Jean-Claude Van Damme Biography

Summary

"Jean-Claude Van Damme" (born "Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg" ) is a Belgian martial artist and actor who is best known for martial arts and action movies, the most successful being "Bloodsport" and "Kickboxer". His Belgian background and his physique furnished him the nickname "The Muscles from Brussels".

Personal life

Van Damme was born Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg (also spelled "Varenburg") in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe (Brussels), Belgium, the son of Eliana and Eugène Van Vaerenbergh, who was an accountant and owned a flower shop. He began martial arts at the age of ten, enrolled by his father in a shotokan karate school. He eventually earned his black belt in karate, later winning the European Professional Karate Association's middleweight championship in a stunning upset vs. the former champion Michael J. Heming (although he has claimed that he was 'twice world champion').

He also 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. He says of ballet that it '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.'

In the French-speaking world, Van Damme is well known for the (picturesque aphorisms) that he delivers on a wide range of topics (personal well-being, the environment, etc.) in a sort of Zen franglais. 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.

A self-professed animal lover, Van Damme owns a cat and nine dogs, seven of which he rescued from Thailand. In a 2009 interview in the British newspaper "The Sun", promoting his film "JCVD", he indicated he experienced a period of homelessness in Los Angeles 'sleeping on the street and starving in L.A.'

Van Damme has been married five times, including two marriages with his current wife, bodybuilder and fitness competitor Gladys Portugues. Van Damme has 3 children: Kristopher born 1987, Bianca born 1990, and Nicholas born 1995.

"Spouses":

Darcy LaPier: 3 February 1994 - November 1997 (divorced, 1 child)

Gladys Portugues: 3 January 1987 - 1992 (divorced); 25 June 1999 - present (2 children)

Cynthia Derderian: 24 August 1985 - 1986 (divorced)

Maria Rodriguez: 25 August 1980 - 1984 (divorced)

Film career

In 1982, Van Damme and childhood friend, Michel Qissi relocated to America in the hope of becoming action stars. 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 (also featuring Qissi), based on the true story of Frank Dux. Shot on a meager 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 where Qissi had the role of main villain, Tong Po. In this movie, his character fought to avenge his brother who had been paralyzed by a Thai Kickboxing champion (Qissi).

Double Impact 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 his with his former Bloodsport star, Bolo Yeung. He then starred opposite Dolph Lundgren in the action movie, Universal Soldier. While it only grossed $36,299,898 in the US, it was a big success overseas making over $65 million overseas, well over it's modest $20 million budget, making it Van Damme's highest grossing film at the time.

Vann 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) made less than $50 million combined.

His last theatrical released movie was Universal Soldier: The Return. Since then, all his movies have been direct to video releases.

Van Damme had also worked for director "John McTiernan" for the 1987 movie "Predator" as the titular alien, before being removed and replaced by "Kevin Peter Hall".

Filmography

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

Universal Soldier

Timecop (overlap in space-time continuum)

Maximum Risk

The Order

Replicant