Biography for
Jean-Claude Van Damme More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

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

Birth Name

Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg

Nickname

Muscles from Brussels
J.C.

Height

5' 9" (1.75 m)

Mini Biography

When Jean-Claude Van Damme became an international film star, there was some debate as to his kick-boxing 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 was a successful semi-contact and full-contact fighter who competed in Europe and briefly in the United States from 1976-1982.

At the age of 12, Van Damme began his martial arts training at Centre National De Karate (National Center of Karate) under the guidance of Master Claude Goetz in Ixelles, Belgium. Van Damme trained for 4 years and earned a spot on the Belgium Karate Team.

In 1976 at the age of sixteen, Jean-Claude started his Martial Arts fight career as a 135-pound lightweight. Over the next 6-years, he competed in both full-contact and semi-contact matches.

He debuted under his birth name of Jean Claude Van Varenberg. In his first match, Jean-Claude was staggered by a round-house kick thrown by fellow countryman, Toon Van Oostrum in Brussels, Belgium. Van Damme was badly stunned, but came back to knockout Van Oostrum moments later. Jean-Claude defeated Roland Vedani in a semi-contact competition in Ingelmunster, Belgium.

In 1977, at the WAKO Open International in Antwerp, Belgium, Jean-Claude lost a decision to fellow team mate Patrick Teugels in a semi-contact match.

At the 1978 Challenge De Espoirs Karate Tournament (1st Trials),Jean-Claude placed 2nd in the semi-contact division. He defeated twenty-five opponents during the week long tournament, but lost in the finals to Angelo Spataro from the Naha Club. Later in 1978, Jean-Claude lost a 3-round match for the Belgium Lightweight Championship (semi-contact) to his fellow team-mate to Patrick Teugels. Van Damme ended the year by losing in the opening eliminations at the 1978 WAKO Amateur World Championships, thus failing to place in the top 10.

In 1979, Jean-Claude was an alternate member of the Belgium Karate Team when it traveled to Tampa, Florida to compete in the WAKO World Championships promoted by Mike Anderson. In his first and only match against a United States opponent, Van Damme faced 'Sherman 'Big Train'Bergman', a kick-boxer from the Miami Beach, Florida in a non-tournament match which was fought under full-contact rules. For the first and only time in his career, Jean-Claude was knocked to the canvas after absorbing a powerful left hook from Bergman. However, Jean-Claude climbed off the canvas and with a perfectly timed ax-kick, knocked Bergman out cold in 56 seconds of the first round. Van Damme never competed in the tournament. He went on to defeat Gilberto Dias by forfeit due to injury in the first round of an international light-contact match fought in Belgium. Following that match, Jean-Claude was a member of the Belgium team which competed on December 26, 1979 at the La Coupe Fancois Persoons Karate Tournament which was sanctioned by the Federation bruxelloise de Karate. Van Damme's final match victory enabled his team to win the European Team Karate Championship.

In Full-Contact karate, Jean-Claude knocked out England's Micheal Heming in 46 seconds to win the European Middleweight Full-Contact Championship.

In 1980, Jean-Claude Van Damme knocked out France's Georges Verlugels in 2 rounds of a match fought under kick-boxing rules.

After these victories, Van Damme caught the attention of the European martial arts community. Professional Karate Magazine publisher and editor Mike Anderson, and multiple European Champion Geet Lemmens tabbed Jean-Claude Van Damme as an upcoming prospect. However, Jean-Claude's ambitions now focused in the direction of movie acting.

Before he retired from active competition, Jean-Claude wanted to defeat his rival Patrick Teugels, and a rubber-match was scheduled at the Forest Nationals in Brussels, on March 8, 1980. The match was held on a professional card, but it was listed as an under-card match. The match was fought under "light-contact" rules and ended when Jean-Claude knocked Teugels down and Teugels suffered a nose injury and was unable to continue. The official result was a "forfeit win due to injury."

Following the victory, Jean-Claude retired from martial arts competition, but a year later he launched a comeback. In 1981, he knocked out Henk Besselman, Mustapha-Ahmad Benamou, and Ajom Muhmud Uddin. In 1982, Jean-Claude knocked out Lenny Leikman, Daniel Le Jaouen, and Nedjad Gharbi in Brussels,Belgium.

Videos and newspaper reports support Jean-Claude's Van Damme's claim to a successful fight record. Jean-Claude posted a 18-1 (18 knockouts) Kickboxing record, and a Semi-Contact record of 41-4.

After Jean-Claude's film career took off, controversy arose because none of his fights were found. Some experts blasted Van Damme as a fake, saying he only had one amateur fight which he lost. But research and the Internet have finally cleared things up. Jean-Claude Van Damme fought his entire fight career under his birth name of Van Varenberg; thus the mix-up.

In August, 2009, it was announced that Jean-Claude Van Damme would return to the ring after a 27 year retirement to fight Thailand's Somrak Khamsing in a match promoted by Japan's K-1. The comeback fight is scheduled for 2012.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Alain Bernard

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)

Spouse

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.

