Jean-Claude Van Damme

Jean-Claude Van Damme — Biography

Jean-Claude Van Damme, born Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg on 18 October 1960 in the Berchem-Sainte-Agathe district of Brussels, is a Belgian martial artist, actor, film producer and fight choreographer. His father sent him to a Shotokan karate school at age ten, and he went on to earn a second-degree black belt and compete in karate and kickboxing tournaments, winning the European Professional Karate Association's middleweight title and the Mr. Belgium bodybuilding crown as a teenager. Chasing an acting career, he crossed the Atlantic in 1982, taking odd jobs and minor film work until he landed the lead in Bloodsport (1988). A run of hits followed that made him a leading action star: Cyborg and Kickboxer came first, then Lionheart, Double Impact and Universal Soldier, followed later by Hard Target, Timecop, Street Fighter and Sudden Death; he also made his directing debut with The Quest. After a slump in the late 1990s, he drew praise playing a fictionalized version of himself in JCVD (2008) and returned to action as the villain in The Expendables 2 (2012). He has since appeared in Kickboxer: Retaliation, The Bouncer and Minions: The Rise of Gru, and fronted the Ridley Scott series Jean-Claude Van Johnson from 2016 to 2017. He remains a public supporter of conservation causes.