Jean-Claude Van Damme is a former martial artist as well as an actor, choreographer, and film director who is popularly known for his fight choreography in action films like Bloodsport, Cyborg, Universal Soldier, Hard Target, Street Fighter, and so on. We will be witnessing more of his charisma incoming action films.

Quick Infos
Full NameJean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg
Date of birthOctober 18, 1960
Birth PlaceSint-Agatha-Berchem, Belgium
Parent(s)Eugene Van Varenberg,
Eliana Varenberg
OccupationActor, Filmmaker, Fight Choreographer, Retired MMA
SpouseGladys Portugues (Present)
Age60 years
Height5 ft 9 in
Children3
NationalityBelgian
Net worthUS $40 million

Jean-Claude Van Damme

 

Bio, Family, Education, and Young

Jean-Claude Van Damme was born on 18th October of 1960 in the city of Brussels called Sint-Agatha-Berchem in Belgium. His full name is Jean-Claude Camille Francois Van Varenberg and was born to an accountant and florist, Eugene Van Varenberg and Eliana Varenberg. He grew up with his older sister Veronique Van Varenberg in a typical Jewish family.

Growing up, Van Damme began his professional career as a martial artist. He started his martial art training when he was 10. By the time he was 18 years old, he already earned a black belt. Soon after that, Jean-Claude Van Damme started taking interest in bodybuilding and weight lifting. He also took ballet classes which he considers to be one of the difficult sports. He specialized in Shotokan karate, Kickboxing, and later in Taekwondo and Muay Thai.

 

Nationality, Age, Height, and Weight

Van Damme is 60 years old and is as strong and healthy as ever. His nickname itself is Muscles from Brussels. He possesses a slim and athletic body shape. He has a height of 5 feet and 9 inches with a bodyweight of about 87 kg. His chest is 43 inches, his waist of 34 inches, and his biceps of 15 inches. He has light brown hair color and green eyes. As a professional action actor, Jean-Claude Van Damme makes sure that his body is in perfect shape. He was known for his extreme workout when he was on top of his kickboxing career.

Van Damme belongs to white ethnicity and his nationality is Belgian. His sexual orientation is straight and he has Libra as his zodiac sign.

 

Personal life, Spouse, and Son

Van Damme is a married man and is the father of 3 children. He is committed to American bodybuilder, Gladys Portugues whom he tied his knot for the second time in 1999. He first tied his knot with Portugues and had 2 children namely Kristopher and Bianca Brigitte in 1987 and 1990 respectively. He then tied his knot with American actress and model, Darcy LaPier in 1994. She gave birth to his son, Nicholas in 1995. He had a fling with Australian singer and actress, Kylie Ann Minogue at the same time when his second wife was pregnant with Nicholas.

Jean-Claude Van Damme

Social: Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter

Jean-Claude Van Damme is an active social media user. He has over 5.5 million followers on Instagram and can be connected by @jcvd. He is also active on Twitter with over 361 thousand followers. He is quite open about his love life and his hobbies and is not afraid to show it off in public.

 

Career

Early career

Van Damme’s early career began at the age of 12 as a martial artist. He started competing in a number of karate competitions. Jean-Claude Van Damme also went on to set multiple records in kickboxing on the national level winning the European Karate Federation Middleweight Championship, PKA Middleweight Championship, European Karate Union, World Association of Kickboxing Organizations Open International, and so on.

 

Acting career

Movies:

Jean-Claude Van Damme made his film debut during his success as heavyweight champion. He first made his small appearance in the Belgian-French drama film called Woman Between Wolf and Dog in 1979. He then continued on making his small appearances in films like Monaco Forever, Breakin’, finally landing his main antagonist role in an American martial arts film, No Retreat, No Surrender as Ivan Kraschinsky in 1986.

In 1988, Jean-Claude Van Damme landed his first starring role in the American martial arts action film, Bloodsport as Frank Dux for which he received his first Golden Raspberry Award nomination. He further continued on appearing in numerous action films like Black Eagle, Cyborg, Kickboxer, Lionheart, Death Warrant, and so on. he also made his writing debut from the film Kickboxer in 1989.

Jean-Claude Van Damme

In 1998, he received his first Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screen Couple with Dennis Rodman from the action-comedy film, Double Team. He also made his debut as a producer in 1991 from the film, Double Impact and since then, Jean-Claude Van Damme produced numerous other films like Legionnaire, Universal Soldier: The Return, The Order, and as an executive producer in films Six Bullets, Pound of Flesh, Black Water and so on.

Currently, he is working on two new projects namely The Last Mercenary and Frenchy.

 

Television & Music videos:

Apart from making appearances in films, he has made himself available in a couple of television series like Friends, Las Vegas, Behind Closed Doors, Les Anges Gardiens, and Sense8. He also produced and starred himself in 6 episodes of Jean Claude Van Johnson in 2016. Jean-Claude Van Damme is currently working on new tv series called Les Anges Asian Dream where he will make his appearances as himself.

Jean-Claude Van Damme has also appeared in a number of music videos of famous artists like Body count, The Smithereens, Change and Aska, Megadeth, Bob Sinclar, Aaron, and so on.

 

Net worth

Van Damme has accumulated a huge fortune from his successful career. As of 20202, his net worth is estimated to be 40 million dollars and this net worth may hit its peak anytime in the coming days. His main source of wealth currently maybe from the films he made his appearances on but it is also thanks to his successful kickboxing careers. We can not expect any less from the former professional martial artists and their huge success in the film industry.

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