The `Expendables` actor beat Arnold Schwarzenegger into second place in a poll of 1,891 people, which gave the 64 year old 31 per cent of the vote against the `Terminator` star`s 24 per cent.

Bruce Willis and Bruce Lee came in third and fourth in the list, while `Double Impact` star Jean Claude Van Damme was fifth in the survey, conducted by myprotein.com.

`Salt` actress Angelina Jolie came in seventh in the list, the only woman to do so, beating Will Smith and Jason Statham.

Mark Coxhead, head of marketing at Myprotein.com, said: "It was nice to Angelina Jolie making it into the top 10 and beating the likes of Chuck Norris and Will Smith, as many people do not often equate female film roles with the title of `action hero`.

"Maybe in a few more years Angelina will be knocking Sly off his perch."

The 35-year-old beauty recently confessed she was asked to be a James Bond girl, but only wanted the role if she could play the titular British spy.

She said: "No, thank you, but I`d like to be Bond."
sections: Celebrities