Frequently performs splits in his movies

Trivia

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).

Member of the 1979 European Team Champions.

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

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.

Jean-Claude Van Damme failed to place in either the 1978 or 1979 WAKO World Championships. However, he was a member of the 1979 Belgium Team when it won the European Team Championships. He also won at the Hope Cup, Cup of Antwerp, The Gala International and The Forest Nationals.

Can lift 166 kg on a bench.

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 Bree (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.

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 Varenberg.

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 March 8, 1980 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, and Jean-Claude stopped Patrick Teugels by first round knockout, fracturing Teugels nose.

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.

Van Dammes only defeat was to Patrick Teugels, his former team mate on the Belgium team. However, Van Damme won both the rematch and the rubber match.

In 1979, 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.

The character of Johnny Cage from the Mortal Kombat games was initially modeled on Jean Claude Van Damme. Mortal Kombat was initially envisioned as a gaming vehicle for Van Damme, but Midway and Van Damme could not come to terms on the costs for using his likeness.

Kickboxing Record: 18-1-0 (18 knockouts) 1976: Won: Knocked out Toon Van Oostrum in 1 round. 1977:Won: Knocked out Andre Lemaire in 1 round. Won: Knocked out Eric Bruno Strauss in 1 round.1978: Lost: Decision to Patrick Teugels in 3 rounds. 1978: Won: Knocked out Michel Juvillier in 1 round. 1978: Won: Knocked out Orlando Lang in 1 round. 1978: Won: Knocked out Emile Leibman in 1 round. 1978: Won: Knocked out Cyrille in 1 round. 1979: Won: Knocked out Andre Robaeys in 1 round. 1979: Won: Knocked out Jacques Piniarski in 1 round. 1979: Won: Knocked out Rolf Risberg in 1 round. 1979: Won: Knocked out Sherman Bergman in 1 round.1980: Won: Knocked out Micheal J. Heming in 1 round. 1980: Won: Knocked out Georges Verlugels in 2 rounds. 1981: Won: Knocked out Henk Besselman in 1 round. 1981: Won: Knocked out Mustapha Ahmad Benamou in 1 round. 1981: Won: Knocked out Ajom Mahmud Uddin in one round. 1982: Won: Knocked out out Lenny Leikman in 3 rounds. 1982: Won: Knocked out Daniel Le Jaouen in 1 round. 1982: Won: Knocked out Nedjad Gharbi in 1 round.

Lives in Hong Kong and Knokke-Heist, Belgium.

Jean-Claude Van Damme knocked out Holland's Henk Besselman in 1 round of a kick-boxing match in Brussels, Belguim in 1981.

When first arriving in Hollywood, in the 1980s, his jobs consisted of waiter, delivering pizza, taxi driver and as a bouncer at Chuck Norris club, Woody's World, at Newport Beach.

In a 1982 comeback match, Jean-Claude Van Damme Knocked out Belgium's Daniel Le Jaouen in 1:05 of the 1st round in a full-contact match at Brussels,Belgium.

Jean-Claude Van Damme knocked out India's Nedjad Gharbi in 1 round in Brussels,Belgium in 1982.

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.

(2008) I see dogs on the street, and I adopt them. I took seven dogs from Thailand, and a few of them are paralyzed. One has three paws instead of four. One is limping, so we bought him a wheelchair. I spent my own money to fly them back by private jet. In commercial, they can have heart attacks because of stress - it's dark and icy cold. I love animals. I have nine dogs and a kitty. My biggest orgasm - not in a sexual way - is to walk with my dogs on the beach. In Belgium we have these wide sidewalks. You feel like you're on the Planet Moon, and I can make them feel like movie stars.

[on rejecting Sylvester Stallone's offer of a part in The Expendables (2010)] Stallone gave me a part in his next movie, but I ask him about the subject, about the story. He said, 'You're gonna make lots of money.' I don't want to hear that, I want to hear what was my character. He was unable to tell what it's going to be. [Stallone said:] 'You know, uh, well, the fighting will be good.' [So I said:] 'Syl, what is my character?' So I didn't do the movie.

[on Timecop (1994) director Peter Hyams] He was the only one who visited me in the clinic when I was there years ago. All the agents and managers who made a fortune with me never came.

[circa 1992] You have to have a dream, the passion to make it, to make it, to really, really make it.

Salary

The Hard Corps (2006) (V)	$3,000,000 - $3,500,000
Sudden Death (1995)	$5,000,000
Street Fighter (1994)	$8,000,000
Timecop (1994)	$5,000,000
Hard Target (1993)	$3,500,000
Universal Soldier (1992)	$1,500,000
Double Impact (1991)	$600,000
Death Warrant (1990)	$75,000
Kickboxer (1989)	$70,000
Cyborg (1989)	$50,000
Black Eagle (1988)	$70,000
Bloodsport (1988)	$25,000
No Retreat, No Surrender (1986)	$250