JEAN-CLAUDE VAN DAMME

''Jean-Claude Van Damme' (born October 18, 1960) is a Belgian-born martial artist and actor who is best known for his large catalogue of action movies. His Belgian background combined with his physique gave rise to his nickname '"The Muscles from Brussels"'. Van Damme has also been called the "King of the Belgians" due to his international superstardom.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Fight career

Early films

Mainstream movies

Later career

Health issues

Bipolar disorder

On-screen nudity

An "abstract thinker"

Marriages

Filmography

References

External links

Biography

Early life

Van Damme was born 'Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg' in Sint-Agatha-Berchem, in the Brussels-Capital Region, to Eliana and Eugene Van Varenberg, a belgian man, and an accountant and owner of a flower shop.^[1][2] He began martial arts at the age of ten, enrolled by his father in a shotokan karate school.^[3] He eventually earned his black belt in karate,^[4] later winning the European Professional Karate Association's middleweight championship³ (although he has claimed that he was "twice world champion"^[5]).
He also started lifting weights to improve his physique, which eventually led to a Mr. Belgium bodybuilding title.^[6] 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."^[7]
At the age of 18, Van Damme opened up the California Gym in Brussels, which one article claimed brought in $15,000 a month.⁷ Van Damme was first seen on screen in the French-made ''Rue Barbare'', released in 1984, followed in the same year with ''Monaco Forever'', where he was credited as 'Very Gay Karate Man'^[8]. This gave Van Damme the impetus to give up his profitable fitness business in favor of acting. He left for America in the early 1980s (having first tried Hong Kong), initially sleeping in a rented car and doing odd jobs until he broke into film.⁷

Fight career

Jean-Claude's karate teacher and coach was Claude Goetz in Brussels, Belgium. Under Goetz's guidance, Van Damme developed an impressive array of kicks and strikes. Van Damme has also studied Taekwondo and Muay Thai, along with Shotokan Karate.
In 1978, at the age of 18, Jean-Claude made his full-contact karate debut under his birth name, 'Jean Claude Van Varenberg'. Entering a tournament in Antwerp, Belgium in the Novice Division, Jean-Claude scored three victories;an 18 second knockout over Germany's Eric "Basel" Strauss, a default over Michel Juvillier, and a 26 second stoppage of Orlando Lang. A few months later at a tournament in Iseghem, Belgium, Van Damme knocked out both Emile Leibman and Cyrille Nollet in the first round. After fighting on the under-card of the main event between France's Dominique Valera and the U.S.A.'s Dan Macaruso in Brussels, Belgium, in which he knocked out a fighter named Verlugels in 2 rounds, Van Damme started to catch the attention of the Martial Arts World. According to Mike Anders, founder of Professional Karate Magazine, and multiple European Champion Geet Lemmens, Van Damme was definitely an upcoming prospect. In 1979, the nineteen year old Jean-Claude (fighting under his birth name of Van Varenberg) won the European Full-Contact Championship in the middleweight division. A series of quick knockouts over Andre Robaeys, Jacques Piniarski, and Rolf Risberg, prepared Jean-Claude for the up-coming world championships in the United States. Traveling to Orlando, Florida in the United States, Jean-Claude set his sights on winning the World Full-Contact Middleweight Title. In his first tournament match, Van Damme scored a first round stoppage over U.S.A.'s Sherman Bergman(Miami Beach, Florida). In his second match, he stopped Gil Diaz (Madrid, Spain)in the opening round. However, in the quarter-finals, Jean-Claude was defeated by a Belgium fighter named Patrick Teugels. Teugels went on to become Vice-Champion of the World. In a rematch in Brussels a few months later, Van Damme avenged his only defeat by stopping Teugels in less than two minutes. Following the victory, Jean-Claude retired from active competition with a 13-1 (12 knockouts) record.
Controversy arose after Jean-Claude's film career took off because none of his fights were found. The basic fact seems to be that his entire full-contact career was fought under his birth name of Van Varenberg, thus there are no fights listed for a Jean Claude Van Damme.

Early films

Van Damme appeared as an extra in ''Breakin''' during one of the breakdance scenes. In 1985, he played Ivan Krushensky in ''No Retreat, No Surrender'', which starred Kurt McKinney in the starring role. The director of the film, Patrick Passis, was a close friend.
Van Damme was scheduled to play the part of the camouflaged extraterrestrial monster in the Arnold Schwarzenegger action film ''Predator'', but wearing the heavy alien costume in the jungle was too difficult, and Van Damme, unhappy with his role, left the production. How he left the picture is disputed: some sources say he quit, others say he was replaced when the character was revised. Van Damme claims he intentionally got fired so he could move on to other movies by intentionally injuring a stuntman according to Jesse Ventura's autobiography.
Van Damme's breakthrough role came in ''Bloodsport'', a film that earned him a nomination as "Worst New Star" in the 1988 Golden Raspberry Awards. The critics were unimpressed, but ''Bloodsport'' proved to be Van Damme's stepping stone to more lucrative roles. The movie became a cult classic and is seen as one of the major contributors to the rise in popularity of Mixed Martial Arts.
Van Damme became well known for his ability to do full splits while performing stunts, and his better than average flexibility, even for a martial arts practitioner. Many of his movies feature scenes showcasing him performing such splits.

