THESE are the DEADLIEST action stars of all time – you won't guess who is number one

A genre which is often denigrated for its implausibility, action movies have given us some of the most impressive characters.

From those seeing revenge to those on impossible heists, action heroes, or anti-heroes, have been on our screens since cinema began.

But have you ever stopped to wonder who might just be the deadliest action star of all?

The answer is not what you were expecting…

After reviewing more than 350 movies including The Expendables, Aliens, Resident Evil, The Terminator and Die Hard, actors were by their character kill count.

Here are the top ten deadliest action heroes, or anti-heroes, of all time:

1. Milla Jovovich – 1,296

2. Jet Li – 1,076

3. Dolph Lundgren – 919

4. Arnold Schwarzenegger – 842

5. Chow Yun-Fat – 810

6. Sylvester Stallone – 786

7. Jason Statham – 718

8. Kevin Costner – 670

9. Wesley Snipes – 593

10. Nicholas Cage – 571

In number one spot, Milla Jovovich reigns supreme for her deadly performance in the Resident Evil franchise.

Not only does she boast a kill count of 1,296, she also performs outrageous stunts and impressive martial arts skills.

To make the list, the actors and actresses must have starred in at least ten movies within the ‘action’, ‘adventure’ or ‘thriller’ genres and received both combat and weapons training.

Included in this list are of course Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Chow Yun-Fat.

Together they have a combined kill count of 3,647, thanks to their appearances in films like The Terminator, The Expendables and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham garner up more than 700 kills each, with the latter set to take a few more in the upcoming Hobbs and Shaw spin-off.

The rest of the list includes

11. Chuck Norris – 458

12. Jean-Claude Van Damme – 457

13. Clint Eastwood – 382

14. Gerard Butler – 361

15. Keanu Reeves – 354

16. Dwayne Johnson – 349

17. Daniel Craig – 348

18. Bruce Willis – 343

19. Tom Cruise – 341

20. Sean Bean – 331

If mayhem and destruction isn’t quite your thing, there are also actors with the most world saving movies to their names.

Sean Connery has a total of 13 saves, followed by Bruce Willis with 10, and finally Keanu Reeves with nine.