So consider: Last week the top box-office draw in the country was "Max Payne" with Mark Wahlberg as an obsessed cop tracking down the killer who murdered his wife and child.

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As the biggest box-office draw in Britain he saw little need to try to break into the US market, though, contributing to the fact that he was never given a world title shot.

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And in 1965, selling motorbikes for a spell in Moses Lake, Washington, business became a lot more interesting when, fired up with a Wild Turkey or two, he did tricks to draw in the customers: jumping a car, then a car and a 20-foot box of rattlesnakes, then two cars, rattlers and a mountain lion, until a crowd came to watch him.

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Since then his even-tempered work in movies like The Bucket List and Wanted have made him a reliable box office draw.

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