Jean-Claude Van Damme full name was Jean-Claude Camille Francois Van Varenberg. He was a Belgian actor, martial artist, fight choreographer and a film maker. He was born in 18th October 1960 at Sint-Agatha-Berchem municipality, Brussels capital, Belgium. He was the son of Eliana Van Varenberg (mother) and Eugene Van Varenberg (father). He was an accountant and a florist also.
Jean-Claude Van Damme had learned martial arts at the age of 10. He enrolled in the Shotokan Karate School. His styles would consist of Shotokan Karate and Kickboxing.
Jean-Claude Van Damme had joined the “Centre National de karate” under the guidance of Claude Goetz in belgium at the age of 12. He was trained for 4 years and had earned the spot on the Belgian Karate Team.
Jean-Claude Van Damme had later trained in the full contact karate and the kick boxing with the French kick boxer ‘Dominique Valera’. He had started his competitive karate career in the Belgium at the age of 15.
Jean-Claude Van Damme had taken up the ballet performance at the age of 16 and it was studied up-to 5 years. According to him ballet is an art, but it is one of the most difficult sports.
Jean-Claude Van Damme was earned his black belt in the Karate at the age of 18.
In that time, he had started lifting the weights to improve his physique eventually. It was lead to the Mr. Belgium bodybuilding competition.
Jean-Claude Van Damme had the record of 44 victories and the 4 defeats in the tournament and in the non tournament semi contact matches from 1976 to 1980. He was also a member of the Belgian Karate Team that won the “European Karate Championship” on 26th December 1979.
Jean-Claude Van Damme had placed at the challenge “Coupe des Espoirs karate Tournament” 1st trails. He had defeated 25 opponents before losing in the finals to the teammate ‘Angelo Spataro’ at the 3 day tournament.
On 8th March 1980, capital of Belgium in Brussels, he had competed against his former teammate Patrick Teugels at the Forest National Arena on the undercard.
Action choreographer Van Damme had begun his career in the year 1977 at Belgium.
He had the record of 18 victories that was 18 knockouts and 1 defeat from 1977 to 1982.
Jean-Claude Van Damme had an unaccredited role in the director Andre Delvaux’s “Woman Between Wolf and Dog”. It was a Belgian French drama film that was starring Marie-Christine Barrault and the Rutger Hauer from 1977 to 1982.
In the year 1980, Jean-Claude Van Damme had caught the attention of the Professional Karate Magazine publisher and the editor Mike Anderson. Similarly, he also caught attention of the multiple European champion Geert Lemmens. He got retired from the competition in the year 1982.
In this time, actor Jean-Claude Van Damme had sold the flowers in the restaurants. He had saved some money before going to the United States during his early life.
Jean-Claude Van Damme and his childhood friend Michel Qissi had moved to the United States in the hope of the working as the actors.
They did variety of jobs to support themselves. In 1984, they did their first job. They are worked on the film as an extra in the hip hop dance film “Breakin” which was made by the Cannon Films. In this time, Jean-Claude Van Damme had started the work as a bouncer at a bar that was named “Woody’s Wharf” owned by the film star ‘Chuck Norris’.
In 1989, Van Damme had become popular action film star for the movies Cyborg & Kick boxer.
After that, Jean-Claude Van Damme did several successful movies. Some of the movies are mentioned below.
- In 1990, he did a movie Lionheart.
- In 1991, he did a movie Double impact.
- In 1992, he did a movie Universal Soldier.
- In 1993, he did the movies “Nowhere to Run & Hard Target”.
- In 1994, he did the movies ‘Timecop & Street Fighter’.
- In 1995, he did a movie Sudden Death.
- In 1996, he did the movies ‘The Quest & Maximum Risk’.
Jean-Claude Van Damme had returned the critically acclaimed crime drama JCVD in the year 2008. After that, he had continued starring in the more action films.
Action choreographer Jean-Claude Van Damme some of the latest released movies are mentioned below.
- In 2017, he had starred in the movie ‘Kill Em All’. It was an action film that was directed by the Peter Malota.
- In 2019, he had starred in the movie ‘We Die Young’.
- In 2021, he had starred in the movie ‘The Last Mercenary’.
- In 2022, he had given voice over to the character ‘Jean-Clawed’ in the computer animation film ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’.
