and it’s getting harder, and harder to remember how amazing things were when you were a kid. Everything was just better back then. Let’s take a look at some of the movie and TV show heroes that made those days so special and see what they look like now.
Lucy Lawless – Xena
Everyone’s crazy about Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman now, but Lucy was the original Warrior Princess, and she’ll always have a special place in our hearts. The typical 90’s outfit combined with the somewhat off-putting and weird battle cry Xena does as she dives headfirst into battle will always be the paramount of female led action shows.
Adrian Paul – Highlander
Anyone remember this wacky show? It was basically about a group of immortals that could only be killed by decapitation and absorbed the knowledge of other immortals they decapitated. You can imagine they didn’t meet up very often to talk about the weather. Adrian Paul is spending his days still oozing charisma out of every pore, but he has been slowing down a bit when it comes to acting.
Duncan Regehr – Zorro
Whenever someone tells you Antonio Banderas was the most iconic Zorro we’ve ever seen, please point them towards Duncan. He embodied Zorro for three or so years before moving on to Star Trek and has sadly quit acting since a good decade or so. We’ll always remember him fondly when we think back on the Zorro show, however.
Kevin Sorbo – Hercules
Yes, the Hercules show was one of the campiest things to ever grace a TV screen, but boy did that show ooze atmosphere. The show only ran for half a decade but in that time it more than proved itself worthy to be a part of our memory forever. Kevin hasn’t really been doing a lot of acting since then, mostly doing low-budget movies and the occasional appearance in a TV show.
Jean-Claude Van Damme – Universal Soldier
Jean-Claude has played tons of action heroes over his long career, but none was as iconic as Luc Deveraux in Universal Soldier. It showed the world that Jean-Claude can’t just punch stuff, but is also moderately decent as an actor. Despite his age, he looks fitter than ever today.
Peter Weller – RoboCop
Very few action movies released in this time period were as divisive as RoboCop. It wasn’t a bad movie, but it did cross the line into shlock on many an occasion, which was detrimental to the movie’s somewhat dark and heavy plot. Peter Weller did an excellent job however and quit the RoboCop franchise before it really got bad.
Chuck Norris – Walker, Texas Ranger
We can’t not talk about Chuck Norris, guys. You know, there’s only a real specific group of actors that has the wild idea to play an ex-Marine who fought in Vietnam that is also a martial arts expert and believes in the principles of the Old West. Naturally, he was also a devout Christian. This could be pretty much every character in a Chuck Norris or Steven Seagal movie, but Walker, Texas Ranger was one of the first of its kind.
