The only actor to be killed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Bruce Willis
In the 1980s and ’90s, three names sat atop the mountain of action heroes.
Sure, there were pretenders to the throne like Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme, as well as established guys like Kurt Russell and Mel Gibson dabbling in action movies here and there. However, the undisputed kings of the genre were Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Bruce Willis. They shot, kicked, and exploded their way through defining classics like the Terminator, Rambo, and Die Hard franchises, in addition to other gun-toting efforts like Predator, Cobra, and The Last Boy Scout. Fascinatingly, though, only one actor managed to die on-screen at the hands of all three of these action titans – a distinction he’s very proud of.
In 1984, a 26-year-old Georgian native ventured to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. Growing up, he showed little interest in performing, even refusing to wear tights for a third-grade production of Peter Pan. However, during his time at Bowling Green State University in Ohio as a track and field athlete, he realised that athletics wasn’t where his future lay. Instead, his unique physicality would become a defining asset, helping him carve out a niche as a character actor in Hollywood.
The thin, chiselled young actor first landed roles in three action movies filmed in the Philippines: Eye of the Eagle, Equalizer 2000 and Future Hunters. These low-budget films helped him land a Screen Actor’s Guild card, and in 1990, he made his Hollywood debut in Renny Harlin’s Die Hard 2. Playing a memorably angular mercenary named O’Reilly, he made a distinct impression in his short amount of screentime before being blown away by Willis’ John McClane.
It would be his next role that would cement his status as one of cinema’s most instantly menacing villains, though. When James Cameron cast the young Robert Patrick as the T-1000, the film’s liquid metal cyborg killing machine, in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, a career was born – and Patrick is incredibly grateful for it. As for what Cameron saw in him, Patrick once told Den of Geek, “I was an interesting-looking young man at the time – physically, the way I carried myself, how skinny I was, the way my face looked, my ears, my eyes. You know, the whole nine yards. A totally inspired casting decision; similar to an Arnold and yet totally dissimilar in size and stature.”
Patrick was, of course, killed by Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2, leaving him just one more spot on the hitlist of action icons. That third death would finally come to pass in 1997’s Cop Land – ironically, a Stallone picture that didn’t fit within his usual action canon. In that James Mangold crime flick, Patrick played a moustachioed corrupt cop who is one of the first to be filled full of lead by Stallone’s overweight, partially deaf sheriff in a climactic shootout.
Amusingly, though, when the fact that he had died at the hands of Schwarzenegger, Stallone, and Willis was mentioned to Patrick by Den of Geek, the hard-working actor’s eyes lit up. You see, he could go one better than simply those three action stars. He smiled, “Let me give you a little extra badge of honour. Ready for this? First, I was killed by Bruce Willis, Schwarzenegger, and then Stallone. And in Charlie’s Angels 2, I was killed by the former Mrs Bruce Willis!”
By this, Patrick was referring to his turn as corrupt US Marshal Ray Carter in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle – wherein he really was riddled with bullets by a character played by Demi Moore, Willis’ one-time wife. As Patrick grinned, “They all get their shots at me. Someday…someday, maybe I won’t get killed”.
