Cary Grant

The Cool Killer: Chow Yun-Fat as Ah Jong in "The Killer" John Woo's ode to Jean-Pierre Melville's "Le Samourai" is a bullet-riddled elegy to friendship under fire, and Chow Yun-Fat is undoubtedly the most charming hit man ever to blow away a bad guy on screen. With the charisma... more of Cary Grant and the steely grace-under-pressure of Humphrey Bogart, he executes his hits like perfectly choreographed dance numbers (and yes, he only takes contracts on those who deserve it) and, true to his code, he risks all for innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire. He's not really a gangster here, but he mixes it up with organized crime and takes out a good chunk of the underworld when he's ambushed by a few hundred thugs. The finale, a high-octane shoot-out in a church, where Chow takes on a small army with the acrobatic flair of a gun-toting swashbuckler, firmly established Woo as the maestro of mayhem and Chow as the reigning king of cool in action cinema.