Jean-Claude Van Damme - Biography - IMDb 5' 9¾" (1.77 m) Mini Bio (1) Van Damme was born Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, Brussels, Belgium, to Eliana and Eugène Van Varenberg, an accountant. "The Muscles from Brussels" started martial arts at the age of eleven. His father introduced him to martial arts when he saw his son was physically weak. At the age of 12, Van Damme began his martial arts training at Centre National De Karate (National Center of Karate) under the guidance of Master Claude Goetz in Ixelles, Belgium. Van Damme trained for 4 years and earned a spot on the Belgium Karate Team. He won the European professional karate association's middleweight championship as a teenager, and also beat the 2nd best karate fighter in the world. His goal was to be number one but got sidetracked when he left his hometown of Brussels. In 1976 at the age of sixteen, Jean-Claude started his Martial Arts fight career.

Over the next 6-years, he competed in both full-contact and semi-contact matches. He debuted under his birth name of Jean Claude Van Varenberg. In his first match, Jean-Claude was staggered by a round-house kick thrown by fellow countryman, Toon Van Oostrum in Brussels, Belgium. Van Damme was badly stunned, but came back to knockout Van Oostrum moments later. In 1977, at the WAKO Open International in Antwerp, Belgium, Jean-Claude lost a decision to fellow team mate Patrick Teugels in a semi-contact match. At the 1978 Challenge De Espoirs Karate Tournament (1st Trials),Jean-Claude placed 2nd in the semi-contact division. He defeated twenty-five opponents during the week long tournament, but lost in the finals to Angelo Spataro from the Naha Club. Later in 1978, Jean-Claude lost a 3-round match for the Belgium Lightweight Championship (semi-contact) to his fellow team-mate to Patrick Teugels. In 1979, Jean-Claude traveled to the United States of America, to Tampa, Florida.

In his first and only match against a United States opponent, Van Damme faced 'Sherman 'Big Train'Bergman', a kick-boxer from Miami Beach, Florida. For the first and only time in his career, Jean-Claude was knocked to the canvas after absorbing a powerful left hook from Bergman. However, Jean-Claude climbed off the canvas and with a perfectly timed ax-kick, knocked Bergman out in 56 seconds of the first round. Jean-Claude was a member of the Belgium team which competed on December 26, 1979 at the La Coupe Fancois Persoons Karate Tournament which was sanctioned by the Federation bruxelloise de Karate. Van Damme's final match victory enabled his team to win the European Team Karate Championship. In Full-Contact karate, Jean-Claude knocked out England's Micheal Heming in 46 seconds of the first round. In 1980, Van Damme knocked out France's Georges Verlugels in 2 rounds of a match fought under kick-boxing rules. Jean-Claude wanted to defeat his rival Patrick Teugels.

At the Forest Nationals in Brussels, on March 8, 1980, Jean-Claude knocked Teugels down and Teugels suffered a nose injury and was unable to continue. Jean-Claude was awarded a first round victory. Jean-Claude retired from martial arts in 1982, following a knockout over Nedjad Gharbi in Brussels,Belgium. Jean-Claude posted a 18-1 (18 knockouts) Kickboxing record, and a Semi-Contact record of 41-4. He came to Hong Kong at the age of 19 for the first time and felt insured to do action movies in Hong Kong. In 1981 Van Damme moved to Los Angeles. He took English classes while working as carpet layer, pizza delivery man, limo driver, and thanks to Chuck Norris he got a job as a bouncer at a club. Norris gave Van Damme a small role in the movie Missing in Action (1984), but it wasn't good enough to get anybody's attention.

Then in 1984 he got a role as a villain named Ivan in the low-budget movie No Retreat, No Surrender (1986). Then one day, while walking on the streets, Jean-Claude spotted a producer for Cannon Pictures, and showed some of his martial arts abilities which led to a role in Bloodsport (1988). But the movie, filmed in Hong Kong, was so bad when it was completed, it was shelved for almost two years. It might have never been released if Van Damme did not help them to recut the film and begged producers to release it. They finally released the film, first in Malaysia and France and then into the U.S. Shot on a meager 1.5 million dollar budget, it became a U.S box-office hit in the spring of 1988. It made about 30 million worldwide and audiences supported this film for its new sensational action star Jean-Claude Van Damme.

His martial arts assets, highlighted by his ability to deliver a kick to an opponent's head during a leaping 360-degree turn, and his good looks led to starring roles in higher budgeted movies like Cyborg (1989), Lionheart (1990), Double Impact (1991) and Universal Soldier (1992). In 1994, he scored with his big breakthrough $100 million worldwide hit Timecop (1994). But in the meantime, his personal life was coming apart. A divorce, followed by a new marriage, followed by another divorce. It began to show up in his career when his projects began to tank at the box office - The Quest (1996), which he directed; Maximum Risk (1996) and Double Team (1997). The three films made less than $50 million combined. In 1999 he remarried his ex-wife Gladys Portugues and restarted his lost career to attain new goals.

With help from his family he faced his problems and made movies like Replicant (2001), Derailed (2002), and In Hell (2003) which did averagely in box office terms, but he tried to give his fans the best, his acting in those movies got better, more emotional and each movie was basically in different action tones. Thrilling one and all with his 360-degree ultimate leaping & super flying karate kicks. Frequently performs splits in his movies Belgian accent Very muscular physique Trivia (31) 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 sword fight while filming Cyborg (1989). 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 (1996), 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). On July 10, 2000, Van Damme was sentenced to an anti-drunk driving class, a $1,200 fine, 3 years probation and a 90 day revocation of his license after pleading no contest for a September 23, 1999 DUI arrest in Beverly Hills. Once said he learned to speak English by watching the cartoon The Flintstones (1960). Studied classical ballet for five years In his late teens he opened a gym called California Fitness Center. Was student of Dominique Valera . Although Jean-Claude Van Damme failed to place in either the 1978 or 1979 WAKO World Championships, he was a member of the 1979 Belgium Team when it won the European Team Championships and a European middleweight Karate champion in his late teens. He won at the Hope Cup, the Cup of Antwerp, The Gala International, and The Forest Nationals. Can bench press 166 kg. Formerly, had his own production companies - Long Road Productions / 777 Films Corp.

Related to Screenwriter Adam Burnett through marriage. One-time sparring partner of Chuck Norris during the early 80s. Norris eventually cast him in Missing in Action (1984). Children: Kris Van Damme (b. 1987) and Bianca Brigitte VanDamme (b. 1990) with Gladys Portugues ; son Nicholas (b. 1995) with Darcy LaPier . He was the inspiration for the character Johnny Cage from Mortal Kombat (1992), which was initially envisioned as a gaming vehicle for Van Damme, but he and Midway could not come to terms on the costs for using his likeness. One of Johnny Cage's special moves is doing a split while punching his opponent in the groin, as seen when Van Damme's character, Frank Dux , punches his large sumo opponent in Bloodsport (1988). Van Damme was the original choice to play the title character in Predator (1987) and was part of the production until he was let go. According to Jesse Ventura 's book, Van Damme played the Predator (1987) alien until he was replaced replaced by Kevin Peter Hall .

