Biography for
Jean-Claude Van Damme

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Date of Birth

18 October 1960, Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, Brussels, Belgium

Birth Name

Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg

Soprannome

Muscles from Brussels

Statura

5' 8" (1.73 m)

Mini Biography

When Jean-Claude Van Damme became an international film star, there was some debate as to his ring accomplishments. Former multiple World Kickboxing Champion Don "The Dragon" Wilson even offered Jean-Claude a "$100,000" bounty match to get into the ring and fight him. Van Damme brushed off the "challenge" as a publicity stunt. But, the truth of the matter was that Jean-Claude Van Damme had indeed had a kick-boxing career, which turned out to be very successful on the European scene. 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. In 1976, at the age of 16, Jean-Claude made his full-contact karate debut under his birth name, Jean Claude Van Varenberg, with a first round knockout over fellow countryman, Toon Van Oostrum in Brussels, Belgium. Van Damme had been badly stunned in the fight, and Claude Goetz's felt that he needed more training before competing again. Two years later, a well-schooled and well-trained Van Damme won his first tournament by scoring 3 knockout victories in one evening.A few months later at Iseghem, Belgium, Van Damme knocked out Emile Leibman in the first round. In 1979, a 19 year old Van Damme took his undefeated record of 10-0 (10 knockouts) to Orlando, Florida in the United States to compete in the (WAKO) World All-Styles Kickboxing Organization's World Full-Contact Championships. In his first match, Van Damme climbed off the canvas to knockout Sherman "Big Train" Bergman (Florida, USA) with an Axe-kick in 59 seconds of the first round. In the quarter-finals, Jean-Claude knocked out Gilberto Diaz in 33 seconds with a spinning back-fist. However, in the semi-finals, Jean-Claude lost a 2-round decision to fellow countryman Patrick Teugels. Van Damme returned to Europe, and fighting on the under-card of the March 1980 main event between France's Dominique Valera and the U.S.A.'s Dan Macaruso in Brussels, Belgium, in which he knocked out France's Georges Verlugels in 2 rounds to win the European Professional Middleweight Kickboxing Championship. After this victory, Van Damme caught 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. Jean-Claude Van Damme defeated Patrick Teugels in under two minutes in their rematch. Following the victory, Jean-Claude retired from active competition with a 17-1 (17 knockouts)record. The sport of Full-Contact Karate later became known as Kickboxing. 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.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Desiree Allen

Mini Biography

Born on Oct 18 1960, Jean-Claude Van Damme is the son of Eugene Van Varenberg and Eliana Van Varenberg. "The Muscles from Brussels" originally known as Jean-Claude Van Varenberg, started martial arts at the age of 11. His father Eugene Van Varenberg introduced him to martial arts when he saw his son was physically weak. Jean-Claude started with Shotokan Karate and later studied Kickboxing, Taekwon-Do, and Muay Thai. He won the European professional karate association's middleweight championship as a teenager, and also beat the 2nd best karate fighter in the world. His goal was to be number one but got sidetracked when he left his hometown of Brussels.

He came to Hong Kong at the age of 19 for the first time and felt insured to do action movies in Hong Kong. So in 1981 Van Damme left Hong Kong and moved to Los Angeles, where he was trying for 5 years. He took English classes while working as carpet layer, pizza delivery man, limo driver, and thanks to Chuck Norris he got a job as a bouncer at a club. Norris gave Van Damme a small role in the movie Missing in Action (1984), but it wasn't good enough to get anybody's attention. Then in 1984 he got a role as a villain named Ivan in the low-budget movie No Retreat, No Surrender (1986).

Then one day, while walking on the streets, Jean-Claude spotted a producer for Cannon Pictures, and showed some of his martial arts abilities which led to a role in Bloodsport (1988). But the movie, filmed in Hong Kong, was so bad when it was completed, it was shelved for almost two years. It might have never been released if Van Damme did not help them to recut the film and begged producers to release it. They finally released the film, first in Malaysia and France and then into the U.S. Shot on a meager 1.5 million dollar budget, it became a U.S box-office hit in the spring of 1988. It made about 30 million worldwide and audiences supported this film for its new sensational action star Jean-Claude Van Damme.

His martial arts assets, highlighted by his ability to deliver a kick to an opponent's head during a leaping 360-degree turn, and his good looks led to starring roles in higher budgeted movies like Cyborg (1989), Lionheart (1990), Double Impact (1991) and Universal Soldier (1992). In 1994, he scored with his big breakthrough $100 million worldwide hit Timecop (1994). But in the meantime, his personal life was coming apart. A divorce, followed by a new marriage, followed by another divorce.

