Here is some information that I have gathered on Jean-Claude Van Damme!!!!
First of all, Jean-Claude was the 2nd of two children. He has an older sister. He was small for his age, so his father registered him in Karate classes to boost his esteem. He started weightlifting, and he also had taken ballet for a couple of years, but quit the ballet because he wanted to focus on Karate only.
When he was young, his father had taken him to see Ben-Hur... that is when the acting bug bit him. He knew he wanted to be an actor. He quit school when he was 17! He started a gymnasium business in Belgium, and did a little acting in Paris. He won the Mr. Belgium title when he was 19, which gave him his nickname... "The Muscles from Brussels". In 1981, he came to America to pursue his acting career.
At first, he held a lot of jobs while auditioning for parts. He delivered pizza, was a bouncer, a carpet layer, a limo driver, and taxi driver. He also was a Karate teacher and even a private teacher. (where was I when he was doing this *lol*)
In 1986 he met Chuck Norris who got him a job as a bouncer at his wife's Restaraunt, and a bit part as a villian in No Retreat, No Surrender!
In 1987 he saw producer Menaham Golan sitting in a Beverly Hills
restaraunt, and went up to him and proceeded to do a scissor kick over Menaham's head, then said Jean-Claude Van Damme, pointing to himself... "The Karate Guy"... which won him an interview the next day. Jean-Claude got the part in Bloodsport! BUT no one wanted to release Bloodsport.... so Jean-Claude spent his days driving a Limo, and by night he was editing, and re-editing Bloodsport!
In 1991, Jean-Claude was voted 1 of the top 10 sexiest men in both Cosmopolitan and Playgirl... (you can see why!!!).
Jean-Claude has three children... Kristopher, Bianca, and Nicholas. Kristopher and Bianca are from his marriage to his second wife. And Nicholas is from his marriage to his fourth wife Darcy LaPier (which they are now divorced).
He has also done a Japanese commercial for Black Black gum!!!! (I actually have it recorded... when he was on Rosie, they showed it.... YEAH!!!)
And i dont know for sure if this is correct or not, but i heard that Van Damme appeared in a music video and sang in the choir on the song "Voices that Care". I got that information from the Internet Movie Database.... so I am pretty sure they know what they are talking about!
He studied classical ballet for five years.
He likes classical music and his favorite composer is Beethoven.
He can lift 166kg on a bench.
In Jesse Ventura's book, he mentions Van Damme as having played the Predator monster until he was fired and replaced by Kevin Peter Hall.
I have Dateline recorded that aired on August 28th... in the interview he talks about his addiction to cocaine, and all the problems he was having. At one point in the interview he broke down and confessed that at one point in his life (while doing cocaine) he had a gun to his head ready to pull the trigger, but couldn't go through with it! That is when he turned his life around and decided to kick the cocaine habit! Way to go Van Damme!!!
On July 10, 2000, Van Damme was sentenced to a 90 day anti-drunk-driving class, $1,2000 fine, 3 yrs. probation and a 90 day revocation of his license after pleading no contest in Beverly Hills for a September 23, 1999 DUI arrest.
He has his own production company named Long Road Productions (also known as 777 Films Corp).
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