During the movie's production, Van Damme reportedly was not happy that his face would not be shown on camera and that he would only receive an uncredited special effects role. He was also not comfortable in the original alien suit and passed out due to heat exhaustion. When Stan Winston 's new Predator design came in, Kevin Peter Hall replaced Van Damme in the title role. Supposedly, Van Damme has no regrets on backing out of the Predator project. Often states Charles Chaplin as the first great action star. Adopted Van Damme as his stage name from one of his friend's father name. He considered it punchy, short and clear than his birth name of Van Varenberg. Has one older sister Veronique Van Varenberg by 18 months. Films often contain injuries to the groin area. Examples include Bloodsport (1988), Double Impact (1991), Hard Target (1993) and Timecop (1994). Van Damme has an impressive kickboxing record of 18-1-0, with 18 wins by knockout. For most of these fights, he fought under his birth name of Jean-Claude Van Varenberg.

Van Damme's only defeat in kickboxing was to France's Etienne Aubry on March 7, 1977 in Marseille, France. Van Damme lost by disqualification when he accidentally kicked Aubry when he was on the canvas. Lives in Hong Kong and Knokke-Heist, Belgium. When Van Damme first arrived in Hollywood in the 1980s, his jobs consisted of waiting tables, delivering pizza, driving a taxi, and acting as a bouncer at Woody's Wharf, a bar owned by Chuck Norris in Newport Beach. Started filming The Shepherd (2008) in Bulgaria. [February 2007] At the Eurasia Film Festival in Almaty, Kazakhstan. [September 2005] Started filming Soldiers (2010) (aka "Full Love") in Thailand. [July 2008] Suffered from mood swings and depressions for years, causing him to seek his refuge in martial arts and drugs. Finally, after several attempts at rehab, he visited a neurologist who diagnosed him with rapid cycling bipolar disorder.

With appropriate medication, he has managed to stay off drugs ever since, and he has even remarried his former wife Gladys Portugues . His very brief work on the production of Predator (1987) unexpectedly helped him to become an action star. While working as a waiter, van Damme spotted producer Menahem Golan in his restaurant, and did a roundhouse kick for him without spilling a drop from the bowl of soup he had in his hands. Golan was sufficiently fascinated to invite van Damme on an official audition. During the audition, van Damme did his trademark split while balancing on two chairs, which did not impress Golan. While he dismissed him, a friend who had come along mentioned that van Damme had just done Predator (1987) with Arnold Schwarzenegger . Golan went out to check, and as luck would have it, van Damme's name had not yet been removed from the cast sheet. Golan decided to offer him the lead role in Bloodsport (1988) which became van Damme's big break.

Refused a three-picture deal that would have earned him 12 million dollar per movie, stating that he wanted 20 million, equal to Jim Carrey 's salary at the time. He understands Spanish very well because he had a Spanish nanny when he was a boy. He can't speak the language properly as he never studied it. On one occasion he had a interview in Chile and all the questions were asked in Spanish, he understood but replied in English. His older sister Veronique wrote a book My brother Jean-Claude. Personal Quotes (24) "I am the Fred Astaire of karate". In an action film you act in the action. If it's a dramatic film you act in the drama. I've become 40, my audience is partly the same age. God gave me a great body and it's my duty to take care of my physical temple. What is a movie star? It is an illusion. It was everything I ever wanted to be, but it became a kind of shell, non? It was what made me famous and got me women. But it wasn't real.

I took his (Alex Van Damme) name, in fact from his father because his father sent me for the first time in Hong Kong to be a picture model. I'm not enough tall to be a catwalk model, plus too big for that, and we became very good friends and I took his name as an honor. Because my name, by the way, is too complicated, it's Van Veren Berg, so in America it sounds like "Van Varen Berg" (said with American accent). So Van Damme it's punchy, short, and clear. - [on adopting the name 'Van Damme'] Timecop (1994) could have been a very profitable franchise, but those idiots chose instead to sell the rights to television. That could have also been the case with _Bloodsport_, but they settled instead on second-rate kick-boxers for the sequels. - [on his famous films sequels] An action hero has to be always in shape mentally and physically. People, sometimes they believe Sly, Arnold, myself, we're athletes, you cannot make mistakes. But Hollywood forgives, I guess.

Ten, 15 years ago, Sly, Arnold, those guys, were well-built; of course, they had to act and find good scripts, but today action heroes don't have to be Mr. Muscles. What really helps a guy to become an action hero today is the directing of the movie. All those fast cuts. [His response to being asked what he thinks of his nickname 'Muscles from Brussels]: "It's better than being called 'The Idiot from Brussels'." I'm one of the most sensitive human beings on Earth -- and I know it. My dreams came true in America. It's not possible in Belgium. I grew up sadly. Skinny kid. Big, thick glasses. Everything I've done is a miracle. I love challenges. If you don't have any and can do whatever you want, then it's probably time to die. I liked the movement, technique and philosophy and I was training to be the best. Karate's a very boring sport, but when you know the technique you can go further and further. You need at least six or seven years to understand the philosophy and concentration of karate to know to clean your spirit of everything and dedicate your mind and body to the sport.

I also use it for concentration before acting scenes. I love playing the villain, but a villain with class. (2008) I see dogs on the street, and I adopt them. I took seven dogs from Thailand, and a few of them are paralyzed. One has three paws instead of four. One is limping, so we bought him a wheelchair. I spent my own money to fly them back by private jet. In commercial, they can have heart attacks because of stress - it's dark and icy cold. I love animals. I have nine dogs and a kitty. My biggest orgasm - not in a sexual way - is to walk with my dogs on the beach. In Belgium we have these wide sidewalks. You feel like you're on the Planet Moon, and I can make them feel like movie stars. [on rejecting Sylvester Stallone 's offer of a part in The Expendables (2010)] Stallone gave me a part in his next movie, but I ask him about the subject, about the story. He said, 'You're gonna make lots of money.' I don't want to hear that, I want to hear what was my character. He was unable to tell what it's going to be.

[Stallone said:] 'You know, uh, well, the fighting will be good.' [So I said:] 'Syl, what is my character?' So I didn't do the movie. [on Timecop (1994) director Peter Hyams ] He was the only one who visited me in the clinic when I was there years ago. All the agents and managers who made a fortune with me never came. [circa 1992] You have to have a dream, the passion to make it, to make it, to really, really make it. Hard Target (1993) was a bad script, but we had some great action scenes, and John Woo made me look like a samurai with greasy hair. I am very proud of that film. I am persuaded that here, in the United States, it would have been a great success in theaters. And if you ask me why I am so proud of Replicant, it is because we succeeded in making a big film with very reduced budgets. I have lots of respect for Christopher Walken . Did you see him in King of New York (1990)? Steve McQueen , and Paul Newman are terrific.

