10 Hugely Talented Actors That Should Be Bigger Stars

4. Karl Urban

Karlurban An actor blessed with movie star looks, screen presence and charisma to spare, Karl Urban has played supporting roles in successful franchises and leading roles in not-so-successful genre movies. Now heading the cast of great new sci-fi procedural Almost Human, there is still plenty of time for the 41 year-old New Zealander to capitalize on his undoubted leading-man potential. Since first coming to prominence as Eomer in the second and third Lord of The Rings movies, Urban has carved out something of a niche in the action-fantasy genre. He played the main antagonist in the overwrought Chronicles of Riddick before returning for a cameo role in the sequel a decade later, and has of course played 'Bones' McCoy twice in the rebooted Star Trek. Outside of established franchise fare, he played the main role in sci-fi disappointments Doom and Pathfinder and was on villainous duties in the derivative Priest. More successful were physically-imposing turns as heavies in The Bourne Supremacy and RED, and of course his bad-ass turn in Dredd, erasing memories of the Sylvester Stallone debacle in a movie that unfortunately won't be getting a sequel anytime soon. It seems that Karl Urban needs to choose his leading roles more carefully. A great actor in his own right, he has appeared as a supporting player in plenty of box office successes, but with the exception of Dredd the efforts with his name above the title haven't been particularly encouraging. For an actor that was reportedly on the shortlist for James Bond before Daniel Craig was cast (and would have been a great choice for the new cinematic Batman), and one that exudes plenty of personality, he could become a genuine action star with the right movie. Let's hope his solid work on Almost Human will bring Hollywood calling again.
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