---
name: "Jean-Claude Van Damme"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/jean-claude-van-damme"
fi1m_id: "jean-claude-van-damme"
imdb_id: "nm0000241"
tmdb_id: 15111
wikidata_id: "Q308840"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "18 October 1960"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 2
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-10-04T23:52:43.030158+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Jean-Claude Van Damme

## Identity

Jean-Claude Van Damme

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/jean-claude-van-damme
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** jean-claude-van-damme
- **IMDb ID:** nm0000241
- **TMDB ID:** 15111
- **Wikidata ID:** Q308840
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Claude_Van_Damme, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q308840, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000241/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/15111

Actor. Born 18 October 1960 in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, Brussels, Belgium.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 18 October 1960, Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, Brussels, Belgium
- **Active:** 1988–1994
- **Also known as:** JCVD, The Muscles from Brussels, Jean-Claude van Varenbergh, Jean-Claude Camille François van Varenberg
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 2: 1 acting, 1 other
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Claude_Van_Damme, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q308840, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000241/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/15111

## Streaming the US now

- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Timecop*](https://film.one/film/timecop.md) (64)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Jean-Claude Van Damme

> Van Damme moves like a dancer and hits like a kickboxer, and for most of his career the films around him have asked for nothing else. When a director asks for more, as Peter Hyams did in *Timecop*, there turns out to be more.

Somewhere in every Jean-Claude Van Damme film there is a moment when he does the splits. He does them between two chairs, across a doorway, or, in *Timecop* (1994), across a kitchen worktop in the dark to keep his feet out of a puddle someone has just dropped a live wire into. The five years of ballet he took from the age of sixteen are in that move, and so is the whole appeal: a man built like a bodybuilder doing things a bodybuilder should not be able to do. The face above the legs does almost nothing. He knows it. He said himself in 2017 that he had made forty-odd films in which you see him with a gun and one neutral face, and that is a fair review of most of them.

The films came in a rush. *Bloodsport* (1988), with Van Damme as Frank Dux, was the first lead after years of small parts and odd jobs; *Kickboxer* (1989) repeated the recipe with longer fights and a training montage; *Universal Soldier* (1992) put him opposite Dolph Lundgren, the first of four films together, and found him an audience beyond the martial-arts crowd. Along the way John Woo, Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam each made their first American film with him, which says something about how reliably he could carry a fight a Hong Kong director would recognise. Then the late 1990s arrived, the films went straight to video, and they stayed there for most of a decade.

The weakness is the one he names. Asked to stand still and talk, he can look like a man waiting for the next kick, and the early films, with their thin plots and revenge stories told in as few words as possible, rarely asked him for anything else. *Timecop* is the exception we have reviewed, and it is instructive. Peter Hyams, who directed him twice, keeps the dialogue short enough that the accent stops mattering, and Van Damme plays Max Walker as a widower first and a kickboxer second. He is more watchable for it. We went in prepared to be patient with him and found, somewhere around that kitchen fight, that we had stopped being patient and started being pleased; the stillness that looks blank in a bad film reads as grief in a slightly better one.

*JCVD* (2008), in which he plays himself, and *The Expendables 2* (2012), in which he plays a villain called Jean Vilain, brought him back into view, and the later work, including the series *Jean-Claude Van Johnson* (2016–2017), leans on the joke of a man who has noticed what he is. We suspect the joke suits him better than it would suit most of his contemporaries, because he was never pretending the face moved. Start with *Timecop*. How much further you go depends entirely on how you feel about the splits.

## Biography

Jean-Claude Van Damme is a Belgian actor and martial artist. Born Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg on 18 October 1960 in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, Brussels, he trained in karate and kickboxing before moving to the United States in 1982.

He gained prominence with his lead role as Frank Dux in the 1988 martial arts film *Bloodsport*, on which he is also credited as editor. Subsequent films include *Kickboxer* (1989), *Universal Soldier* (1992), *Timecop* (1994) as Max Walker, and *Street Fighter* (1994). He has appeared in voice roles in animated features such as *Kung Fu Panda 2* (2011) and *Minions: The Rise of Gru* (2022).

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org.*

## On Fi1m (2)

### Performed in (1) — the average rests on these

- *Timecop* (1994), Fi1m 64, as Max Walker — [page](https://film.one/film/timecop.md)

### Also credited (1) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited

- *Last Action Hero* (1993), Fi1m 62, as Jean-Claude Van Damme (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/last-action-hero.md)

