Jean-Claude Van Damme

 Jean-Claude Van Damme

Jean-Claude Van Damme (born October 18, 1960) is a Belgian martial artist and actor who is best known for his large catalogue of action movies. His Belgian background combined with his physique gave rise to his nickname "The Muscles from Brussels". Van Damme has also been called the "King of the Belgians" due to his international superstardom.

He currently lives in Alhaurín el Grande (Spain).

Early life
Jean-Claude Van Damme was born Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe (Brussels), Belgium, to Eliana and Eugene Van Varenberg, an accountant and owner of a flower shop. He began martial arts at the age of ten, enrolled by his father in a shotokan karate school. He eventually earned his black belt in karate,later winning the European Professional Karate Association's middleweight championship (although he has claimed that he was "twice world champion". He also 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. He says of ballet that it "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."

At the age of 18,Jean-Claude Van Damme opened up the California Gym in Brussels, which one article claimed brought in $15,000 a month. Van Damme was first seen on screen in the French-made Rue Barbare, released in 1984, followed in the same year with Monaco Forever, where he was credited as 'Very Gay Karate Man'. This gave Van Damme the impetus to give up his profitable fitness business in favor of acting. He sold his gym business and left for America in the early 1980s (having first tried Hong Kong), initially sleeping in a rented car and doing odd jobs until he broke into film.

Fight career
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 and strikes. Van Damme has also studied Taekwondo and Muay Thai, along with Shotokan Karate.

In 1978, at the age of 18, Jean-Claude Van Damme made his full-contact karate debut under his birth name, Jean Claude Van Varenberg. Some sources report that Van Damme was a professional fighter, however, based on the fact that he fought in numerous tournaments, it seems likely that all his matches were amateur bouts. Jean-Claude entered his first tournament in Antwerp, Belgium in the Novice Division, and scored three victories;an 18 second knockout over Germany's Eric "Basel" Strauss, a 9 second stoppage over Michel Juvillier(Juvillier quit), and a 26 second stoppage of Orlando Lang. A few months later at a tournament in Iseghem, Belgium, Van Damme knocked out both Emile Leibman and Cyrille Nollet in the first round.

After fighting on the under-card of the main event between France's Dominique Valera and the U.S.A.'s Dan Macaruso in Brussels, Belgium, in which he knocked out a fighter named Verlugels in 2 rounds, Van Damme started to catch 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.

In 1979, the nineteen year old Jean-Claude Van Damme (fighting under his birth name of Van Varenberg) won the European Full-Contact Championship in the middleweight division. A series of quick knockouts over Andre Robaeys, Jacques Piniarski, and Rolf Risberg, prepared Jean-Claude for the up-coming world championships in the United States.

Traveling to Orlando, Florida in the United States, Jean-Claude Van Damme set his sights on winning the World Full-Contact Middleweight Title. In his first tournament match, Van Damme scored a first round stoppage over U.S.A.'s Sherman Bergman (Miami Beach, Florida). In his second match, he stopped Gil Diaz (Madrid, Spain) in the opening round. However, in the quarter-finals, Jean-Claude was defeated by a Belgian fighter named Patrick Teugels. Teugels went on to become Vice-Champion of the World. In a rematch in Brussels a few months later, Van Damme avenged his only defeat by stopping Teugels in less than two minutes. Following the victory, Jean-Claude retired from active competition with a 14-1 (14 knockouts) record.

Controversy arose after Jean-Claude Van Damme'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.

Early films
Jean-Claude Van Damme appeared as an extra in Breakin' during one of the breakdance scenes. In 1985, he played Ivan Krushensky in No Retreat, No Surrender, which starred Kurt McKinney in the starring role. The director of the film, Patrick Passis, was a close friend.

Van Damme was scheduled to play the part of the camouflaged extraterrestrial monster in the Arnold Schwarzenegger action film Predator, but wearing the heavy alien costume in the jungle was too difficult, and Van Damme, unhappy with his role, left the production. How he left the picture is disputed: some sources say he quit, others say he was replaced when the character was revised. Van Damme claims he intentionally got fired so he could move on to other movies by intentionally injuring a stuntman according to Jesse Ventura's autobiography.

Jean-Claude Van Damme's breakthrough role came in Bloodsport, a film that earned him a nomination as "Worst New Star" in the 1988 Golden Raspberry Awards. The critics were unimpressed, but Bloodsport proved to be Van Damme's stepping stone to more lucrative roles. The movie became a cult classic and is seen as one of the major contributors to the rise in popularity of Mixed Martial Arts.

Van Damme became well known for his ability to do full splits while performing stunts, and his better than average flexibility, even for a martial arts practitioner. Many of his movies feature scenes showcasing him performing such splits.

Mainstream films
Jean-Claude Van Damme worked his way up to Hollywood mainstream in the 1990s, often working with acclaimed foreign directors. Notable films include Kickboxer (1989), Double Impact (1991), Universal Soldier (1992), Nowhere to Run (1993), Hard Target (1993), Sudden Death (1995) and his most critically acclaimed work, Timecop (1994). Many of these roles included doppelgänger or Lazarus themes involving Van Damme's characters, an aspect unusual for the action movie genre. These films have earned over $1 billion worldwide, earning him a place in the action film world along with others like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

He also wrote, directed and starred in The Quest (1996).

Rothrock's stated that, "throughout my life, I've been opening the door for other women to get involved with this (martial arts movies). I was the first woman to be on the cover of a karate magazine and the first woman to win a men's championship."