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Jean-Claude Van Damme (born
Jean-Claude Camille François Van Vaerenbergh, ) is a
Belgian martial artist and actor who is best known for martial arts and
action movies. His most successful films include
Bloodsport (1988),
Universal Soldier (1992),
Hard Target (1993), and
Timecop (1994). Due to his physique and his Belgian background, he is sometimes known as "The Muscles from Brussels."
After studying martial arts intensively from the age of ten, Van Damme achieved national success in Belgium as a martial artist and bodybuilder, earning the "Mr. Belgium" bodybuilding title.
['Playboy interview', Lawrence Grobel, Playboy, January 1, 1995] He emigrated to the United States in 1982 to pursue a career in film, and achieved breakout success with
Bloodsport (1988), based on the alleged true story of
Frank Dux. He attained subsequent box office success
with
Timecop (1994), which grossed over $100 million worldwide
[www.imdb.com/name/nm0000241/bio] and became his most financially successful film.
Personal life
Van Damme was born Jean-Claude Camille François Van Vaerenbergh
[Not over the Undertaker. (The Fans Speak Out). | Wrestling Digest (, 2003)] (also spelled
Varenburg)
['Sudden Death' star Jean-Claude Van Damme isn't so tough - just ask him. | Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service (, 1995)] in
Berchem-Sainte-Agathe (
Brussels), born in Belgium, the son of Eliana and Eugène Van Vaerenbergh, who was an accountant and owned a flower shop.
[Jean-Claude Van Damme Biography (1960-)][Jean-Claude van Damme Biography - Yahoo! Movies] He began martial arts at the age of ten, enrolled by his father in a
Shotokan karate school. His styles consist of
kickboxing,
Shotokan karate,
Muay Thai, and
Taekwondo.
[Belgian Bruiser Muscles Into B-Movie Scene ', John Stanley, San Francisco Chronicle, 2 April 1989] He eventually earned his
black belt in
karate,
[Karate black belt)] later winning the European Karate Association's middleweight championship in a stunning upset versus the former champion
Michael J. Heming (although he has claimed that he was "twice world champion").
['Van Damme speaks language of karate', Louis B Parks, Houston Chronicle, 29 April 1988] He started lifting weights to improve his physique, which eventually led to a Mr. Belgium bodybuilding title.
At the age of 16 he took up
ballet, which he studied for five years. According to Van Damme, ballet "is an art, but it's also one of the most difficult sports. If you can survive a ballet workout, you can survive a workout in any other sport."
['Van Damme gets his kicks from acting now, not karate', Jae-Ha Kim, Chicago Sun-Times, 14 April 1989] In the French-speaking world, Van Damme is well known for the
picaresque aphorisms that he delivers on a wide range of topics (personal well-being, the environment, etc.) in a sort of
Zen franglais.
[Abstract Thinker] Most iconic and often quoted was his repeated use of the English word
aware during an interview for a French channel, to convey the notion of
self-awareness as a key to success.
After the filming of the 1998 movie
Knock Off, Van Damme was diagnosed with
rapid cycling bi-polar disorder after becoming suicidal and started treatment on the bi-polar medication
sodium valproate to stabilize his mood.
[[1]]
In a 2009 interview in the British newspaper
The Sun, promoting his film
JCVD (of which
Time magazine said "He deserves not a black belt, but an Oscar®"), Van Damme indicated he experienced a period of homelessness "sleeping on the street and starving in L.A."
Van Damme: "My eldest son doesn't know how to deal with society because I over-protect him because of my last life of being on the street and sleeping on the street and starving in L.A. I didn't want him to have that."
Van Damme has been married five times, including two marriages with bodybuilder and fitness competitor
Gladys Portugues. Van Damme has three children:
Kristopher (born 1987), Bianca (born 1990), and Nicholas (born 1995).
Fight career
At the age of 12, Van Damme joined the Centre National De Karate (National Center of Karate) under the guidance of Master Claude Goetz in France. Van Damme trained for four years and he earned a spot on the France Karate Team.
Jean-Claude made his debut in 1976, at the age of 16.
[phimanh.vnexpress.net/News/Dien-vien/2007/12/3B9AE65C/] Competing under his birth name of Jean Claude Van Varenberg, Jean-Claude was staggered by a
round-house kick thrown by Toon Van Oostrum in Brussels, Belgium.
[www.123allcelebs.com/biography_of_jean-claude_van_damme-683_eng.html] Van Damme was badly stunned, but came back to knockout Van Oostrum moments later.
In 1977, at the
WAKO Open International in Belgium, Jean-Claude lost a decision to fellow team mate Patrick Teugels.
[www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHYf40a_dfc] The experience left an impact on Claude Goetz and he felt that Jean-Claude needed more training before competing again.
After six months of intense training and sparring, Master Goetz decided to unleash his prized pupil on the European Full-Contact scene. Jean-Claude won his first tournament by scoring three knockout victories in one evening. However, in a 1978 match for the Belgium lightweight title, he again lost a decision to Patrick Teugels.
Once again, the loss left an impact on Claude Goetz and a few months later at Iseghem, Belgium, Van Damme came back and knocked out Emile Leibman in the first round. In 1979, Jean-Claude and the Belgium Team became European Team Champions.
[www.jcvandamme.net/cnk/Anglais/CNKen/cnken.html]
Next, Jean-Claude faced
Sherman Bergman, a kick-boxer from Florida (USA) with a long string of knockout victories.
[www.imdb.com/name/nm1870022/bio] For the first and only time in his career, Jean-Claude was knocked to the canvas after absorbing a powerful left hook.
