This literally hit me in the gut and I wasn’t expecting it as I was having a great day with my wife. Unfortunately, life rears it’s ugly head once again and reminds us that our action stars are mortal after all. Yes, Frank Castle is mortal. Action cinema is at a standstill today…

Prolific character actor and one of the best onscreen Punishers ever, Ray Stevenson, has sadly passed away at the age of 58.

Where to start as I’m still trying to wrap my head around this. Stevenson was a great actor in all genres but yes it’s action that I’ll fondly remember him as he has starred in such great fare as Punisher: War Zone, the Accident Man films. Kill the Irishman, the Thor films, Rome, and the upcoming Star Wars limited series Ahsoka. Not to mention that he killed it as Cobra saboteur Firefly in GI Joe: Retaliation. Say what you will about the latter but he was awesome in it. His fight with The Rock was hyper kinetic and just plain bad ass with Gun Fu mixed with fists and feet.

No cause of death was given at this time but he was only 58 (just 8 years older than me) and was still going strong. We do know that he died Sunday in Italy. While the details surrounding Stevenson’s passing are still developing, the Italian newspaper La Repubblica stated that the Scottish actor was hospitalized on the island of Ischia where he was filming his latest movie Cassino on Ischia, which is being directed by Frank Ciota. He’ll always be The Punisher to me and I will have to watch all his films again on memoriam.

I will, with a doubt, do a special Action Fix podcast celebration Stevenson and his career so if any of the action brethren out there would like to join me, just message me. I’ll inform everyone when that goes down.

Until then, our thoughts, prayers and hugs go out to his family and friends. I’m gutted as there are no real words of comfort right now.

Celebrate Ray and watch him kick ass in Punisher: War Zone below. R.I.P. 😞

“Making more things go boom by 9:00 AM then most people do all day.”