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Endpoint: Jean-Claude Van Damme



07:24
Videos (5)
created on: 30/09/2016
by: bob (9197)
 
 

Person properties

General info :
Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg (born 18 October 1960, Sint-Agatha-Berchem, Brussels, Belgium), professionally known as Jean-Claude Van Damme and abbreviated as JCVD, is a Belgian actor, martial artist, screenwriter, film producer, and director best known for his martial arts action films.
The most successful of these films include Bloodsport (1988), Kickboxer (1989), Lionheart (1990), Double Impact (1991), Universal Soldier (1992), Hard Target (1993), Street Fighter (1994), Timecop (1994), Sudden Death (1995), JCVD (2008) and The Expendables 2 (2012), Kung Fu Panda 2, and 3 (2011-2015).

He began martial arts at the age of ten, enrolled by his father in a Shotokan karate school. His styles consist of Shotokan Karate and Kickboxing. He eventually earned his black belt in karate at 18. 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." Later he took up both Taekwondo and Muay Thai.
From 1976 to 1980, Van Damme compiled a record of 44 victories and 4 defeats in tournament and non-tournament semi-contact matches.
Van Damme began his full-contact career in 1977, when Claude Goetz promoted the first ever full-contact karate tournament in Belgium.
From 1977 to 1982, Van Damme compiled a record of 18 victories (18 knockouts) and 1 defeat. He was even named "Mr. Belgium" in a bodybuilding competition.

In 1982, Van Damme and childhood friend Michel Qissi moved to the United States in the hope of becoming action stars. They were both cast as extras in the film, Breakin'. Van Damme also had a non-speaking part as a Secret Service agent who carries a polio-crippled President Franklin Roosevelt (Ralph Bellamy) out of a pool in the 1988 TV miniseries War and Remembrance. After a small part in Missing In Action, Van Damme was next cast in the film No Retreat, No Surrender, as the role of the villain, Ivan the Russian. Van Damme worked for director John McTiernan for the 1987 film Predator as an early (eventually abandoned) version of the titular alien, before being removed and replaced by Kevin Peter Hall.

His breakout film was Bloodsport, based on the alleged true story of Frank Dux.
Relations :
Married to [m. 1994 - div. 1997] : Darcy LaPier
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Married to [m. 1987 - div. 1992 - m. 1999 -] : Gladys Portugues
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Source :
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ENA's Jean Claude Van Damme

Movies

(98 items)

Item number : 12968

Submitted by : bob (9197)
on : 30/09/2016
Refined by : Lo55o (12487)
Last updated on: 20/08/2018