I feel their movies have quality. Rocky and Rambo were filled with drama and passion. Arnold doesn't move me. I like movies like The Godfather (1972) and The Deer Hunter (1978). These are films with real solid acting, real talent. [on Kickboxer 2: The Road Back (1991)] I refused a sequel. I wasn't offered enough money. Instead, we did a new film, Double Impact (1991), rather than just make Kickboxer 2. [on who should play the villain in The Expendables 3 (2014)] I think Steven Seagal has such a good presence. And he should lose some weigh, which isn't that difficult. I think he has lots of charisma. Even though he speaks bad about me sometimes, I think it's all bullshit. He's a nice guy. I think he has his own type of temper, vision, character. But he would be great in Expendables as a bad guy. Salary (13) Muscles from Brussels Muscles from Brussels Email DONT MOVE!” JEAN-CLAUDE VAN Damme commands a visitor.

The Belgian-born bodybuilder and karate champ turned martial-arts film star (Bloodsport, Kick-boxer) then leaps into his patented 360-degree scissor kick, his foot blurring within a hair of his guest’s head. “Whoosh!” Van Damme even provides his own sound effects. In the bone-crunching world of biceptual movie heroes, there’s little room for modesty. Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Norris, Seagal? Bah, hamburger! “I think I’ve got the best body of all of them,” declares Van Damme, 31, as he relaxes by the swimming pool of his five-bedroom, English country—style home in California’s San Fernando Valley. “Honest to God. I can put a suit on, I look elegant. If I take my clothes off, I look enormous. I’m not big,” admits the 5’9″, 185-lb. Van Damme, “but I’m well proportioned.” The not-so-little woman agrees. “He has the physique of an Adonis.

It’s like a gymnast’s—light but muscular,” boasts Van Damme’s wife of five years, Gladys Portugues, 35, a former U.S. bodybuilding champ turned full-time mom, as their kids, Kristopher, 5, and Bianca, 1, romp naked on the toy-strewn pool deck. Van Damme turns around and gives his derriere a hard slap. “I’ve got a very strong butt. It’s like a horse butt. It’s very powerful [for an audience] to see a guy with a strong bull.” The Van Damme rear end is prominently displayed in his latest movie, Universal Soldier. A $23 million Terminator-esque sci-fi thriller, it teams the emerald-eyed Jean-Claude with burly Swedish costar Dolph (Rocky IV) Lundgren as Vietnam grunts killed in action, cryogenically frozen and brought back to life two decades later as members of a top-secret team of superhuman commandos. Though the film took in $10 million its opening weekend, some critics Eurotrashed its leading he-man.

“Van Damme’s job here,” noted The New York Times” Janet Maslin, “is to feign blankness and speak in a monotone (not exactly a stretch).” “I am a very good actor!” Van Damme insists. Says Lundgren: “He’s a charming, likable guy, and that comes across onscreen.” Van Damme indeed cuts a charismatic figure, but his reputation, unlike his body, is far from perfect. Thrice married, he has in the past confessed that his “one weakness is women.” And as recently as last spring, the tabloids alleged that the star romanced Darcy LaPier, 26, an aspiring actress whose screen test (which included a kissing scene) Van Damme directed and costarred in. For Darcy’s then husband, Ron Rice, founder of the Hawaiian Tropic suntan lotion company, it was the last straw in a rocky relationship. Says Rice: “She ran off with Jean-Claude, and that’s when I filed for divorce.” Both Van Damme and LaPier deny the affair. Says Van Damme: “She is a very good friend.” And Gladys backs her husband.

Reports of his infidelity are “irritating,” she says, “but I know what we have together. I’m too strong to let it get to me.” Van Damme has had a go-for-broke intensity ever since his childhood in Brussels, where he was born Jean-Claude Van Varenberg. “He was nervous, exuberant, all the lime up the wall,” recalls his father, Eugene, who juggled jobs as a florist and an accountant to support Jean-Claude, his sister, Veronique, now 33 and a clothier, and their mother, Eliana. At 11, fed up with looking “like a nerd,” says Van Damme, he took up karate—earning a black belt—and weight lifting, winning the Mr. Belgium bodybuilding title at 18. In 1981, after acting stints in European commercials and low-budget French films, he flew to Hollywood, where he plastered producers’ windshields with photos of himself while taking jobs as a pizza delivery man and an aerobics instructor. At casting calls, though, he met with rejection.

“I was like, ‘Tell me, God, why a guy with so much talent has to suffer?’ ” he says. His destiny changed when Chuck Norris, who responded to Van Damme’s Hollywood letter-writing blitz, got him hired as a bouncer at his wife Dianne’s Newport Beach restaurant. That led to a small role as a heavy in Norris’s 1986 chopsocky No Retreat, No Surrender and an even less visible appearance as the title alien in Predator; his scenes were ultimately redone by the taller Kevin Peter Hall. Spotting producer Menahem (Missing in Action) Golan at a local restaurant one day, Van Damme demonstrated his scissor kick for him. The producer told him to come to his office the next day, when, Van Damme says, he delivered an impassioned plea: “If you sign me now, I’m going to make lots of money for you!” Recalls Golan: “His English wasn’t good, but he was so confident of his talent we decided to take a chance.” The producer signed Van Damme for Bloodsport, the first in a siring of low-budget box-office hits.

Belgian actor Michel Qissy, a friend since childhood who accompanied Van Damme to Golan’s office, says that he inflated the champ’s part in the then unreleased Predator for the producer and that the hype rather than the kick is what impressed Golan. Although Qissy was given roles in several of his friend’s movies, he claims his buddy never paid him his $22,000 salary for Lionheart, and Qissy now speaks bitterly about his former pal. “I trusted him,” he says. “I thought he believed in God, but he believed in money.” Van Damme maintains that they are still friends, and “I don’t owe him money.” Van Damme does have a charitable side, however. He belongs to the Make-a-Wish Foundation, which helps children with cancer meet the stars. “People may think my films are bad,” says Van Damme, “but these kids tell me that because of my movies, they are going to fight [their] cancer.” Now, tired of being thought of as nothing more than a pair of fists—and feet—Van Damme is trying to alter his image.

His next picture, Pals, a remake of Shane costarring Rosanna Arquette, eschews karate kicks for characterization. It’s the sort of canny career adjustment Schwarzenegger made during his climb to big-screen respectability. Not that Van Damme is making any other concessions to his colleague in mesomorphy. With typical modesty, Van Damme remembers Arnold’s visit to the set of Universal Soldier. “He gave me a cigar,” he says, “but I said it was too small for me.” MICHAEL A. LIPTON JOHN GRIFFITHS in Los Angeles Show Full Article Muscles from Brussels? by Nicholas H. Whyte, Europe director, International Crisis Group in Brussels Bridges 2005-1 I come to this area of international politics from a backwards part of western Europe, which has retained the integrity of its own local quarrel over hundreds of years. The whole history of European integration is a triumph of ideas over adversity. It’s also a lesson for ancient conflicts in other parts of the world—that it is possible to overcome them. But it’s quite difficult to answer the very basic question of Why is the European Union?