However, Jean-Claude climbed off the canvas and with a perfectly timed ax-kick, knocked Bergman out cold in 59 seconds of the first round. Van Damme ended 1979 with a stoppage of
Gilberto (Gil) Diaz in one round.
In 1980, Jean-Claude Van Damme defeated former Great Britain karate champion
Michael J. Heming. Next, Van Damme scored a knockout over France's Georges Verlugels in two rounds.
[www.fightingarts.com/reading/article.php?id=320] After these victories, Jean-Claude caught the attention of the European martial arts community.
Professional Karate Magazine publisher and editor Mike Anders, and multiple European champion Geet Lemmens tabbed Jean-Claude Van Damme as an upcoming prospect. However, Jean-Claude's ambitions now focused in the direction of movie acting.
Van Damme ended his fight career at the Forest Nationals in Brussels. He knocked Patrick Teugels down and scored a first round technical knockout victory. Teugels suffered a nose injury and was unable to continue.
Following the victory, Van Damme retired from martial arts competition. His final fight record was 18–1, with all wins being knockouts and the loss being a decisions after two rounds.
Fight Record Date | Event | Opponent | Result
|
| 1976 | European Karate Union | | Win, 1 round KO
|
| 1977 | Netherlands Kick Boxing | | Win, 1 round TKO
|
| 1978 | European Karate Union | | Win, 1 round KO[www.movie-collection.com/celebs/jean-claude-van-damme.html]
|
| 1978 | European Karate Union | | Win, 1 round KO
|
| 1978 | European Karate Union | | Win, 1 round TKO
|
| 1978 | World All Style | | Win, 1 round KO
|
| 1978 | World All Style | | Win, 1 round TKO
|
| 1979 | World All Style | | Win, 1 round KO
|
| 1979 | World All Style | | Win, 1 round KO
|
| 1979 | World All Style | | Win, 1 round KO
|
| 1979 November | World Full Contact | | Win, 1 round KO |
| 1979 November | World Full Contact | | Win, 1 round TKO
|
| 1979 November | World Full Contact | | Loss, 2 round decision
|
| 1980 March | European Professional | | Win, 1 round KO
|
| 1980 March | European Professional | | Win, 1 round TKO
|
| 1980 March | European Professional | | Win, 2 round TKO |
| 1980 March | Professional Karate Assoc. | | Win, 2 round KO |
| 1980 | European Professional | | Win, 2 round KO
|
| 1980 | Forest Nationals (Brussels) | | Win, 1 round TKO
|
Film career
In 1982, Van Damme and childhood friend,
Michel Qissi, relocated to America in the hope of becoming action stars.
[www.imdb.com/name/nm0702680/bio] They both were cast in extras in the film,
Breakin'. After a small part in
Missing In Action, Van Damme was next cast in the movie
No Retreat, No Surrender, as the role of the villain, Ivan the Russian. His breakout film was
Bloodsport, based on the alleged true story of
Frank Dux. Shot on a 1.5 million dollar budget, it became a U.S. box-office hit in the spring of 1988. He then starred in the higher budgeted movie
Cyborg. His last role for 1989 was Kurt Sloane in the successful
Kickboxer. In this movie, his character fought to avenge his brother who had been paralyzed by a Thai kickboxing champion (Qissi).
featured Van Damme in the
dual role of Alex and Chad Wagner, two brothers fighting to avenge the deaths of their parents. This movie reunited him with his former
Bloodsport star,
Bolo Yeung. He then starred opposite
Dolph Lundgren in the action movie
Universal Soldier. While it grossed $36,299,898 in the U.S., it was an even bigger success overseas, making over $65 million, well over its modest $20 million budget, making it Van Damme's highest grossing film at the time.
Van Damme followed
Nowhere To Run and
Hard Target with
Timecop in 1994. The film was a huge success, grossing over $100 million worldwide. In the film, Van Damme played a time traveling cop, who tries to prevent the death of his wife. It remains his highest grossing movie to date.
After his role in the poorly received
Street Fighter, his projects started to fail at the box office.
The Quest (1996), which he directed;
Maximum Risk (1996) and
Double Team (1997) were
box-office flops.
His last theatrical released movie was
Universal Soldier: The Return. All his movies after this, up until 2008's
JCVD, had been direct to video releases.
Van Damme had worked for director
John McTiernan for the 1987 movie
Predator as the titular alien, before being removed and replaced by
Kevin Peter Hall.
In 2003, Van Damme employed his dancing training in the music video for
Bob Sinclar's Kiss My Eyes.
Van Damme will reprise his role as Luc Devereaux in the upcoming movie
Universal Soldier: A New Beginning.
Van Damme was offered a lead role in
Sylvester Stallone's upcoming film
The Expendables. Stallone called Van Damme personally to offer him the role, but Van Damme turned it down, citing that he "doesn't want his career going down that route."
Filmography
TV
Dual roles
Van Damme has been cast in "dual roles" in a single film many times during his career. Most cases involve two distinct characters, but others (TimeCop) involve the same character from different periods of time-travel. These scenes often necessitate special editing or blue-screen cinematography to have two versions of the actor interacting in the same scene.
Those "dual-role" movies to date are
- Double Impact: Van Damme plays twin brothers separated at birth and raised in different countries.
- Timecop: Van Damme plays two versions of the same character overlapping in space-time continuum.
- Maximum Risk: Van Damme plays twin brothers separated at birth, one of which was murdered.
- The Order: Van Damme plays two different characters in different eras.
- Replicant: Van Damme plays a serial killer and his futuristic clone and mafioso rockstar Repli Gotti.
Awards and nominations
