Lahirnya Okta samaan sama Jean-Claude Van Damme

Date of Birth

18 October 1960, Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, Brussels, Belgium

Birth Name

Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg

Nickname

Muscles from Brussels
J.C.

Height

5' 9" (1.75 m)

Mini Biography

When Jean-Claude Van Damme became an international film star, there was some debate as to his kick-boxing accomplishments. Former multiple World Kickboxing Champion Don "The Dragon" Wilson even offered Jean-Claude a "$100,000" bounty match to get into the ring and fight him. Van Damme brushed off the "challenge" as a publicity stunt. But, the truth of the matter was that Jean-Claude Van Damme was a successful semi-contact and full-contact fighter (amateur) who competed in Europe and briefly in the United States from 1976-1982.

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.

In 1976 at the age of sixteen, Jean-Claude started his amateur fight career as a 135-pound lightweight. 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. Jean-Claude finished the year with a first knockout win over Roland Vedani in a competition in Ingelmunster. Some sources list these two matches as "light-contact" which would mean that the victories were listed as "won by forfeit due to injury", not knockouts.

In 1977, at the WAKO Open International in Antwerp, Belgium, Jean-Claude won a decision over fellow team mate Patrick Teugels. Previous reports had Van Damme losing a decision, but a recent video shows Jean-Claude winning the match.At the same tournament, Van Damme knocked out Andre Lemaire in the opening round of a match fought under full-contact rules.

After six months of intense training and sparring, Master Goetz decided to unleash his prized pupil on the European Full-Contact scene.

At the 1978 Challenge De Espoirs Karate Tournament (1st Trials),Jean-Claude placed 2nd in the semi-contact division. He defeated three opponents, but lost in the finals to a fighter billed as Spataro from the Naha Club. Later in 1978, Jean-Claude lost a 2-round match for the Belgium Lightweight Championship (semi-contact) to his fellow team-mate to Patrick Teugels. Van Damme ended the year by losing in the opening eliminations at the 1978 WAKO Amateur World Championships, thus failing to place in the top 10.

In 1979, Jean-Claude was a member of the Belgium Karate Team when it traveled to Tampa, Florida to compete in the WAKO World Championships promoted by Mike Anderson. In his first and only match against a United States opponent, Van Damme faced 'Sherman 'Big Train'Bergman', a kick-boxer from the Miami Beach, Florida in a non-tournament match which was fought under full-contact rules. 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 cold in 56 seconds of the first round. Van Damme then attempted to win the Semi-Contact 69kg World Championship, but was defeated in the opening elimination match by a fighter from Spain. Thus, Jean-Claude Van Damme failed for the second time to place in the World Championships. He went on to defeat Spain's Gilberto Dias by forfeit due to injury in the first round of an international light-contact match fought in Belgium. Following that match, 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 victory over European and British Semi-Contact Middleweight Champion Micheal Heming by "forfeit" due to injury in the second round, enabled the Belgium team to win the European Team Championships. Previous sources had listed this match as a professional match which too place in 1980.

In 1980, Jean-Claude Van Damme knocked out France's Georges Verlugels in 2 rounds of a match fought under kick-boxing rules.

After these victories, Van Damme caught the attention of the European martial arts community. Professional Karate Magazine publisher and editor Mike Anderson, and multiple European Champion Geet Lemmens tabbed Jean-Claude Van Damme as an upcoming prospect. However, Jean-Claude's ambitions now focused in the direction of movie acting.

Before he retired from active competition, Jean-Claude wanted to defeat his rival Patrick Teugels, and a rubber-match was scheduled at the Forest Nationals in Brussels, on March 8, 1980. The match was held on a professional card, but it was listed as an under-card match. The match was fought under "light-contact" rules and ended when Jean-Claude knocked Teugels down and Teugels suffered a nose injury and was unable to continue. The official result was a "forfeit win due to injury."

Following the victory, Jean-Claude retired from martial arts competition, but a year later he launched a comeback. Both his comeback fights were kick-boxing matches. In 1981, Jean-Claude knocked out Henk Besselman in one round, and in 1982, he knocked out Lenny Leikman in three rounds. Videos and newspaper reports support Jean-Claude's Van Damme's claim to a successful fight record. All his matches (except possibly his comeback matches in 1981-1982) were amateur bouts. The vast majority of his career was fought in both semi and light-contact tournaments. However, he had at least 3-matches fought under kick-boxing rules.

After Jean-Claude's film career took off, controversy arose because none of his fights were found. Some experts blasted Van Damme as a fake, saying he only had one amateur fight which he lost. But research and the Internet have finally cleared things up. Jean-Claude Van Damme fought his entire fight career under his birth name of Van Varenberg; thus the mix-up.

In August, 2009, it was announced that Jean-Claude Van Damme would return to the ring after a 27 year retirement to fight Thailand's Somrak Khamsing in a match promoted by Japan's K-1. The comeback fight is scheduled for November 2011 in Russia.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Alain Bernard

Mini Biography

Born on Oct 18 1960, Jean-Claude Van Damme is the son of Eugene Van Varenberg and Eliana Van Varenberg. "The Muscles from Brussels" originally known as Jean-Claude Van Varenberg, started martial arts at the age of 11. His father Eugene Van Varenberg introduced him to martial arts when he saw his son was physically weak. Jean-Claude started with Shotokan Karate and later studied Kickboxing, Taekwon-Do, and Muay Thai. 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.

He came to Hong Kong at the age of 19 for the first time and felt insured to do action movies in Hong Kong. So in 1981 Van Damme left Hong Kong and moved to Los Angeles, where he was trying for 5 years. 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.
IMDb Mini Biography By: The Old Fox (oldfox@yahoo.com)