During the '80s and '90s, it seemed like no action film was complete without Jean-Claude
Van Damme kicking butt and doing splits on camera.
But he's since faded right into the direct-to-DVD bin.
Even though he's no longer the mega-star he once was, there are still a lot of cool stories
about the King of Kicks that people either don't know or have long forgotten.
A history of movement
Van Damme didn't just get off a bus in Los Angeles and find work in Hollywood — he
was an active fighter for years before finally breaking into the film industry.
His fight record stands at 18-1 in kickboxing, with all 18 wins attributed to knockout.
In semi/light contact fights, he holds 44 wins to 4 losses, so his skills in the ring
are no secret.
Many have attributed his fighting style and graceful movement to his formal training in
ballet, which definitely didn't hurt his on-screen fight choreography.
"Because of my big legs and karate I can do splits no problem."
The original Predator
Once upon a time, the main alien in the Predator franchise was going to be played by none other
than Jean-Claude Van Damme.
But he ended up leaving the film when he found out that he wouldn't be doing any martial
arts in his epic battle against Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Apparently, stalking and clicking are poor artistic substitutes for jumpkicking guys
in the face.
Because of the cumbersome and elaborate original costume, his movement would have been very
limited... not to mention the fact that the story just didn't call for any sweet ninja
flips.
When he found out that he was hired to play a special effect, it just didn't sit well
with the Muscles from Brussels, so he walked after only two days of production.
That would become a theme which played heavily throughout his career.
His affair with Kylie Minogue
It happens all the time — two people get together to work on an incredibly terrible
movie, and end up having an affair.
It wasn't confirmed for almost two decades, but Van Damme and Kylie Minogue got frisky
while on set for Street Fighter in Thailand.
Van Damme had even walked out of an interview once after being asked about it, but in 2014,
after years of speculation, Van Damme finally admitted to it in an interview with The Guardian,
saying,
"It would be abnormal not to have had an affair, she's so beautiful and she was there in front
of me every day with a beautiful smile, simpatico, so charming.
I knew Thailand very well, so I showed her my Thailand."
The affair wouldn't have been such an issue had Van Damme not been married at the time
to his fourth wife, Darcy LaPier, who didn't find out about it until he admitted to it
in his interview.
LaPier told Fox411,
"I was shocked he would talk to the press about this all these years later to gain some
notoriety.
I didn't know about it, I have had my feelings hurt and I feel betrayed."
He's been married five times
Despite not being great at the whole "staying faithful" thing, Van Damme has been married
a total of five times to four women.
He married his third wife, Gladys Portugues in 1987, but the two divorced in 1992, then
remarried in 1999.
With Portugues, Van Damme had a daughter, Bianca, who became an extremely capable martial
artist, and a son, Kristopher, who is now an action star who's worked on many of his
father's projects.
During their separation, he was married to his fourth wife, Darcy LaPier, with whom he
had another son, Nicolas, though the family was estranged for many years after an ugly
divorce.
Recently, Van Damme's other two kids used Facebook to connect the star with then-17-year-old
Nicolas.
Van Damme even took the time to get his son into his film, Kickboxer: Retaliation.
Mortal Kombat
When the video game Mortal Kombat came out in 1992, few people realized that the game
was initially intended to be a tribute to none other than Van Damme.
Shortly after the success of his movie Universal Soldier, the film's producers approached video
game developer Midway with the hopes of making a game based off the movie.
Midway wasn't interested, but they did want to work with Van Damme, so they worked out
a deal with him to make a game based on his film Bloodsport.... but they never finished
the project.
The idea evolved into Mortal Kombat, and based fighter Johnny Cage on Van Damme, which is
obvious once you really start looking at it.
Not only are their appearances similar, but their backstories are pretty similar too:
Cage is a Hollywood actor, and both of their initials contain "J.C." Since the licensing
deal fell through, the character's appearance was modeled from another actor, leaving Johnny
Cage a bit more like a parody of Van Damme, rather than a direct representation of him.
But we all know it's him.
"Johnny Cage wins!"
addiction
One of Van Damme's biggest problems once his career began to lose momentum was a 10-gram-per-day
habit, which reportedly cost him around $10,000 a week.
By 1999, he had racked up a DUI charge and even tried rehab, but left after only seven
days.
He eventually relapsed a few years later, and continued his destructive habits.
During this time, Van Damme made some pretty lousy films, including an unnecessary sequel
to Universal Soldier.
Most of his work went direct-to-DVD.
Fourteen of his films made between 1999 and 2008 were bombs, earning him the nickname
"Jean-Claude Van Desperate".
It wasn't until he starred in 2008's JCVD that he started his comeback.
He had finally kicked his habit, and was reflecting on his own life.
The film was well-received, and helped to bring him back into mainstream Hollywood.
Fighting mental illness
Van Damme suffered with bipolar disorder for years before he was properly diagnosed.
Before he understood his condition, he would turn to his training to moderate his moods,
saying,
"When I didn't train for a couple of days, I felt so low and nothing could make me happy."
Van Damme was finally diagnosed with Rapid Cycling Bipolar Disorder in 1998, and he began
to take a mood stabilizing drug.
He's been very open about his disorder in interviews.
And while playing himself in JCVD, he exposed himself as a broken man who even had thoughts
of ending his own life.
When he finally kicked his cocaine habit, he started to move forward, reconciling with
his third wife, and he's been dealing with his condition positively ever since.
Going down fighting
Van Damme retired as a professional fighter in 1982, mostly because his acting career
took over.
In recent years, Van Damme has expressed interest in fighting again, despite being well over
50 years old.
But he doesn't want to fight just anyone: he has a specific somebody in mind.
Around 2010, Van Damme started expressing interest in returning to kickboxing, to face
then-37-year-old gold medalist Somluck Kamsing.
The fight hasn't happened yet, though Van Damme keeps trying to promote it.
In one weird case, he jumped into the ring during one of Kamsing's fights and began fanning
him with a towel, which almost resulted in a disqualification for Kamsing.
Whether the fight will ever happen is still a mystery, but it sounds like a reality show
based on the battle would be a slam dunk either way.
"This was a terrible idea."
But even with a proven history of fighting, there's at least one person convinced Van
Damme is faking it: the guy who inspired Van Damme's first major film.
As reported by the Las Vegas Sun, in 1997 Frank Dux — the kickboxer who Van Damme
portrayed in Bloodsport — sued Van Damme for $50,000, which he later increased to $1.5
million.
Dux claimed the star didn't pay him for helping co-write his 1996 movie The Quest.
During the suit, Dux made sure to dig at Van Damme, saying
"I asked Jean-Claude to do a simple forward roll [when tutoring him for Bloodsport], and
he landed on his head."
"Van Damme … lied to the public that he was a martial arts champion."
Unfortunately for Dux, the lawsuit went nowhere, and a jury cleared Van Damme, saying the star
didn't owe anyone anything.
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