10 Movie Henchmen Who Stole Movies From Villains

Honestly, can we all just give up a gigantic hand for Al Leong? The legendary actor, martial artist and stuntman has been a fixture of the action genre for 40 years now, and while he was rarely ever given a speaking role, he remains its most iconic henchman - the guy, the dude - a feat we can attribute to a mix of his striking facial hair and the intense physicality he regularly displayed on camera.

If you can think of an iconic action film from the eighties or nineties, then chances are Al Leong is in there somewhere. He's the Nestle Crunch-munching member of Hans Gruber's crew in Die Hard, Riggs' torturer in Lethal Weapon, and he's even taken out via ice cream cone in John McTiernan's still-underappreciated Last Action Hero. (You may also recognise him as Genghis Kahn in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.)

Of Leong's many onscreen credits, though, my favourite has to be the one he received in Big Trouble in Little China. The first of three collaborations with John Carpenter, Leong appears in the film as a member of the Wing Kong - an evil Chinatown gang mortally opposed to the benevolent Chang Sing. Carpenter allows Leong to lead the charge in this sequence, the moustachioed assassin fronting the stand-off between the two groups while spinning a cleaver menacingly. Suddenly, the tension erupts into chaos, with lots of quick, frenetic cuts selling the brutal slapstick of the battle, but time seems to slow down around Leong, who in one memorable move takes out two opponents - one of whom he then sends hurtling into a brick crevice.

This one scene exemplifies Leong's inimitable screen presence perfectly - a slight but powerful figure who could turn up the heat in an instant, but also one who could layer humour into their cameos in an effortless manner. To do that with only fleeting glimpses of screen time puts Leong in a class of his own, because what others did with minutes, he did with seconds. It might not be enough to "steal" these films away from their main villains, but there's a reason why, whenever I look back on this period of action cinema, Leong's face will always be one of those that's front and centre.