 Lundgren 's breakthrough came when he starred in Rocky IV in 1985 as the imposing Russian boxer Ivan Drago . Since then , he has starred in more than 40 films , almost all of them in the action genre . He portrayed He @-@ Man in the 1987 science fantasy film Masters of the Universe and Frank Castle in the 1989 film The Punisher . In the early 1990s , he also appeared in films such as Dark Angel ( 1990 ) , Universal Soldier ( 1992 ) , Joshua Tree ( 1993 ) , Johnny Mnemonic ( 1995 ) , and Blackjack ( 1998 ) . In 2004 , he directed his first film , The Defender , and subsequently directed The Mechanik ( 2005 ) , Missionary Man ( 2007 ) , Command Performance ( 2009 ) , and Icarus ( 2010 ) , also starring in the latter . 
