Jean-Claude Van Damme

Jean-Claude Van Damme also known as the 'Muscles from Brussels' is an actor, director, producer and screenwriter who was born in Brussels, Belgium. He was born on October 18th, 1960, under the name: Jean-Claude Van Varenberg.

Van Damme is married to fitness expert and former female bodybuilding champion, Gladys Portugues, and he is the proud father of Kristopher [1987], Bianca [1990], and Nicolas [1995]. As a child, he was a shy, skinny kid, who loved drawing and music; but he was later inspired later by the images of super heroes from comic books.

He decided to change his own image when his father took him to the National Karate Centre of Belgium (owned by the famous karate and kickboxing sensei, Claude Goetz). Due to his incredible determination, Van Damme became in great shape and gained a great physical strength due to the non-stop training, everyday. He also took ballet classes, besides martial arts, and bodybuilding; in order to gain superior body flexibility.

Damme won many karate and kickboxing championships (under the name Van Varenberg) after defeating the most fearsome names in the game, and he then won the bodybuilding title of ‘Mr. Belgium.’Later, after these glorious victories in the world of martial arts and sports, he wanted to push his talent to a new level, and he decided that he wanted to become an international movie star. First step towards his new dream was going to Hong Kong. Impressed by his physique and martial arts skills, movie producers gave him a role in the martial arts movie, “No Retreat, No Surrender.”

Van Damme caught the attention of the martial arts movie fans through this role, as it was the first time they got to see an agile martial artist with such a muscular bodybuilder shape!But his real birth as a movie star was when he was offered the leading role in “Bloodsport.” After the huge worldwide success of “Bloodsport,” he started doing movies in USA. He went from one success to another, with films like “Lionheart,” “Double Impact,” “Universal Soldier” “Nowhere to Run,” “Hard Target,” “Timecop,” and “Maximum Risk,” to name a few. Films starring Steve McQueen and Bruce Lee were his favorites to shoot.

Van Damme said that he got motivated after watching, “Enter the Dragon,” and he wanted to posses the same strength and agility of Lee (despite their different styles of fight forms) in which he admires and respects his spiritual teachings and philosophical views. In 2011, on a TV show, legendary martial artist and actor Bolo Yeung (who has worked with both Lee & Van Damme on “Enter the Dragon, Bloodsport, and Double Impact) classified both actors and martial artists as the best in the business of all time. He then became the world's highest paid martial arts actor. The late 90's to early 2000's witnessed a new type of actor in Van Damme; who began to mix action with drama, winning the admiration of both fans and critics for movies like “Legionnaire,” “Replicant,” “In Hell,” “Wake of Death,” and “Until Death.”

In 2008, Van Damme thrilled the world by his performance in the movie, “JCVD.” He earned the best critical notices of his career for the movie in which he played himself. TIME Magazine stated, "He deserves not a black belt, but an Oscar®." From 2009 – 2011, the highlights include: His writing, directing, and starring in “Soldiers” (aka “The Eagle Path”). He was back as Luc Deveraux, in “Universal Soldier: Regeneration;” followed by “Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning” (in 3D). He did the voice of ‘Master Croc’ in the Oscar®-nominee, and Annie Award Winner feature film, “Kung Fu Panda 2.” He starred in two action movies, “Assassination Games,” and “Six Bullets.” “The Expendables 2” is the fourth time Van Damme has played a ‘villain’ role during his acting career; proving his ability as an actor to change the skin of the ‘macho man’ type of roles in which he is usually cast.

In 2012, Van Damme acted in his first dry-humor movie, “Welcome to the Jungle.” Today, Jean-Claude Van Damme is an all-round actor; doing action, drama and comedy. While still going on with his main passion of filmmaking, through the ups and downs of life, Van Damme is also paying attention to humanitarian issues and animal rights; as he has always had a dream of spreading true peace throughout the world!

Millennium Films