An American actor, screenwriter, director Jean-Claude Van Damme, whose filmography is unique and contains many films about martial arts, is considered one of the best bodybuilders in the world ranking. The athlete is the winner of numerous competitions and nominations.
Van Damme: biography
An athlete was born in the small Belgian town of Berkem-Saint-Agat on October 18, 1960. Jean-Claude's father was the owner of a flower shop, his mother ran a household. When the boy was ten years old, his parents assigned him to a karate school, and later the young athlete began to study with a martial arts professor Claude Getz.
When young Van Damme graduated from training, he owned four other types of martial arts besides karate: taekwondo, Muay Thai, kung fu and kickboxing.
At the age of 16, Van Damme joined the Belgian martial arts team and began performing in the Karate category. At the first competitions he won a prize and became the champion of Europe, having received at the same time a black belt. In 1979, he met on the tatami with the American Sherman Bergman and won the match at the end of the first minute, sending the opponent to the knockout. In the next contest, the Englishman Michael Heming, the titled champion, defeated. In total, Van Damme has twenty wins and two losses, the ratio is impressive, especially since 13 fights ended by knockout, and he won the rest on points.
The beginning of a career in cinema
Engaged in martial arts, Jean-Claude dreamed of applying his art to cinema. In the end, he managed to star in the film "Do not Retreat and Do Not Give Up" directed by Corey Yuen. Van Damme played the main role, his character became a hit man, Russian karateka Ivan Krashinsky. The debut was successful, and a new name appeared in Hollywood - Van Damme. The filmography of the actor at first was modest, but soon he began to receive invitations from leading film studios.
In 1988, Van Damme had a real breakthrough, he was awarded a role in the film "Blood Sport". Many doubted the success of the film with an obscene script and an unknown actor in the title role. Films began to be shown in Malaysia, then France carefully took rental copies, and only then the United States took a chance. Contrary to expectations, the low-budget film made a splash around the world, and the muscular hero instantly became a movie star. Cash success was a record, revenue exceeded $ 30 million.
Success
Van Damme, whose filmography began to regularly replenish with new films, took up the matter seriously. He trained a lot, studied the history of martial arts, met with teachers, watched films with the participation of Bruce Lee. As a result, the actor managed to create a whole direction in American cinema, connected with fighting stories, fights, criminal tote and bloody competitions in the ring.
Jean-Claude Van Damme, films with whose participation became more and more popular, successfully fit into the already existing cluster of “American movie militants ”, in which Schwarzenegger Arnold and Sylvester Stallone set the tone. In the early nineties, a series of films was shot with Van Damme in the lead roles. “Universal Soldier”, “Patrol of Time”, “Nowhere to Run” - these paintings brought the actor worldwide fame.
Decline
However, soon in the action movie genre there was a recession, action films began to bring less and less income. The last successful film starring Van Damme, Double Blow (1991), showed a good box office. In the same period, the actor decided to try his hand at the directorial profession and made the film "In Search of Adventure", for which he himself wrote the script.
The directorial debut took place, but the film was not successful, the rental barely recouped the costs. Several of the following films - "The Blaster", "Maximum Risk", "Colony" - also went unnoticed.
And again success
The stagnation period for the militants lasted several years, then the public's interest in this genre began to increase. In 2009, the film "Universal Soldier: Rebirth" was released. Starring Van Damme and popular actor Dolph Lundgren. High box office showed that action-packed fantasy returned to its cinema position.
Two years later, Jean-Claude Van Damme, whose films again became popular, starred in the sequel "The Expendables-2" by Sylvester Stallone. The film has collected at the box office about three hundred million dollars.
Currently, the popular actor Jean-Claude Van Damme, whose filmography is regularly updated with new paintings, is preparing for the filming of the next film project.