Jean-Claude Van Damme Bio


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Jean-Claude Van Damme movie listings with ratings by SCMS

Real name:
Jean-Claude Van Varenberg

Nickname:
The muscles from Brussels.

Born:
18 October 1960, Brussels, Belgium

Height:
5' 8"

Spouse
Gladys Portugues (25 June 1999 - present) (remarried)
Darcy LaPier (February 1994 - ?) (divorced); 1 son
'Cynthia Derderian' (1986 - 19??) (divorced)
'Maria Rodriguez' (1984 - 19??) (divorced)
Gladys Portugues (? - 1993) (divorced)

Trivia
-(10 November 1997) Van Damme's wife, LaPier, filed papers against him for spousal abuse and cocaine addiction. Van Damme had started
divorce proceedings in June. This is the third time (1994,1996) that the couple has initiated divorce proceedings.
-He appeared in the music video and sang in the choir on the song "Voices That Care."
-He has three children: Kristopher, Bianca, and Nicolas.
-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 swordfight while filming Cyborg.
-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, 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)
-Former European Professional Karate Association middleweight champion

Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:
Actor. (b. Oct. 18, 1960, Brussels, Belgium.) Former karate champion who, like predecessors Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris, stars in action
pictures highlighting his martial-arts skills. He has bounced around the various subcategories of the chop-socky genre, working in a
sci-fi vehicle (1989's Cyborg a spy thriller (1988's Black Eagle and a gladiator-for-hire drama (1991's Lionheart . His thick-as-Heinz
accent, wooden line readings, and noticeable lack of humor and irony mark him as one of the World's Worst Actors-he played twins in Double
Impact (1991) and was twice as unconvincing as usual-but this handsome performer tries hard and, unlike fellow horrible
actor/martial-arts star Steven Seagal, projects a certain modesty that could almost be mistaken for Gallic charm. (But, of course, it
can't be Gallic charm-the guy's Belgian!) Recent credits include Universal Soldier (1992), Nowhere to Run a cameo in Last Action Hero
John Woo's American debut picture Hard Target (all 1993), and Timecop (1994).

Complete filmography

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