Mainstream movies

Van Damme worked his way up to Hollywood mainstream in the 1990s, often working with acclaimed foreign directors. Notable movies include ''Kickboxer'' (1989), ''Double Impact'' (1991), ''Universal Soldier'' (1992), ''Nowhere to Run'' (1993), ''Hard Target'' (1993), ''Sudden Death'' (1995) and his most critically acclaimed work, ''Timecop'' (1994). Many of these roles included doppelgänger or Lazarus themes involving Van Damme's characters, an aspect unusual for the action movie genre. These films have earned over $1 billion worldwide, earning him a place in the action movie world along with others like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Later career

By the end of the 1990s, Van Damme's high-profile career had faded but he continues to star in smaller, often direct-to-video movies. Van Damme's films began to tank at the box office. ''Knock Off'' and ''Legionnaire'' were two of these unsuccessful films. He tried to jump start his falling career by doing a sequel to one of his most successful films, ''Universal Soldier''. '' did not do well at the box office or with his fans so a third film was scrapped. After the failure of ''Universal Soldier: The Return'', he started to star in direct to video films, such as ''Replicant'' and ''Derailed (2002 film)''. In 2007, he stars in the film ''Until Death''.
In 1998, Van Damme and his former bodyguard Chuck Zito were involved in a fist-fight at a New York strip-tease bar called Scores. The event became notorious in the news and a scandal for Van Damme.^[9]

Health issues

Van Damme had troubles with cocaine during 1993, entering a month-long rehab program in 1996, but leaving it only after a week.^[10] He is also reported to have experienced bipolar disorder.¹⁰ A turning point in his health issues came in late 1997, after having signed divorce papers charging him with spousal abuse and drug addiction.

Bipolar disorder

Quoted in the January 30 2006 edition of the Australian Woman's Day magazine:

On-screen nudity

Van Damme has had nude appearances in many of his films, though his nudity has only been shown from the rear. He first appeared nude in ''Bloodsport'', with numerous such appearances in his subsequent films, including a lengthy one in ''Universal Soldier''.
Van Damme has expressed pride in his body and especially his posterior, often citing the appeal of his body. Van Damme is on record as saying, "If you have a decent body why not show it? I'm very proud of my butt. My close friend Sham greatly approves of it. He's a big fan." This was the subject of parody in the television show ''Friends'', where Van Damme, guest-starring as himself, tells Rachel and Monica that "I can crush a walnut with my butt."

An "abstract thinker"

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, ecology, etc.) in a strange mixture of French and English. ^[11] He is especially well known for his use of the English word ''aware'' when speaking French. While delivering an interview for a French channel, he used the English
word "aware" in order to introduce the notion of self-awareness as a key of success.

Marriages

Van Damme has been married four times, including two marriages with his current wife, bodybuilder and fitness competitor Gladys Portugues.

★ Cynthia Derderian (1985 - 1985) (divorced)

★ Gladys Portugues (1986 - 1992) (divorced) 2 children

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

★ Gladys Portugues (25 June 1999 - present)

Filmography

Year	Title	Role
1983	''Rue Barbare''	''Unknown''
1984	''Monaco Forever''	''Karate Man''
1985	''No Retreat, No Surrender''	''Ivan Krushensky''
1988	''Black Eagle''	''Andrei''
	''Bloodsport''	''Frank Dux''
1989	''Kickboxer''	''Kurt Sloane''
	''Cyborg''	''Gibson Rickenbacker''
1990	''Death Warrant''	''Louis Burke''
	''Lionheart''	''Lyon Gaultier''
1991	''Double Impact''	''Alex Wagner/Chad Wagner''
1992	''Universal Soldier''	''Luc Deveraux/GR44''
1993	''Hard Target''	''Chance Boudreaux''
	''Last Action Hero''	''Cameo Appearance''
	''Nowhere to Run''	''Sam Gillen''
1994	''Street Fighter''	''Colonel William F. Guile''
	''Timecop''	''Max Walker''
1995	''Sudden Death''	''Darren McCord''
1996	''Maximum Risk''	''Alain Moreau/Mikhail Suverov''
	''The Quest''	''Christopher Dubois''
1997	''Double Team''	''Jack Quinn''
1998	''Legionnaire''	''Alain Lefevre''
	''Knock Off''	''Marcus Ray''
1999	''Inferno''	''Eddie Lomax''
	''	''Luc Devereaux''
2001	''The Order''	''Rudy Cafmeyer/Charles Le Vaillant''
	''Replicant''	''Edward "The Torch" Garrotte/Replicant''
2002	''Derailed	''Jacques Kristoff''
2003	''In Hell	''Kyle LeBlanc''
2004	''Wake of Death''	''Ben Archer''
	''Narco''	''Jean's Ghost by Lenny''
2006	''Sınav''	''Charles''
	''The Hard Corps''	''Phillip Sauvage''
	''Second in Command''	''Sam Keenan''
2007	''The Shepherd''	Jack Robideaux
	''Until Death''	''Anthony Stowe''

References

1. http://www.filmreference.com/film/93/Jean-Claude-Van-Damme.html
2. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800019806/bio
3. Belgian Bruiser Muscles Into B-Movie Scene ', John Stanley, ''San Francisco Chronicle'', 2 April 1989
4. Karate black belt)
5. 'Van Damme speaks language of karate', Louis B Parks, ''Houston Chronicle'', 29 April 1988
6. 'Playboy interview', Lawrence Grobel, ''Playboy'', 1 January 1995
7. 'Van Damme gets his kicks from acting now, not karate', Jae-Ha Kim, ''Chicago Sun-Times'', 14 April 1989
8. 'Monaco Forever credits'
9. http://www.maximonline.com/articles/index.aspx?a_id=364
10. http://bipolar.about.com/cs/celebs/a/jeanclaude.htm
11. Abstract Thinker

External links

★

★ Official Jean-Claude Van Damme site

★ The Jean-Claude Van Damme site

★ Fansite in English