## Complete filmography (86)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Sensation: Cruise* (2025), as Kyle LeBlanc (archival footage from 'In Hell')
- *The Gardener* (2025), as Léo
- *Kill 'em All 2* (2024), as Philip
- *Darkness of Man* (2024), as Russell Hatch · Executive Producer, Story
- *Spaten* (2024), as Van Damme
- *Minions: The Rise of Gru* (2022), as Jean Clawed (voice)
- *Ramez Movie Star* (2022), series, Actor
- *Haters* (2021), as Jean-Claude Van Damme
- *The Last Mercenary* (2021), as Richard Brumére
- *Monsieur Jean-Claude* (2021), as (uncredited)
- *The Making of Double Impact, Parts 1 & 2* (2019), Actor
- *We Die Young* (2019), as Daniel · Executive Producer
- *The Bouncer* (2018), as Lukas
- *Black Water* (2018), as Wheeler · Executive Producer
- *Kickboxer: Retaliation* (2018), as Master Durand · Characters
- *Kill 'em All* (2017), as Philip
- *Jean-Claude Van Johnson* (2016), series, as Johnson
- *Kickboxer: Vengeance* (2016), as Master Durand · Characters
- *Kung Fu Panda 3* (2016), as Master Croc (voice)
- *Jian Bing Man* (2015), as Jean-Claude Van Damme
- *Pound of Flesh* (2015), as Deacon · Executive Producer
- *Swelter* (2014), as Stillman
- *Jean-Claude Van Damage* (2014), Actor
- *Enemies Closer* (2013), as Xander
- *Welcome to the Jungle* (2013), as Storm
- *U.F.O.* (2012), as George
- *Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning* (2012), as Luc Deveraux
- *6 Bullets* (2012), as Samson Gaul · Executive Producer
- *The Expendables 2* (2012), as Jean Vilain
- *Dragon Eyes* (2012), as Tiano
- *Beur sur la ville* (2011), as Colonel Merot, Le colonel
- *Assassination Games* (2011), as Vincent Brazil · Executive Producer
- *Kung Fu Panda 2* (2011), as Master Croc (voice)
- *Slinger* (2011), as Gibson Rickenbacker
- *Full Love* (2010), as Frenchy · Writer, Director, Producer, Editor
- *Universal Soldier: Regeneration* (2009), as Luc Deveraux
- *JCVD* (2008), as J.C.V.D. · Executive Producer
- *The Shepherd: Border Patrol* (2008), as Jack Robideaux
- *Until Death* (2007), as Anthony Stowe
- *The Hard Corps* (2006), as Phillippe Sauvage
- *Heist School* (2006), as Charles
- *Second in Command* (2006), as Cmdr. Samuel 'Sam' Keenan
- *Wake of Death* (2004), as Ben Archer
- *Narco* (2004), as Jean-Claude Van Damme fantasmé par Lenny
- *In Hell* (2003), as Kyle LeBlanc
- *Las Vegas* (2003), series, as Jean-Claude Van Damme
- *Dans la peau de Jean-Claude Van Damme* (2003), Actor
- *Derailed* (2002), as Jacques Kristoff
- *The Unbeatable Bruce Lee* (2001), Actor
- *Replicant* (2001), as Replicant / Garrotte
- *The Order* (2001), as Rudy Cafmeyer · Writer
- *Inferno* (1999), as Eddie Lomax · Producer
- *Universal Soldier: The Return* (1999), as Luc Deveraux · Producer
- *Legionnaire* (1998), as Alain Lefevre · Producer, Story
- *Knock Off* (1998), as Marcus Ray
- *Double Team* (1997), as Jack Quinn
- *Maximum Risk* (1996), as Alain Moreau / Mikhail Suverov
- *E! True Hollywood Story* (1996), series, Actor
- *The Quest* (1996), as Christopher Dubois · Director, Story
- *Sudden Death* (1995), as Darren Francis Thomas McCord
- *WCW Monday Nitro* (1995), series, Actor
- *Street Fighter* (1994), as Colonel Guile
- *Friends* (1994), series, as Jean-Claude Van Damme — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/tv/friends.md)
- *Timecop* (1994), as Max Walker — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/timecop.md)
- *Last Action Hero* (1993), as Jean-Claude Van Damme (uncredited) — Fi1m 62, [page](https://film.one/film/last-action-hero.md)
- *Hard Target* (1993), as Chance Boudreaux
- *Nowhere to Run* (1993), as Sam Gillen
- *Universal Soldier* (1992), as Luc Deveraux / GR44
- *Double Impact* (1991), as Alex / Chad Wagner · Producer, Screenplay, Story, Fight Choreographer
- *Kickboxer 2: The Road Back* (1991), Characters
- *Death Warrant* (1990), as Louis Burke
- *Lionheart* (1990), as Lyon Gaultier · Screenplay, Story, Fight Choreographer
- *Kickboxer* (1989), as Kurt Sloane · Story, Martial Arts Choreographer, Action Director, Stunt Coordinator
- *Cyborg* (1989), as Gibson Rickenbacker · Editor
- *Black Eagle* (1988), as Andrei
- *Bloodsport* (1988), as Frank Dux · Editor
- *No Retreat, No Surrender* (1986), as Ivan Kraschinsky "The Russian"
- *Missing in Action* (1984), as Soldier (uncredited) · Stunts
- *Breakin'* (1984), as Spectator in First Dance Sequence (uncredited)
- *Street of the Damned* (1984), as Extra in Police Arrival Sequence (uncredited)
- *Monaco Forever* (1984), as Gay Karate Man
- *Woman Between Wolf and Dog* (1979), as Movie Goer / Man in Garden (uncredited)
- *Silent Kill*, as Producer
- *What's My Name?*, Actor
- *Raid Pacific*, as Captain William Pierce
- *Prison Fight*, Actor

