Every Actor Who Has Played A Terminator

While Arnold Schwarzenegger is the most famous actor to play a Terminator onscreen, he’s one of a growing fraternity of performers to do so. One might think playing a machine would be a role actors could sleepwalk through, but as Schwarzenegger and others have demonstrated, that’s not the case. A cyborg would behave quite differently than a human being as certain aspects of humanity are hard to duplicate.

Once Terminators are no longer trying to blend in, that’s when they can truly unleash the full power of their inhuman nature, shrugging off severe damage like it was a bee sting, and moving at speeds people aren’t capable of. They also tend to speak, even when not trying to attract attention, in a rather subdued, monotone fashion, and when they try and force a human spark into their words, it’s noticeable to those paying attention.

Schwarzenegger originated playing a Terminator in James Cameron’s original 1984 classic, but as the franchise has expanded outward, more and more people have gotten to portray Skynet – or Legion’s – forces onscreen. Here’s a rundown of every actor who’s played a Terminator, including all six feature films and the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles TV show.

The Terminator (1984)

The Terminator obviously served as the debut of the entire Terminator concept, and its first onscreen representative, the T-800 model killing machine played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Austrian Oak was still fairly new to Hollywood at that point, and The Terminator was one of the movies that helped kick his burgeoning career into high gear. However, whiles some viewers might think Arnold is the only Terminator actor in the first film, he isn’t. A different Terminator appears in a flash-forward to Kyle Reese’s future, played by Italian bodybuilder Franco Columbu, a close friend of Arnold’s that he knew from prior Mr. Olympia competitions.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Terminator 2: Judgment Day is in the eyes of many one of the best sequels ever made, and some argue it surpasses the original. Schwarzenegger returned as the T-800, although this time he was a benevolent version reprogrammed by the human resistance and sent back in time to protect John Connor. The new entrant into the killer cyborg mix was the T-1000, played by Robert Patrick, who disguises itself as a cop to more easily gain the trust and deference of others. The T-1000 is an ice cold, unsettling villain, and arguably one of the greatest in sci-fi history. There have since been other T-1000s, but Robert Patrick’s remains peerless.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)

Terminator 3 again brought back Schwarzenegger to play his third variation on the T-800, this time another reprogrammed cyborg, but definitely not the melted one John Connor bonded with as a child. Again, the villain was the new spice added to the Terminator formula, this time in the form of Kristanna Loken’s T-X, or as she’s often dubbed, The Terminatrix. Like the T-1000, the T-X could morph itself into other people and weapons, although it had additional advanced abilities, such as the ability to control other machines, including Terminators. Before landing the T-X role, Loken was best known for TV work, including stints on Unhappily Ever After, Boy Meets World, and Mortal Kombat: Conquest.

Terminator Salvation (2009)

Terminator Salvation – depending on how one looks at the timeline – is either a prequel or a sequel to the prior films. Mostly though, it’s a disappointing mess. Salvation did at least introduce a new heavily featured Terminator performer, Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright, an advanced hybrid of human and machine. In the originally planned ending, John Connor was to die and have his face grafted onto Marcus’ endoskeleton to keep the resistance from finding out their leader was gone, but it leaked and fan revulsion led to a change. After Salvation, Worthington appeared in blockbusters like Avatar and Clash of the Titans. Arnold also made a quick CGI cameo as a T-800, with his young face placed on the body of Roland Kickinger, another Austrian bodybuilder.

Terminator Genisys (2015)

Terminator Genisys set out to revive the franchise by creating an alternate timeline that enabled the story to go on a different path, with a new aged Arnold T-800 named “Pops” being sent back to protect a young Sarah Connor. In a divisive twist, future John Connor – now played by Pet Sematary 2019’s Jason Clark – is forcibly transformed by Skynet into an advanced T-3000 model Terminator, making him the new main villain. This is done to John by a one-of-a-kind T-5000 named “Alex,” played by former Doctor Who Matt Smith, essentially Skynet’s physical avatar. There’s also a new T-1000 who appears in a minor role, played by South Korean actor Byung-hun Lee, who also played Storm Shadow in the G.I. Joe movies.

Terminator Dark Fate (2019)

The most recent Terminator, Dark Fate once again saw Arnold play another T-800, this time a reformed cyborg named “Carl,” who changed its ways after killing off young John Connor in Mexico not long after the events of Terminator 2. The movies after Judgment Day were thus all retconned. The new Terminator villain on display is the Rev-9, played by Gabriel Luna, who has many of the abilities of the prior T-1000 and T-X models but can also physically split itself into two, a liquid metal outer layer and a metal endoskeleton. Luna previously played Ghost Rider on Agents of SHIELD and will be a regular on HBO’s upcoming The Last of Us show.

Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008-2009, TV)

Being a TV show that ran 31 episodes, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles featured more Terminator performers than all the movies combined. The most notable is Firefly‘s Summer Glau, who played Cameron, John’s latest protector. Then there’s Catherine Weaver, a rogue Terminator actually looking to take down Skynet in the past, played by Garbage vocalist Shirley Manson. Another big one was Cromartie, a recurring nemesis primarily played by future Raising Hope star Garrett Dillahunt, but also briefly by The Mentalist‘s Owain Yeoman. Other one-off minor Terminator actors include Aaron Cash, Patrick Kilpatrick, Matt McColm, Brian Bloom, Paul Schulze, Bonnie Morgan, Todd Stashwick, Chad L. Coleman (Tyreese on The Walking Dead), and Jeffrey Pierce.

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