Jean-Claude Van Damme

**Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg** (; ; born 18 October 1960), known professionally as **Jean-Claude Van Damme** (; ), is a Belgian martial artist, actor, and filmmaker. Nicknamed "**The Muscles from Brussels**", he is widely regarded as an icon of action and martial arts cinema. Van Damme's films have grossed over $3.3 billion worldwide, making him one of the most successful action stars of all time.

## Early life
Born and raised in Brussels, his father enrolled him in a Shotokan karate school at the age of ten, which led Van Damme to earn his black belt in karate at the age of eighteen, and the rank of 2nd-dan black belt. He competed in several karate and kickboxing competitions, and was a member of the Belgium Karate Team when it won the European Karate Championship on 26 December 1979.   At the age of 16, he took up ballet, which he studied for five years. He started lifting weights to improve his physique, which eventually led to a Mr. Belgium bodybuilding title in 1978. In 1979, he opened a gym called "*California Gym*" in Brussels.

## Acting career
With the desire of becoming an actor, he moved to the United States in 1982, where he worked on several films, until he got his break as the lead in the martial arts film *Bloodsport* (1988). The film introduced his trademark splits and spinning 360˚ heel kick to an American audience. Van Damme became a popular action film star and followed up with commercially successful films such as *Cyborg* (1989), *Kickboxer* (1989), *Lionheart* (1990), *Death Warrant* (1990), *Double Impact* (1991), *Universal Soldier* (1992), *Nowhere to Run* (1993), *Hard Target* (1993), *Timecop* (1994), *Street Fighter* (1994), *Sudden Death* (1995), *The Quest* (1996), which marked his directorial debut, and *Maximum Risk* (1996). At the height of his career, he was one of the biggest action movie stars in the world, and one of the most successful martial arts actors of the 1980s and 1990s, alongside Steven Seagal.
Van Damme was also considered a sex symbol.

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, his popularity declined. He mostly appeared in limited theatrical releases or direct-to-video films. During this time, he starred in *Replicant* (2001), for which he was nominated for a Video Premiere Award for Best Actor. The film is considered the best outing from within Van Damme's direct-to-video career. He returned to prominence with the critically acclaimed crime drama *JCVD* (2008). After *JCVD*, he began mixing things up, starring in comedies, and voicing kids animations, all the while keeping the action going. His big return to the action genre was in *The Expendables 2* (2012), in which he starred as the villain, opposite Sylvester Stallone. From thereon Van Damme continued starring in action films and doing extensive voice work.

## Public image and influence 
Van Damme is widely regarded as an icon of action and martial arts cinema. At the height of his career, he was one of the biggest action movie stars in the world, and one of the most successful martial arts actors of the 1980s and 1990s, alongside Steven Seagal. Van Damme's influence has been compared to the Bruceploitation explosion of the 1970s.

Van Damme achieved sex symbol status through publicity venues in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Unlike his major rivals in action film, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Steven Seagal, and Bruce Willis, Van Damme was nominated by the *National Enquirer* as number one on their "Top Ten Sexiest Men in the World" list, being the only action film star listed.
 
Many martial artists, athletes, and filmmakers have cited Van Damme as an influence, such as Alain Moussi, Scott Adkins, Dave Callaham, Adam Brody, Jay Cutler, Lyoto Machida, Michael Page, Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre, Cain Velasquez, Nick Diaz, Nate Diaz, Conor McGregor, Jiří Procházka, Mirko Cro Cop, James P. Bennett, Rico Verhoeven, Tom Duquesnoy, John Albert, Charles Rosa, Murad Ramazanov,  Halil Amir, Andrei Stoica, Giorgio Petrosyan, Alfie Davis, Enkh-Orgil Baatarkhuu, and Angela Chang.

## Personal life
Among his acting heroes growing up were Charles Bronson, Bruce Lee, James Dean, Montgomery Clift, Steve McQueen, Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Sylvester Stallone.

Van Damme stands at a height of 175 cm (5 ft 9 in). His weight is 84 kg (185 lb).

He was married to Maria Rodriguez from 1980 until they divorced in 1984. Then he was married to Cynthia Derderian from 1985 until they divorced in 1986. He then married Gladys Portugues, for the first time, from 1987 until they divorced in 1992. He was married to Darcy LaPier from 1994 until they divorced in 1997. Then he remarried Gladys Portugues in 1999. He has three children. In 2022, he was living in Hong Kong.

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## References
## Other websites
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