Jean-Claude Van Damme is a martial artist, actor, filmmaker, and fight choreographer. Van Damme is the son of Eliana and Eugène Van Varenberg, an accountant and florist, respectively.
Advertisement
His father is bilingual and from Brussels, and his mother is Flemish (Dutch-speaking). Van Damme was raised as a Roman Catholic.
His father’s mother was Jewish. His father enrolled him in a Shotokan karate school when he was ten years old.
Jean-Claude Van Damme practices Shotokan Karate and Kickboxing. At the age of 18, he earned his black belt in karate.
Advertisement
Credit: ©AFP
He began lifting weights to improve his physique, which led to him winning the Mr Belgium bodybuilding title.
He began ballet at the age of 16 and studied it for five years. Ballet, according to Van Damme, “is an art, but it’s also one of the most difficult.”
With the desire of becoming an actor, he moved to the United States in 1982. He got his break as the lead in the martial arts film Bloodsport (1988).
Leave a Reply