Legends of Action: Cynthia Rothrock

BirthDate: March 8, 1957

Cynthia Rothrock is arguably the most important woman in the history of action movies; she was a trailblazer who showed that women could do more in action movies rather than waiting to be rescued by the hero. She was the hero and could kick ass with the best of them.

Not only is she a great action star but she’s an incredibly accomplished martial artist. According to her official site: She holds 5 Black Belts in various Far Eastern martial disciplines. These Arts include; Tang Soo Do (Korean), Tae Kwon Do (Korean), Eagle Claw (Chinese), Wu Shu (contemporary Chinese), and Northern Shaolin (classical Chinese).

The first film I ever saw of Cynthia’s was China O’Brien and it’s still a classic today; great fight scenes, an entertaining story and Rothrock shows her instant likability.

This wasn’t her first movie role however; her first was Yes Madam which also starred Michelle Yeoh.

This made both women huge stars in Hong Kong and Cynthia would spend 5 years working there creating martial arts action movies for Golden Harvest.

She would go on to be the very first non-Chinese westerner to carry an action movie single-handedly in Hong Kong.

When she left Hong Kong, Cynthia would be celebrated as one of the most popular action stars in Hong Kong’s cinematic history.

Producer Pierre David initiated Rothrock’s move to the US with a co-starring role with Chad McQueen in Martial Law,which is one of my personal favourite films of Cynthia’s (aside from China O’Brien). Any film with David Carridine in it already has my stamp of approval. This movie just clicked for me with great fight scenes, excellent pacing and an awesome electric guitar filled music score.

She would go on to star in over 40 movies and provided vocal talents to several video games, proving that she was extremeley versatile in any role. Just look at the folmography below; that’s a lotta movies. I’m not going to go into every movie here, I’ll leave that up to you.

Cynthia Rothrock apparently retired from acting in 2004 with a final role in Xtreme Fighter (aka Sci-Fighter). After Xtreme Fighterr she now teaches private martial arts lessons at her martial arts studio in Studio City, California.

Word on the street is, with the success of The Expendables movies it may just be time for a comeback. I would love to see her in either Expendables 3 or The Expendebelles (the all women action movie). Come on, Cynthia, do it for your fans!

FILMOGRAPHY