That may seem like a strange formulation, but if you were to ask Why is the United States? It is easy to work out why this country exists. The Declaration of Independence sets it out very clearly, with a decent respect for the opinions of mankind. The Declaration of Independence sets out the reason why this country wanted statehood. In a crystal-clear manner, the greatest president of this country, four score and seven years later, put it even more succinctly. He said, “This is a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” You will search in vain for such a succinct and clear statement of why the European Union exists. The treaty of Rome in 1958, which established the European economic community, did have quite a good phrase, saying that “it was designed to seek an ever-closer union between the people [singular] of Europe.” That’s process rather than principle; it’s geography rather than concrete action. And if you look at the current draft of the EU Constitution, you will notice its preamble instead of “we, the people” (as in the U.S.

Constitution) begins with “His Majesty the King of the Belgians, His Majesty King of the Czech Republic, Her Majesty the Queen of Denmark,” and so forth, “drawing inspiration from the cultural religious and humanist intelligence . . . of Europe from which have developed the universal values” and so on, for another 325 pages. This is not very clear or succinct. More What is the EU? If we want to find out why the EU exists, we have to change the focus of the question and instead ask What is the EU? The EU is formed from twenty-five states and, in contrast to the American experience, it is worth saying that twenty-three of those twenty-five in the last one hundred years have experienced either dictatorship or oppression by their neighbors or both. The exceptions are England (I exclude Scotland and Northern Wales and Ireland) and Sweden.

This is a formative historical thing for western European countries, and it’s no wonder that the original six members of the European community in 1958 included the two countries that felt they had suffered most from three wars in 1870, 1914, and 1918—France and Germany, also the three countries between them that had been squashed most heavily by those wars—Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. And the country that had been left constitutionally hanging with a dysfunctional political system after the Second World War and was desperately looking for a wider national community to merge into—Italy. Interesting also is to notice that the British and other neighbors were involved in the early negotiations to form the European community. They backed out, because they were worried that the phrase about an “ever-closer union” might be serious, until the British changed their minds in the 1960s, but at that point the French wouldn’t let them in. Finally in 1974, the British and their three closest economic satellites—Ireland, Denmark, and Norway—all agreed that they might join the EU, except then the Norwegians had a referendum and voted against it.

That created a block of capitalist democracies in north western Europe bordered to the south by the dictatorships of Spain, Portugal, and Greece and to the east by the communist world, while still being in the middle of the Cold War. Almost exactly at the point where the EU had its first expansion, this was also precisely the point that the authoritarian regimes in Portugal and Greece fell, followed shortly thereafter by that in Spain. In the early 1980s, these countries, as new democracies on the European fringe, also joined (Greece before Spain and Portugal). This is when the EU became more of an economic project. The crucial figure in this, although she hates to be reminded of it these days, was Margaret Thatcher, who believed that constructing a single European market, a place where people would feel safe to trade with each other, was a project that was worthwhile and was a project that was worth sacrificing certain amounts of British sovereignty. The EU was on its way to becoming an economic superpower. Neighboring states that had opted out of previous enlargements, because it was too political and not in their economic interests to join, by the mid-1990s, they too applied for membership.

All four of them were granted accession treaties: Austria, Sweden, Finland, and Norway. Except the Norwegians had another referendum. Simultaneously, communism had fallen across Eastern Europe. Suddenly there was a whole new geo-political situation. Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary felt they were part of the European mainstream and had been artificially kept away from it for ages. Small but forward-looking countries like Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovenia had managed to disentangle themselves from larger federations with a minimum of fuss and were seen as safe and stable democracies in need of support. So it was that year the EU had its largest ever enlargement, with the eight former communist states: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia. The EU also moved to fill a small geopolitical gap that had been created in the Mediterranean by absorbing Malta and most of Cyprus, although not all because of the events of 1974. Now you have a EU that consists of 456 million people, which in comparison to the U.S. at 292 million, it’s the single biggest economic space in the world.

The countries range in size with Germany at 83 million right down to the smallest, Malta, with 400 thousand. Luxembourg is 450 thousand; I’m sure they’re proud of that. The EU is now a federation of twenty-five seriously well developed member states, and there are others queuing up to join. In the accession queue are Bulgaria and Romania (both have been given a promise that they can join in 2007). The Romanians may not make it; they may find themselves locked in with Croatia, which I think is likely to join in 2009. Also in the list is Turkey (as of fall 2004), and having submitted a form membership application is Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic. I think we will see Albania, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro (probably separate from Serbia), and ultimately, in some shape or form, Kosovo. Once the question of the final status of Kosovo and Serbia has been settled, the geopolitical space will be western Europe to the boundaries of Russia, as it was up to 1920, not including the south Caucuses, and going to the Polish Baltic state’s border. What Does the EU Do?

What does the EU do? It is a free trade area; a customs union; a single economic space where people can exercise the four freedoms. The four freedoms, incidentally, are not Roosevelt’s four freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. They are the much more technocratic European four freedoms: free movement of goods, free movement of persons, freedom to provide services, and free movement of capital. I find the contrast between these two uses of the phrase “four freedoms” very interesting. Freedom of movement is constrained in that the new member states don’t get to move directly into the EU with the old member states, but they will after a transition period. The EU has a single currency; the euro currency. The euro zone’s population is 308 million because it doesn’t include most of the eastern states, or the British, Danes, and Swedes. They produce rather nice bank notes, each of them which an educational map of Europe printed on it, including all the wee bits of France that people forget about overseas including Martinique, Guyana, and so on. There are also things that the EU doesn’t do. The EU is not the Council of Europe (COE).

COE is a different organization, based in Strasbourg, that supervises the human rights rating for the wider European area, including basically all the countries as far east as Azerbaijan and Russia. COE does have judicial power in human rights. It can impose fines and sanctions on countries that are not deemed to be fulfilling their human rights obligations. The EU is not a collective security institution. That role is played by NATO and will continue to be played by NATO until American policy sees that as not in America’s self-interest. The EU is not even useful doing multinational diplomacy. We see that happening through the UN and through the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which came out of the Helsinki process. These are each very different in character, and the EU as an actor hasn’t started to interface in a completely smooth way with any of them. EU Operations and the Foreign Policy Picture I work in the foreign policy area in Brussels on the countries closest to the EU that are in most danger of collapse or crisis. Specifically they are Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Moldova (a case close to my heart), Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.

In my experience trying to make sense of the EU institutions, I find I deal with its four different manifestations in quite different ways. If I were in business or involved with environmental or social legislation, my approach would be completely different. The foreign policy picture of the EU is a bit weird. The EU’s main executive body is the European Commission, consisting of one reasonably seniored politician nominated by each of the member states, each of whom is given a particular portfolio. The two that I will be dealing with most are the Finn and the Austrian, who have been given, respectively, the Balkans and the rest of the world, not including the Third World, which went to the Belgian. The commission is important because it’s got the most “Europe-ness” and also it’s got the most money. The commission, however, has lost a lot of power that it used to have in foreign policy. Previously, commission officials were the ones to determine exactly what European money was to be spent in a particular way, and they were the only ones charged with external action within the EU. There’s been a demand that the heads of commission officers abroad in different countries should appear for hearings before the European Parliament.

