>>213556813 (OP)
I would say Arnold is the King of action genre, but he powered through on pure charisma (although his acting can be underpreciated), but if Arnold was never born, then Jackie brought incredible skill, effort and thought into action movies, so I can't really decide.
Van Damme was always too full of himself, while Willis can be argued to be the cause of downfal of 80s action hero.
Stallone is the biggest filmmaker of them all though.
>>213556882
Oh, THAT'S who that is?! I thought it's a bad photo of Carl Weathers. There is no universe in which I'd say Smith belongs to action star icons.
Jackie Chan (inventive performer)
Jet Li
Stallone (he has that weatherbeaten, 80's rainy day feeling for me)
Van Damme (the cheesiness of Kickboxer and that synth score in south asia)
Arnold (in the more high-concept, almost cartoonish films)