## Gallery

- ![Author : @Kiri Karma Comiccon Brussels 2023 - Fall - Q&A Jean-Claude Van Damme Jean-Claude Van Damme aka The Muscles from Brussels We?re thrilled and incred](https://film.one/media/person/3733998/gallery-2725b0d65c61.jpg) Author : @Kiri Karma Comiccon Brussels 2023 - Fall - Q&A Jean-Claude Van Damme Jean-Claude Van Damme aka The Muscles from Brussels We?re thrilled and incred — Miguel Discart & Kiri Karma (Photos Vrac), CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6b/Jean-Claude_Van_Damme_at_Brussels_Comic_Con_2023_DSC19342_Kiri_DxO.jpg/1280px-Jean-Claude_Van_Damme_at_Brussels_Comic_Con_2023_DSC19342_Kiri_DxO.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Jean-Claude Van Damme](https://film.one/media/person/3733998/gallery-eec11e7d24e6.jpg) Jean-Claude Van Damme — Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Van_Damme_Cannes_2010_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Author : @Kiri Karma Comiccon Brussels 2023 - Fall - Q&A Jean-Claude Van Damme Jean-Claude Van Damme aka The Muscles from Brussels We?re thrilled and incred](https://film.one/media/person/3733998/gallery-f9296f0ddf49.jpg) Author : @Kiri Karma Comiccon Brussels 2023 - Fall - Q&A Jean-Claude Van Damme Jean-Claude Van Damme aka The Muscles from Brussels We?re thrilled and incred — Miguel Discart & Kiri Karma (Photos Vrac), CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1d/Jean-Claude_Van_Damme_at_Brussels_Comic_Con_2023_DSC19345_Kiri_DxO.jpg/1280px-Jean-Claude_Van_Damme_at_Brussels_Comic_Con_2023_DSC19345_Kiri_DxO.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Author : @Kiri Karma Comiccon Brussels 2023 - Fall - Q&A Jean-Claude Van Damme Jean-Claude Van Damme aka The Muscles from Brussels We?re thrilled and incred](https://film.one/media/person/3733998/gallery-05357f83f9bc.jpg) Author : @Kiri Karma Comiccon Brussels 2023 - Fall - Q&A Jean-Claude Van Damme Jean-Claude Van Damme aka The Muscles from Brussels We?re thrilled and incred — Miguel Discart & Kiri Karma (Photos Vrac), CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/51/Jean-Claude_Van_Damme_at_Brussels_Comic_Con_2023_DSC19341_Kiri.jpg/1280px-Jean-Claude_Van_Damme_at_Brussels_Comic_Con_2023_DSC19341_Kiri.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Jean-Claude Van Damme](https://film.one/media/person/3733998/gallery-e7d64b052e10.jpg) Jean-Claude Van Damme — Image via TMDB
- ![Jean-Claude Van Damme](https://film.one/media/person/3733998/gallery-2dbe8305819e.jpg) Jean-Claude Van Damme — Image via TMDB
- ![Jean-Claude Van Damme](https://film.one/media/person/3733998/gallery-4beb262d48c8.jpg) Jean-Claude Van Damme — Image via TMDB
- ![Afrim Ismaili dhe Van Damme (2023)](https://film.one/media/person/3733998/gallery-c8efe8426ecd.jpg) Afrim Ismaili dhe Van Damme (2023) — Ambi73, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e8/Afrimi_dhe_Van_Damme.jpg/1280px-Afrimi_dhe_Van_Damme.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![2003年、ジャン＝クロード・ヴァン・ダム氏と松下順一氏（映画制作のイベントにて）](https://film.one/media/person/3733998/gallery-7e4936f3449a.jpg) 2003年、ジャン＝クロード・ヴァン・ダム氏と松下順一氏（映画制作のイベントにて） — Mkfmmkfm, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/JeanClaudeVanDamme.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Jean-Claude Van Damme](https://film.one/media/person/3733998/gallery-215c125f5d98.jpg) Jean-Claude Van Damme — Image via TMDB
- ![Jean-Claude Van Damme](https://film.one/media/person/3733998/gallery-aa41516c5e6a.jpg) Jean-Claude Van Damme — Image via TMDB
- ![Jean-Claude Van Damme](https://film.one/media/person/3733998/gallery-94217e85c6b1.jpg) Jean-Claude Van Damme — Image via TMDB

## Awards

### Other awards — 0 won, 1 nominated

- Golden Raspberry Award for Worst New Star 1989: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst New Star (nominated), for *Bloodsport*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/jean-claude-van-damme