So far this has been resisted, but it indicates the extent to which the heads of commission delegations, which tend to be administering aid programs, see themselves as European ambassadors. At the moment, they’re not. In fact, I find that in terms of policy work, for me a more useful institution is the European Council Secretariat (ECS). When I first came to Brussels, the ECS had only one very boring task: to draw up the agenda for meetings of ministers from each of the member states. In 1999, however, it acquired something much more important: a single figurehead, Javier Solana, the former Spanish foreign minister and the foreign secretary general of NATO, who is empowered to speak on behalf of the EU as a single voice. He is the High Representative of the Common Foreign Security Policy and also the General Secretary of the ECS. The reason for creating somebody with that position was basically to answer Henry Kissinger’s famous question, “What is Europe’s phone number?” Though as somebody who deals on a policy basis with Washington, D.C., I would like to know Washington’s phone number as well.

I find as I shunt across the city from State Department to National Security Council to Pentagon to Congress that the voice of European policy has been very positive. Instead of the EU’s contribution to foreign policy being ministers meeting together and passing pompous resolutions, saying to the warring parties in Yugoslavia—you should stop fighting—now there is somebody who can go physically in and say, “You should stop fighting.” That may not sound like much of a difference, but I saw it work in 2000 in Guam and Macedonia, where very simply, there was a burgeoning crisis and it was, to a large extent, sorted out by direct diplomatic intervention from Solana and his very senior aides, with a great deal of heavy lifting also done by the American ambassador. It has made a difference having somebody who you can point to and say “that is Europe’s phone number.” I’ve seen the ECS gaining in power, nonetheless it still has to share power. The ECS is the servant, not the master, of the European member states, so the third group of people that I spend time talking to are those in permanent representations.

The EU has twenty-five member states, and all of them are equal, but in the words of George Orwell, “Some of them are more equal than others.” The ones that I spend most of my time on are the three big-hitters, that is to say the British, the French, and the Germans. Basically, anything in the EU that has been agreed to by the French and Germans is pretty likely to get through, and if the British have been persuaded to sign on to it, it is almost certain to get through. The other twenty-two countries will very rarely stand up to the big three getting together. This excludes Italy, which has the same population—in fact, a larger population than France. The fact is that Italy has a very strange political system with a foreign ministry whose officials, on the whole, are very, very pro-European and anti-American, but a set of politicians who are, on the whole, very pro-American and rather less pro-European. The result is that Italy is unable to construct a coherent policy at a European level. I’ve read some things about the U.S. State Department, but I think you should investigate what’s happening in Rome if you want to see a dysfunctional system at work.

In addition to those big countries, often you will find smaller countries have got a particular interest and a particular problem. I mentioned Moldova earlier and oddly enough, this is one where the two branches of the Italian political system are in agreement, they are quite keen to have a limited system of migration with Moldova and are quite keen to ameliorate the problems there the best they can. They’re not very successful, but at least they’re trying in the same direction. Moldova is one country that I do talk to Italians about. And the Balkan countries—of course, I talk to the neighbors—the Greeks, the Hungarians, the Slovenes, and to a certain extent, the Czechs. Because the EU has got this rotating presidency system, I always find it worthwhile to keep in touch with whoever holds the presidency of the day—at the moment it is the Dutch. And because whoever is chairing the meetings tends to be too busy, I try and keep in touch also with the next presidency, which is Luxembourg, and the one after, in this case, it is Britain for the second half of 2005, who are already on my list.

I find that talking around the permanent representations does give an idea of which countries are coming from where and what the currents of debate are in the ECS. I had a very interesting lunch last Friday with a Finn, an Estonian, and a Belgian—and these are three countries with completely different historical experiences, particularly interesting to see the divide between the Estonians, who of course were under Russian rule until 1990, and the Finns, who escaped Russian rule in 1917. The Finns’ traditional neutral policy—not too keen on getting stuck in problems; the Estonians—very keen to get stuck into problems. Of course, they’re using other people’s soldiers because they only have a population of one and a half million—but they are very keen to try and push the policy agenda forward, and they are very pro-American, as you could expect from an ex-communist country that couldn’t wait to get out of the Soviet Union as quickly as possible. The Belgians, on the other hand—completely the opposite—are very much suspicious of these Anglo-Saxon conspiracies, though given that the others at the table were an Irishman and two Finno-Ugrics, it wasn’t very Anglo-Saxon.

The Belgians are in-line with the French view that the European civilization project surely should be one where we don’t need outside help with the English language. Nonetheless, the entire conversation was in English, as indeed are most of my conversations in Brussels, despite the fact that French is one of the main working languages of the EU. The fourth group of people that I talk to in Brussels, as a foreign policy practitioner, are members of the European Parliament (EP). The EP has strong legislative powers, particularly in the fields of environmental legislation, economic regulation, customer services, and in constructing the single market, which we spoke of in the 1990s, and it’s gradually increased to have more and more power. The European Parliament is excluded from power in two very important areas. One of them is the area in which most of the EU’s budget is spent: agriculture. That has been reserved for something that will be carved out between the governments. The EP barely gets a slice of the agriculture budget. The other one, not surprisingly, is foreign policy, something that European member states cling to very jealously. I find I can use the EP as a nuclear option; it is a way of getting issues into the public domain.

All of my other conversations with ambassadors, bureaucrats, and ECS officials tend to be off the record, trying to persuade them behind the scenes to move them in a particular direction. If they’re absolutely unwilling to do so, then my option is to get the EP to pass a resolution or at least to hold a debate on the topic that is of interest to me. It’s interesting and embarrassing to note that the power of the EP is constrained by geography. The European Parliament meets one week every month in Strasbourg; that is where its plenary sessions are. Strasbourg is a four-hour drive from Brussels; by American standards that’s not much, but by European standards that’s two countries away: Luxembourg and France. Okay, Luxembourg’s not that big. This is how you emasculate your legislature, by not putting it near the seat of actual power. If you look at Washington, D.C., which was the first, but not the last, city to be designed as a capital, the very center of Washington is the capitol building; that’s where the streets are numbered from, that’s where your ABCs go up and down, that’s where your northwest, northeast, southeast, southwest quadrants begin.

The EP’s seat is in Strasbourg, and its library is in Luxembourg, halfway between Strasbourg and Brussels. This is a very good way of preventing any group from doing serious research on the issues for which they’re supposed to legislate. And it’s something that I think is crying out for reform. Despite all this, I must say that my experience talking to policy makers in Brussels is that they’re all very intelligent, they’re all very committed, and they’re all very keen to talk about what it is that they are doing. Compared with some national bureaucracies, it’s rather heartening that people are prepared to be open about their internal policy debates. I don’t find this in Washington, where even between Democrats and Republicans, those who are in office and those who are out of office, there is a certain narrowness of consensus among those who are in the beltway, as the cliché goes. Perhaps my experiences with Washington have not been broad enough, and of course I have only done this under the current administration. The final question is Has the EU developed muscles from Brussels? As an economic actor, I think it has. As a trading block, the EU is the biggest in the world.

