Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg (born 18 October 1960), professionally known as Jean-Claude Van Damme and abbreviated as JCVD, is a Belgian actor, martial artist, screenwriter, film producer, and director best known for his martial arts action films. In 1978, he took third place in his weight category at the European Amateur Bodybuilding Championship, and a year later, speaking at the Belgian Championship, called “Mr. Belgium”, he won in his and the main weight categories, thus becoming the absolute champion.
He is the European champion in karate and kickboxing in 1979 in the middleweight among professionals, and also has a black belt. During his fighting career (karate and kickboxing) he had a total of 55 fights, in which he won 53 victories (50 of them by knockout, 7 by technical knockout) and lost 2 times by decision of the judges. He was also three times world champion. During his acting career, he starred in a total of more than 50 films.