Gladys Portugues | |
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Born | Gladys Portugues September 30, 1957 |
Occupations | |
Years active | 1980–present |
Spouses | |
Children | 3 |
Gladys Portugues (born September 30, 1957) is an American former professional female bodybuilder and actress. As a bodybuilder, she twice placed in the top 10 in the Ms. Olympia contest. She is married to Belgian actor and martial artist Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Born of Puerto Rican parents, Portugues has said that she was inspired to start her own bodybuilding and weight training regimen while attending Marymount Manhattan College, when she saw Rachel McLish on television winning the Ms. Olympia title.[ citation needed ]
In 1987, at the age of thirty, Portugues married Belgian martial artist and actor Jean-Claude van Varenberg. [1] The couple divorced in 1992, then remarried in 1999. They have two children: Kristopher van Varenberg (b. 1987) and Bianca Brigitte (b. 1990). [2] Her husband is professionally known as Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1985 | Pumping Iron II: The Women | Herself | Cinecom International Films |
1986 | The Morning After | Bodybuilder | 20th Century Fox |
1987 | It's Alive III: Island of the Alive | Waitress | Larco Productions Inc. |
Year | Title | Episodes | Role |
---|---|---|---|
2011 | Behind Closed Doors | 1 season (8 episodes) | Herself |
Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg, known professionally as Jean-Claude Van Damme, is a Belgian martial artist and actor. Born and raised in Brussels, his father enrolled him in a Shotokan karate school at the age of ten, which led Van Damme to hold the rank of 2nd-dan black belt in karate, and compete in several karate and kickboxing competitions. As a teenager, he won the middleweight championship of the European Professional Karate Association in 1979 and the Mr. Belgium bodybuilding title in 1978. With the desire of becoming an actor in Hollywood, he moved to the United States in 1982, where he worked on several films, until he got his break as the lead in the martial arts film Bloodsport (1988).
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