It packs serious weight inside the World Trade Organization. EU representations can force changes in U.S. domestic policy—for instance, in steel subsidies; this country that prides itself on its independence from all other sources. The euro is the peg for quite a lot of the world, although the dollar, I think, is still a stronger currency in that way. I understand that 70 percent of all dollars that have been printed are in circulation outside the United States, most in Russia and in Latin America. However, the euro is the peg for Central African countries; it’s legal currency in both Kosovo and Montenegro, even though neither is an independent state; and it’s legal currency in the micro states of Vatican City, Monaco, San Marino, and Andorra—not that people care very much about them. The euro is there, and it’s becoming stronger as these things go, but I think it has not yet exceeded the strength of the dollar. On the other hand, if the dollar were to be weakened still further in an act of deliberate policy by the U.S. Treasury, which is a possibility, we might see that changing. The biggest change of all, of course, will be if oil were ever to be counted in euros rather than dollars.

I think that is a long way away—if it will ever happen. I have heard a Nobel Prize-winning economist urging that the euro, the dollar, and the yen should merge as a single world currency. I have my doubts about this. Where the EU has not succeeded yet is as a security actor. NATO remains the bedrock for this. European member states’ attitudes to NATO vary along a spectrum from the French, on the one hand, who want to see a purely European solution to European problems and try to keep the U.S. out of this as much as possible, to the British, on the other hand, who are committed to trans-Atlanticism under any conceivable British administration, be it liberal, labor, or conservative, and who will prevent the French from ever setting up an independent European security—successfully having done so on a number of occasions. Insofar as there has been progress in EU security issues, it’s been where the French and British have managed to agree. Examples of that have been the first EU military deployment, which was in Macedonia last year. This wasn’t a very glorious affair; this was 150 soldiers on the ground, with 450 backing them up in headquarters.

This was peacekeeping very light, indeed, but they’re hoping to deploy a much bigger mission into Bosnia at the end of this year. Similarly, the EU is now trying to do small peacekeeping stuff: police reform, currently in Macedonia and in Bosnia, and looking at reforming the rule of law in Georgia. These are missions that have previously been carried out by OSCE, and carried out more successfully by OSCE. Not just because OSCE drew on American and Canadian policemen and lawyers, although I think I’ve noticed them being quite prominent in such missions. But because OSCE tended to have a more decentralized approach to these issues, whereas the EU is still trying to prove that everything can be done from and through Brussels. However, perhaps that’s less important than the bigger picture. The bigger picture is that the EU is now a block of twenty-five, possibly, if you take all the ones in my list earlier, up to over thirty nations, which is going to be a huge gravitational attraction to its immediate neighborhood. And the biggest of the neighbors that people get most obsessed about is Russia, but Russia will make its own decision one way or the other.

I’m much more concerned myself about North Africa, where there are five or six countries between Morocco and Egypt, all of which are full of young, unemployed men, which is one of your classic potential conflict indicators, all of whom are looking with envy across the Mediterranean to the EU—some of whom are literally dying to get there. And if you look at what’s happening on the Morocco–Spanish strait, it’s very worrying indeed. The EU hasn’t developed a sufficiently convincing vision for its own neighborhood. I would like to see a greater Euro–Mediterranean space; a space that would offer some kind of political and economic and humanitarian liberty; a common future for people living between Casablanca and Vladivostok. For the United States, it was easy. Once you got California, it was fairly clear what your manifest destiny was going to be: it was to fill up the spaces in-between, with a couple other fringy bits—my apologies to anyone from Alaska or Hawaii. In my opinion, if the EU is looking for manifest destiny, this is what it has to be: to fill up that space between Casablanca and Vladivostok and to fill it with a shared civilizational value.

Perhaps former French President Giscard d’Estaing’s famous phrases about being “united in diversity” and having “responsibilities toward future generations of the earth” can be turned into something more weighty than the paper airplane I fear they are at the moment. This article was taken from a talk presented on 13 October 2004 at the Kennedy Center, which may be found archived online at . RELATED CONTENT Most Muscular Actors - Hollywood's 10 Most Hulking He-Men Hollywood's 10 Most Hulking He-Men Most Popular By Nick Schager Sep 19, 2013 Big action movies require big action movie stars, and Hollywood has had no dearth of leading men willing and able to bulk up to superhuman size to carry out such ass-kicking duties. Ever since Arnold Schwarzenegger made the leap from bodybuilding to big-screen heroics, Hollywood has craved ever-larger leading men for their slam-bang extravaganzas.

This week's release of Generation Iron — a documentary about the competitive world of bodybuilding that follows in the footsteps of 1977's classic Pumping Iron, which first brought Schwarzenegger to the mainstream — again thrusts massive male physiques back into the cinematic spotlight. In honor of this latest ode to bulging biceps and shredded abs, here's a look at the buffest of Hollywood's buff, when they were (of course) most buff. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, IN COMMANDO Most Popular The one, the only, the inimitable Ahnold is the king of ridiculous cinematic physicality, an Austrian goliath so awe-inspiringly colossal that he remains the standard against which all wannabe action-film He-Men are judged. While Pumping Iron captured him at his bodybuilding peak, he was never more jaw-droppingly gargantuan than in Commando, a film that rests solely on the substantial shoulders of its kill-'em-all headliner.

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MICHAEL CLARKE DUNCANE, IN ARMAGEDDON Advertisement - Continue Reading Below The late Michael Clarke Duncan was a sensitive and soulful giant, one who seemed more comfortable as the kindhearted death-row inmate of The Green Mile than the evil Kingpin of Daredevil. For pure vastness, however, his greatest showcase was in Michael Bay's Armageddon, a film whose absurd scale and boundless melodramatic silliness was a perfect fit for the immense, and immensely charming and funny, star. TINY LISTER, IN NO HOLDS BARRED Most Popular Tommy "Tiny" Lister's career was jumpstarted by No Holds Barred, a WWE-produced film intended to launch the acting career of icon Hulk Hogan. It didn't, but the project — along with the accompanying in-ring WWE storyline created to promote it — did help shine a spotlight on Lister, whose physical enormity was never more impressive than when bench-pressing in this trailer. TERRY CREWS, IN WHITE CHICKS There's a reason that, when they needed a pumped-up personality for their surrealistic über-macho deodorant commercials, Old Spice turned to Terry Crews . The character actor's body is a thing of frightening size and definition.

Yet while it helps make him an intimidating presence in tough-guy outings like The Expendables, it also provides an amusing contrast to (and helps enhance) his goofy sense of humor, as in his attempts to romance a cross-dressing Wayans brother with sexy club dancing in White Chicks. DAVE BAUTISTA, IN THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS Advertisement - Continue Reading Below The latest wrestler determined to make the leap to the silver screen, former WWE grappler Dave Bautista is so huge, it's hard not to think he was created in some evil villain's laboratory. As a behemoth eventually encased in golden armor in The RZA's The Man with the Iron Fists, it's his ridiculous build that provides the greatest spectacle. TOM HARDY, IN WARRIOR Best known for his work as Batman's diesel arch nemesis Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, Tom Hardy's true physical peak was achieved before that blockbuster, in 2011's underrated MMA drama Warrior.

