Perhaps this mighty athlete, famous actor and real martial artist – no need to introduce .. I think that all of you are well aware of this eternal rival of Van Damme named Dolph Lundgren. It is so? I suggest you find out in the continuation of the post some interesting and exciting facts from the life of this tough guy.
Dolph Lundgren (Swed. Dolph Lundgren), real name – Hans Lundgren (Swed. Hans Lundgren; b. November 3, 1957, Stockholm – American actor, director, screenwriter and producer
Height and weight 193 cm. 110 kg.
Genres: action, thriller, drama
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The future actor was born into a family of scientists and engineers and grew up as a rather weak and sickly child.
He served in the Swedish Marine Corps.
Lundgren drinks little alcohol, but has confessed his love for cocktails, which he “makes very well thanks to his training as a chemist.”
After moving to the United States, Lundgren decided to try his luck in acting, as he took part in amateur theatrical productions as a child. At first, Dolph was the bodyguard of the famous singer Grace Jones, with whom he began a passionate affair. In 1985, Dolph made his screen debut in A View to a Kill. A little later, the Swede was noted in the film “Rocky IV”, which was his breakthrough in the acting profession.
Stallone, who insisted that “in Rocky IV, everything was for real”, persuaded Lundgren to fight seriously. Dolph refused for a long time, but then he nevertheless agreed, after which Stallone had to be taken to the hospital with two broken ribs, and the shooting was suspended.
At the premiere of the film in Cannes, Van Damme and Lundgren almost got torn apart, but were pulled away by the guards in time. Lundgren subsequently confirmed that it was just a publicity stunt, and if he wanted to hit Jean-Claude, he would have done it silently, which would have led to sad consequences for the Belgian actor. Hmm, we remember Stallone 🙂
In addition to his native Swedish, Lundgren speaks English and Spanish. Speaks a little Russian and Japanese. Although German and French are attributed to him, he himself admitted that this was not the case.
He loves westerns and does not miss a single film from this genre when they are released. His favorite is Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven. In 1996, Lundgren was selected as the captain of the Olympic pentathlon team. It turned out that at that time he got a role in the movie The Pentathlete. And for greater reliability of the image, Dolph was trained as part of the US Olympic pentathlon team and was appointed its captain at the 1996 Olympic . The tasks of Lundgren, who did not participate in official competitions, included coordinating interactions with the US Olympic Committee and popularizing sports in general.
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In 1997, the actor founded his film company Thor Pictures.
Dolph celebrated his 50th anniversary in Moscow. Lundgren’s education: Royal University of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden) – physicist; University of Washington (Washington, USA); University of Sydney (Sydney, Australia) – Chemist, Master of Science; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA); School of Dramatic Arts (New York, USA). In my memory, this is the only actor from the “karate films” of the 80s and 90s who has such braininess. Black belt in Kyokushin karate, IV dan
European Heavyweight Champion in Kyokushinkai Karate (1980, 1981)
Australian Kyokushinkai Karate Heavyweight Champion (1982)
In 2007, Lundgren participated in the Russian TV show “King of the Ring”, having an out-of-tournament fight with former professional mixed martial arts fighter Oleg Taktarov. Taktarov, a two-time world sambo champion and UFC 6 champion, looked preferable and won by unanimous decision. In an interview after the fight, Oleg said that he “takes off his hat” to Dolph, as he withstood the hardest blows and continued to fight. Dolph lost, but the fact that he came out at the age of “well over fifty” to fight the recent world champion in fighting without rules is an act.
Despite world fame and widespread recognition, Dolph was not appreciated in his homeland. When he arrived in Sweden, intoxicated by success in the cinema, the journalists decided that the actor was behaving arrogantly, even his pseudonym caused irritation. Dolph was seriously offended by Swedish film critics, who unanimously call him an empty-headed blond, at censors who prohibit films with his participation (they point to an excess of scenes of violence as a reason). However, he says that he was and remains a Swede.
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Lundgren was married to Anette Qviberg for a long time, and the couple had two daughters, Ida and Greta. After that, he stated that “Family is what I should live for!”.
In 2011, the media reported that Lundgren and Qviberg had filed for divorce. Some of his interesting sayings:
“I have never been violent, but the contact fight helped me to establish myself. They beat me, I beat me – and I liked it. I worked out like a man possessed:
I stabbed hundreds of bricks and boards, constantly got into fights on the streets, and came to training after warming up in order to immediately rush into sparring.
In the films, it’s not that he fought very subtly. “Of course, I like to deliver high kicks, bring down opponents with karate techniques,” Dolph said, “but I think that just a demonstration of physical power looks just as good, especially when such a healthy guy like me demonstrates it.”
Playing a villain is more interesting than a hero, unless, of course, the role is well written. The hero should always be sympathetic, and I, I believe, are more successful in ambiguous roles.
At first, I was just a karateka who tries himself as an actor. Today I became an actor.
Shooting movies is the easiest and most natural way for me to make a living.
I love Moscow and Russian people, so all these roles were not accidental. I would very much like to continue working in Russia, making films and even creating new television projects.