It began to show up in his career when his projects began to tank at the box office - The Quest (1996), which he directed; Maximum Risk (1996) and Double Team (1997). The three films made less than $50 million combined.

In 1999 he remarried his ex-wife Gladys Portugues and restarted his lost career to attain new goals. With help from his family he faced his problems and made movies like Replicant (2001), Derailed (2002), and In Hell (2003) which did averagely in box office terms, but he tried to give his fans the best, his acting in those movies got better, more emotional and each movie was basically in different action tones.

IMDb Mini Biography By: The Old Fox (oldfox@yahoo.com)

Coniuge

Gladys Portugues	(25 June 1999 - present)
Darcy LaPier	(3 February 1994 - November 1997) (divorced) 1 child
Gladys Portugues	(3 January 1987 - 1992) (divorced) 2 children
Cynthia Derderian	(24 August 1985 - 1986) (divorced)
Maria Rodriguez	(25 August 1980 - 1984) (divorced)

Trade Mark

Thrilling one and all with his 360-degree ultimate leaping & super flying karate kicks.

Curiosità

His fight scenes are so intense that he won't film them in the U.S. for fear of being sued.

In 1989, he was sued for willfully gouging the eye of an extra in a sword fight while filming Cyborg (1989).

Won a court case filed against him by martial arts legend Frank Dux, who claimed he collaborated with Van Damme on his 1996 directorial debut The Quest (1996), only for Van Damme to deny him any share of the profits. His evidence was lost in an earthquake. Coincidentally, Van Damme played Dux in his debut Bloodsport (1988).

Former European Professional Karate Association middleweight champion.

On July 10, 2000, Van Damme was sentenced to an anti-drunk driving class, a $1,200 fine, 3 years probation and a 90 day revocation of his license after pleading no contest for a September 23, 1999 DUI arrest in Beverly Hills.

Once said he learned to speak English by watching the cartoon "The Flintstones" (1960).

In Jesse Ventura's book, he mentions Van Damme as having played Predator (1987) monster until he was fired and replaced by Kevin Peter Hall.

Studied classical ballet for five years

Speaks Flemish, English, French, Spanish and German.

In his late teens he opened a gym called California Fitness Center.

Was student of Dominique Valera.

Was a European Middle Weight Champion in Karate in his late teens.

Likes classical music and his favorite composer is Beethoven.

He became the Professional European Kickboxing Champion in 1980, after losing in the WAKO World Full-Contact Karate Championships in Orlando, Florida in 1979.

Can lift 166 kg on a bench.

Has his own production companies, Long Road Productions / 777 Films Corp.

Was the original choice to play the title character in Predator (1987).

Related to Screenwriter Adam Burnett through marriage.

One-time sparring partner of Chuck Norris during the early 80s.

Children: Kristopher Van Varenberg (b. 1987) and Bianca Van Varenberg (b. 1990) with Gladys Portugues; son Nicholas (b. 1995) with Darcy LaPier.

He was the inspiration for the character Johnny Cage from Mortal Kombat. One of Johnny Cage's special moves is doing the splits while punching his opponent in the groin, as seen when Van Damme's character, Frank Dux, punches his large sumo opponent in Bloodsport (1988).

As the original choice to play the role of the alien hunter itself in the movie Predator (1987), he hit a few personal snags. For starters, he was not happy with the fact that his face would not be shown on camera, and that he would be having an uncredited special effects role. He was also not fond of the original monster suit - he frequently passed out due to heat exhaustion. Because he complained so much and was very uncooperative, he was fired from the film. When Stan Winston's Predator design came in, Kevin Peter Hall was chosen to play the title role and filled it perfectly. Supposedly, Van Damme has no regrets on backing out of the Predator project.

Purchased a condominium in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Knocked out Germany's Eric 'Basel' Strauss in 18 seconds in 1978 at Antwerp, Belgium, in a scheduled 3-round full-contact match.

Knocked-out Emile Leibman in the first round of a scheduled three-round full-contact match at Iseghem, Belgium in 1979.

Often states 'Charlie Chaplin (I)' as the first great action star.

Adopted Van Damme as his stage name from one of his friend's father name. He considered it punchy, short and clear than his birth name of Van Verenberg.

Brother of Veronique Van Varenberg.