As a ferocious bruiser pitted against his brother in a championship bout, Hardy's body boasts not an ounce of fat, with the actor looking so bulked up that he comes across as infinitely more menacing than he did wearing his voice-altering Bane mask. JEAN-CLAUDE VAN DAMME, IN BLOODSPORT Jean-Claude Van Damme may have been most renowned for his jump kicks and splits, as well as his awesome accent and frequently ridiculous hair, but there's no denying that on a purely physical level, the star was a ripped martial-arts machine, especially in Bloodsport. They didn't call him The Muscles From Brussels for nothing. ED NORTON IN AMERICAN HISTORY X While many mainstream actors have often beefed up for certain roles (see: Gerard Butler in 300 ), none did so as fearsomely as Edward Norton in American History X. As a neo-Nazi, Norton displays a supersized, swastika-decorated body that's as daunting as his character's behavior is terrifying — culminating in an early scene in which the shirtless psycho delivers one of the movies' all-time most horrific killshots . Follow The Culture Blog on RSS and on Twitter at @ESQCulture .

More from Esquire: Muscles From Brussels - Brü Studio - Untappd Muscles From Brussels Add Check-in Named after one of the most famous Belgium born actors - Jean Claude VanDam. We have… Show More Named after one of the most famous Belgium born actors - Jean Claude VanDam. We have made 3 different batches of this wonderful beer, and have enjoyed them all. Show Less Sign Up Log In See more of Muscles from Brussels by logging into Facebook Message this Page, learn about upcoming events and more. If you don't have a Facebook account, you can create one to see more of this Page. FILM - Jean-Claude Van Damme, the, uh, Actor? - NYTimes.com FILM; Jean-Claude Van Damme, the, uh, Actor? By DAVID RICHARDS Published: September 4, 1994 Jean-Claude van Damme IS A household name, if the household has a 12-year-old boy in it.

Most peace-loving adults have never seen one of his movies: low-budget epics in which the 33-year-old actor can usually be counted upon to 1) leap in the air, execute a 360-degree spin and slam the villain in the face with his feet, 2) flex the muscles that once won him the crown of Mr. Belgium and 3) do the splits. With titles like "Bloodsport," "Death Warrant" and "Hard Target," they deliver just what you'd expect and, apparently, what adolescents the planet over clamor to see -- an abattoir's worth of gore and acts of bone-crunching violence tied to a simple revenge story. If there's next to no dialogue, it's partly because the star's command of English has been for many years rudimentary. So far, Mr. Van Damme is a bigger draw in Europe and Asia than in the United States. (His most successful movie, "Universal Soldier," a 1992 release in which he co-starred opposite Dolph Lundgren, grossed $36 million domestically. But it took in nearly three times as much worldwide.) Since most of his films have had modest budgets, the profit margin is high.

The financiers are happy. The distributors are happy. And some weeks, the fan mail runs to 2,000 letters. On the other hand, Mr. Van Damme is the first to admit that by and large, the films have been rotten. The critics, if they even bother to take notice, have ridiculed them, implying that an interest in the actor's on-screen exploits is, like acne, one of the more unfortunate side effects of puberty. On several occasions, he has even been obliged to re-edit the movies himself, just to keep audiences from laughing. All this may be about to change. With his 11th film, "Timecop," a $27 million sci-fi fantasy and, arguably, his classiest effort to date, the man who once billed himself as the Muscles From Brussels is poised on the brink of . . . well, that's the big question. Will the film, a Universal release scheduled to open on Sept. 16, finally propel him into the hearts and minds of America's mainstream moviegoers? Or will he remain No. 4 in the action hero lineup, after Schwarzenegger, Stallone and Seagal?

No one is more aware that he's at a crossroads than Mr. Van Damme himself, who views his career so far as "a miracle." "Imagine," he says, "that I have a gun with six bullets. You have to run from one end of this room to the other. I'm going to shoot these bullets at you, one by one. If you can escape them, then maybe you'll become a movie star. Well, that's what happened to me. I escaped. I escaped movies like 'Lionheart,' 'Cyborg,' 'Double Impact' and 'Kickboxer.' I came through. It's a miracle, believe me." But he knows there are still snipers out there. "The chore," says Peter Hyams, who directed "Timecop," "was to make a film for people who do not usually go to see a film with Jean-Claude Van Damme in it. He wants very much to graduate to the next level. He's not this huge, impressive thing that Arnold was when he first burst on the scene. Jean-Claude is a normal-sized, romantic, rather sweet guy.

I thought if we could show some of that on the screen it would broaden the appeal." Putting martial arts if not totally behind him at least to one side, the actor plays Max Walker, a policeman in 2004, who travels back and forth in time, tracking down criminals who have found a way to return to the past and plunder it. He's also on the trail of his wife's killers, which is where the new Jean-Claude Van Damme -- less invincible, more sensitive, "more the guy next door" -- comes in. "You can do so much with the eyes," says the actor, who has never had an acting lesson. "Look at Steve McQueen. He never talked that much in his movies. Anyway, I don't think you can learn acting. That's like telling a woman to be charming. She is or she isn't." Perhaps it is no coincidence that Mr. Van Damme's most expressive features in "Timecop" are his eyes, gray verging on blue. Opened wide, they can convey moist, spaniel-like longings; narrowed into angry slits of resolve, they promise mayhem down the road. Words come harder to him.

Still, for someone who has long been expected to act only with his pecs and his abs, this represents progress. "I have a decent body," he says. "I'm always training in the gym. So up to now, the producers and directors of my movies want to show muscle shots. These are no-budget movies. What else can they show? An explosion? A jet crashing? Not enough money. So they show muscles. The kids go wow. I end up being a piece of meat." No more. While he continues to weight lift every day, at 180 pounds (down from 200), he is clearly not one of those bull-necked titans who threaten to split their shirts up the back simply by inhaling too deeply. In fact, your first impression, as he strides across the lobby of the Regency Hotel one recent summer evening in Manhattan, is that of a provincial European gym coach on a night out. His hair is brushed back in a modified pompadour. Large gold-rimmed glasses lend a studious note to his face. His flesh is pink and naturally picks up the light -- one of the benefits, he claims, of sweating profusely during his workouts.

1 Jean-Claude Van Damme - IMDb Jean-Claude Van Damme Actor | Writer | Producer Van Damme was born Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, Brussels, Belgium, to Eliana and Eugène Van Varenberg, an accountant. "The Muscles from Brussels" started martial arts at the age of eleven. His father introduced him to martial arts when he saw his son was physically weak. At the age of 12, Van Damme began his... See full bio » Born: a list of 42 people created 18 Mar 2012 a list of 43 people created 03 Aug 2012 a list of 42 people created 25 Apr 2013 a list of 37 people created 09 May 2014 a list of 30 people created 15 Sep 2014 Do you have a demo reel? Add it to your IMDbPage How much of Jean-Claude Van Damme's work have you seen? User Polls 2 wins & 9 nominations.

See more awards » Known For Double Impact Alex / Chad Wagner (1991) Universal Soldier Luc Deveraux / GR44 (1992) 2016 Jean-Claude Van Johnson (TV Movie) Johnson / Jean-Claude Van Damme Movie Goer / Man in Garden (uncredited) Hide 1991 Double Impact (fight choreographer) 1990 Lionheart (fight choreographer) 1989 Kickboxer (fight scenes choreographer - as Jean Claude Van Damme) / (fight scenes director - as Jean Claude Van Damme) 1987 Predator (body double - uncredited) Hide 1984 Missing in Action (stunts - as J.

