Jean-Claude Van Damme( born 18 October 1960), is a Belgian martial artist, actor, filmmaker, and fight choreographer. Nicknamed “The Muscles from Brussels”, he is best known for his martial arts action movies.
Born and raised in Brussels, Belgium, at the age of ten his father enrolled him in a Shotokan Karate school. Starting in the late 1970s, Van Damme competed in several semi-contact and full-contact matches in both karate and kickboxing.
He also started lifting weights in his early twenties to improve his physique, a project that culminated with him winning a national bodybuilding title in Belgium. With the desire of becoming an actor, he moved to the United States in 1982, where he did odd jobs and worked on several films, until he got his break as the lead in the martial arts film Bloodsport (1988), which introduced Van Damme’s trademark splits and spinning 360 heel kick to an American audience.
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