Films often contain injuries to the groin area. Examples: Double Impact (1991) Hard Target (1993) and Timecop (1994).

Fought on the 1978 under-card of the main event between France's Dominique Valera and U.S.A.'s Dan Macaruso. The fight took place in 1980 in Brussels, Belgium; he scored a second round technical knockout victory.

At Mulhouse, Belgium in 1978, he knocked out Andre (Robar) Robaeys in 1 round of a scheduled 3-round full-contact match.

At Opprebais, Belgium in 1978, he stopped Jacques Piniarski in 1 round of a scheduled 3-round full-contact match.

In 1980, in Brussels, fighting under his birth name, Jean Claude Van Varenberg, he knocked out a fighter known as Verlugels in 2 rounds.

Fighting as Jean Claude Van Varenberg, he knocked out Rolf Risberg in 1 round of a scheduled 3-round full-contact match in Ingelmunster, Belgium, in 1979.

Suffered his only defeat to a Belgian fighter, Patrick Teugels by 2-round decision at the World Full-Contact Championships in Orlando, Florida in 1979. Reversed his only defeat by beating Teugels in less then two minutes in their rematch in 1980.

Fighting as Jean-Claude Van Varenberg, he climbed off the canvas to knock out Sherman (Big Train) Bergman of Miami Beach, Florida with an Axe-kick in one round at the World Full-Contact Championships in Orlando, Florida in 1979.

He was another consideration for a villain in Rush Hour 3 (2007).

He was considered for the role of Wolverine at one point in X-Men (2000).

Was briefly considered for the role of Michael Cheritto in Heat (1995).

Personal Quotes

"I am the Fred Astaire of karate".

"In an action film you act in the action. If it's a dramatic film you act in the drama."

"I've become 40, my audience is partly the same age."

"God gave me a great body and it's my duty to take care of my physical temple."

"What is a movie star? It is an illusion. It was everything I ever wanted to be, but it became a kind of shell, non? It was what made me famous and got me women. But it wasn't real"

"I took his (Alex Van Damme) name, in fact from his father because his father sent me for the first time in Hong Kong to be a picture model. I'm not enough tall to be a catwalk model, plus too big for that, and we became very good friends and I took his name as an honor. Because my name, by the way, is too complicated, it's Van Veren Berg, so in America it sounds like "Van Varen Berg" (said with American accent). So Van Damme it's punchy, short, and clear." - [on adopting the name 'Van Damme']

"Time Cop could have been a very profitable franchise, but those idiots chose instead to sell the rights to television. That could have also been the case with Bloodsport, but they settled instead on second-rate kick-boxers for the sequels." - [on his famous films sequels]

"An action hero has to be always in shape mentally and physically. People, sometimes they believe Sly, Arnold, myself, we're athletes, you cannot make mistakes. But Hollywood forgives, I guess."

"Ten, 15 years ago, Sly, Arnold, those guys, were well-built; of course, they had to act and find good scripts, but today action heroes don't have to be Mr. Muscles. What really helps a guy to become an action hero today is the directing of the movie. All those fast cuts."

[His response to being asked what he thinks of his nickname 'Muscles from Brussels]: "It's better than being called 'The Idiot from Brussels'."

"I'm one of the most sensitive human beings on Earth -- and I know it."

"My dreams came true in America. It's not possible in Belgium. I grew up sadly. Skinny kid. Big, thick glasses. Everything I've done is a miracle."

"I love challenges. If you don't have any and can do whatever you want, then it's probably time to die."

"I liked the movement, technique and philosophy and I was training to be the best. Karate's a very boring sport, but when you know the technique you can go further and further. You need at least six or seven years to understand the philosophy and concentration of karate to know to clean your spirit of everything and dedicate your mind and body to the sport. I also use it for concentration before acting scenes."

"I love playing the villain, but a villain with class."

Salario

Sudden Death (1995)	$5,000,000
Street Fighter (1994)	$6,200,000
Timecop (1994)	$3,000,000
Hard Target (1993)	$3,000,000
Universal Soldier (1992)	$1,000,000
Death Warrant (1990)	$70,000
Lionheart (1990)	$70,000
Kickboxer (1989)	$70,000
Cyborg (1989)	$70,000
Black Eagle (1988)	$70,000
Bloodsport (1988)	$70,000

Where Are They Now

(October 2004) Started filming Kumite on September 27th.

(February 2007) Started filming The Shepherd: Border Patrol (2008) in Bulgaria.

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