Claude van Damme) Hide 2012 Dead City 2 (Short) (grateful thanks) 2009 Trampoline Ninjas (Video short) (special thanks) 2002 Shottas (very special thanks - as Jean-Claude Vandamme) Hide 2016 Hollywood Today Live (TV Series) Himself 2007-2016 Le grand journal de Canal+ (TV Series documentary) Himself 2010 Ceská Miss 2010 (TV Movie) Himself - Judge 2002-2009 E!

True Hollywood Story (TV Series documentary) Himself 2008 Rencontres de cinéma (TV Series) Himself 2008 La nuit des Césars (TV Series documentary) Himself 2004 Making of 'Wake of Death' (Video documentary short) Himself 2004 A Tale of Two Titans (Video documentary short) Himself 2002 Uniba G monogatari (Video documentary short) Himself 2001 Shouto na Slavi (TV Series) Himself 2001 Domingo Legal (TV Series) Himself 2001 El informal (TV Series) Himself 1999 Vivement dimanche (TV Series) Himself - Main Guest 1999 WCW Monday Nitro (TV Series) Himself 1998 The Path of the Dragon (Video documentary short) Himself 1998 What's the Bet? (TV Series) Himself 1998 Bravo Profiles: The Entertainment Business (TV Mini-Series documentary) Himself 1997 Ruby Wax Meets...

(TV Series documentary) Himself 1996 Telemaratón 1996 (TV Movie) Himself 1996 Very Important Pennis (TV Series) Himself 1994-1996 Howard Stern (TV Series) Himself 1994 Entertainment Cops (TV Movie) Himself 1990-1994 The Word (TV Series) Himself 1993 The Making of 'Hard Target' (TV Movie documentary) Chance Boudreaux 1992 Making of 'Universal Soldier' (TV Short documentary) Himself 1991 Voices that Care (TV Movie documentary) Himself - Choir Member 1991 The Movie Awards (TV Movie documentary) Himself - Presenter 1989 Good Morning America (TV Series) Himself 1984 Hollywood '84 (TV Mini-Series documentary) Himself - Episode #1.3 (1984) ...

Himself (as Jean-Claude) Hide 2016 Entertainment Tonight (TV Series) Himself 2013 Salut les geeks (TV Series) Himself 2011 Music Box (TV Mini-Series) Himself Himself - 1980s WFSB Interview with Gayle King - Episode #19.92 (2011) ... Himself - 1980s WFSB Interview with Gayle King 2006 Dateline NBC (TV Series documentary) Himself 2004 Retrosexual: The 80's (TV Mini-Series documentary) Himself 2003 Celebrities Uncensored (TV Series) Himself 1995 House of Style (TV Series) Himself Appeared in TV commercial for Virgin Mobile "No Limit" phones, France (2007).

See more » Publicity Listings: 1 Biographical Movie | 11 Interviews | 8 Articles | 5 Pictorials | 14 Magazine Cover Photos | See more » Official Sites: Jean-Claude | Jean Claude Van Damme | Jean-Claude Van Varenbergh | Jean-Claude Vandam | Jean-Claude Vandamme | J. Claude van Damme Height: Did You Know? Personal Quote: Timecop (1994) could have been a very profitable franchise, but those idiots chose instead to sell the rights to television. That could have also been the case with _Bloodsport_, but they settled instead on second-rate kick-boxers for the sequels. - [on his famous films sequels] See more » Trivia: He was the inspiration for the character Johnny Cage from Mortal Kombat (1992), which was initially envisioned as a gaming vehicle for Van Damme, but he and Midway could not come to terms on the costs for using his likeness. One of Johnny Cage's special moves is doing a split while punching his opponent in the groin, as seen when Van Damme's character, Frank Dux , punches his large sumo opponent in ...

See more » Trademark: Thrilling one and all with his 360-degree ultimate leaping & super flying karate kicks. See more » Nickname: Jean-Claude Van Damme - Film Actor, Martial Arts Expert - Biography.com Famous People Named Jean-Claude Synopsis Jean-Claude Van Damme was born on October 18, 1960, in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, Belgium. A champion martial artist and bodybuilder as a teenager, he used his physical abilities to become the star of such American action flicks as Bloodsport (1988) and Double Impact (1991). Van Damme endured personal and professional difficulties beginning in the 1990s, but has since regained some of his star power. Early Years and Career Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg was born on October 18, 1960, in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, Brussels, Belgium. A skinny child, he began studying Shotokan karate at age 11, and also eagerly took to weightlifting and ballet.

As a teenager, Van Damme won the middleweight championship of the European Professional Karate Association and was named "Mr. Belgium" in a bodybuilding competition. Jean-Claude Van Damme opened a gym in Brussels and earned some modeling work, but he was enthralled with the idea of becoming a film star. After briefly attempting to break into the thriving martial-arts movie industry in Hong Kong, China, he moved to Los Angeles, California, in the early 1980s to pursue his Hollywood dreams. Big-Screen Stardom Originally calling himself "Frank Cujo," Jean-Claude Van Damme received bit parts in feature films and worked as a cabdriver, waiter, aerobics instructor and nightclub bouncer as he tried to make a name for himself in Tinseltown. He was featured in the 1986 martial-arts flick No Retreat, No Surrender, but his big break came after he displayed his ability to perform a jumping, 360-degree "helicopter kick" to B-list producer Menahem Golan, who cast the unknown actor in Bloodsport (1988).

The low-budget film grossed a surprising $35 million at the box office, and Van Damme followed with another successful starring role in Kickboxer the following year. Over the following decade, Van Damme filled the big screen in such action flicks as Double Impact (1991), Universal Soldier (1992), Time Cop (1994), Sudden Death (1995) and Maximum Risk (1996), overcoming his limited acting chops with his acrobatic kicks and patented splits. He made his directorial debut with The Quest (1996), but Double Team (1997) and Knock Off (1998) were flops, and by the start of the 2000s most of his movies landed in the straight-to-video bin. In 2008, Van Damme resurfaced as a fictionalized version of himself in the part-satirical, part-confessional JCVD.

His performance drew positive reviews and triggered something of a revival for the former action star, who went on to reprise a familiar role in Universal Soldier: Regeneration (2010) and voice the character of Master Croc in Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011). In 2012, Van Damme was back in his element as part of the veteran butt-kicking ensemble featured in Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables 2. Personal Life Van Damme became addicted to cocaine and sleeping pills while at the height of his stardom in the 1990s, and was arrested for DUI in 1999. He was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder during this period, though his condition improved after he began taking medication and got his personal life in order. Van Damme has been married five times and has three children. Two of them, Kris Van Varenberg and Bianca Bree, have followed in their father's footsteps as actors. In October 2012, Van Damme was honored with the unveiling of a bronze statue in his native Brussels. The statue depicts the former martial-arts champion in a classic fighting pose, ready to launch one of his famous flying kicks.

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Question: Nicknamed 'The Muscles from Brussels' who is the actor?
Answer: Jean-Claude van Damme