Iconic action star reveals healthy transformation at 67!

Ultimately, he moved to Los Angeles and caught the eye of legendary cult movie producer Roger Corman, who cast him in a string of projects, including B-movies he shot in the Philippines with local filmmaker Cirio H. Santiago.

'They were low-budget exploitation-slash-art movies, in which I did my own stunts. Those films were amazing!' he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. 

'Cirio shot scenes very quickly, and the production cost was very cheap. But, those films were so much fun to do,' he laughed: 'so go see them if you can find copies.'

Die Hard 2 proved to be his Hollywood breakthrough, with his small part as an adjutant to William Sadler's traitorous US Army Special Forces officer Colonel Stuart.

One year later, James Cameron cast him in what remains his best-remembered role - T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, a fearsome robot whose formidable abilities include being able to switch from solid to liquid and back.

Although he never again reached the heights he did in Terminator 2, he continued to have a steady career working through the next decades.

He acted twice with Demi Moore, in her 1996 blockbuster Striptease and her 2003 release Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, an action comedy fronted by the trio of Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu.

Among the entries in his filmography is the 2005 biopic Walk the Line, in which he played the father of Johnny Cash as portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix opposite Reese Witherspoon in an Oscar-winning turn as June Carter.

Patrick returned to the part of T-1000 in a parodic capacity for two 1990s comedies as well - Wayne's World and Last Action Hero.

On the small screen, he briefly replaced David Duchovny as one of the leads of The X-Files, playing the newly created role of FBI Special Agent John Doggett, and also had a recurring part in The Sopranos as a shopkeeper in hock to the mafia.

Patrick has featured on programs including Tulsa King, Peacemaker, Sons of Anarchy, Reacher and Taylor Sheridan's Yellowstone spin-off 1923. 

In an interview four years ago, he reflected on his past drinking problem and the way his substance use had hampered his career in the 1990s.

'I feel like I lost a lot of momentum after T2 for a number of reasons,' he said on Smallville actor actor Michael Rosenbaum's podcast Inside of You.

One of the causes of the fizzling of his professional prospects was that 'I'm an alcoholic,' Patrick acknowledged on the show.

'I was a big substance abuser and alcoholic prior to T2, and I got myself clean and sober for T2 because I knew that I could not do that film with the recreational activities that I had going on,' he noted.

'Nor was I going to be able to drink. I had to go be a monk. I had to focus. I had to do the film, and when it's over, of course I go back and hit it hard in a big way, because now I've accomplished something.'

Patrick recalled with a wistful smile that he 'rewarded myself by partying for two years,' with the result that 'I don't think I prepared myself for some of the opportunities I was presented and therefore didn't get the jobs.' 

However he has since triumphed over his addiction, having revealed in 2008 that he had at that point been clean and sober for a total of 11 years.

He was then president of the local chapter of the Boozefighters motorcycle club, with Jackass star Steve-O serving under him as vice president.

'Boozefighter,' the We Are Marshall explained at that time: 'is a name for somebody who’s trying to conquer his habit of drinking.'

Patrick has been married since 1990 to one Barbara Hooper, whom he was living with when he was cast in Terminator 2 and married during the production, and the couple are now proud parents to a son and a daughter.