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. 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).
Bloodsport is a 1988 American martial arts film directed by Newt Arnold. The film stars Jean-Claude Van Damme, with a supporting cast of Leah Ayres, Forest Whitaker, Donald Gibb, Roy Chiao, and Bolo Yeung. The film centers on Frank Dux, a United States Army Captain and ninjutsu practitioner, who competes in an underground full-contact martial arts tournament called the Kumite in Hong Kong. Based on Dux's real-life claims, the film was marketed as a true story. It was one of Van Damme's first lead roles and showcased his abilities, launching his career as a mainstream action star.
Johnny Cage is a character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game franchise by Midway Games and NetherRealm Studios. Introduced in the original 1992 game, he is an action movie star with an extensive martial arts background. The series depicts Cage as one of the primary heroes defending Earthrealm from various threats, as well as the comic foil. In the rebooted timeline, Cage is also the love interest to Special Forces officer Sonya Blade and the father of their daughter Cassie. He is inspired by martial arts star Jean-Claude Van Damme, particularly Van Damme's character, Frank Dux, in the 1988 film Bloodsport. A staple of the franchise, Cage has appeared in various media outside of the games.
The Order is a 2001 American action film directed by Sheldon Lettich, and written by Jean-Claude Van Damme, who also starred in the film. The film was released on direct-to-DVD in the United States on March 12, 2002.
Street Fighter is a 1994 action film written and directed by Steven E. de Souza, based on the video game series of the same name produced by Capcom. It was one of two films released in 1994 specifically adapting Street Fighter II, following Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. Distributed by Universal Pictures in the United States and Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International internationally, the film stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raul Julia along with supporting performances by Byron Mann, Damian Chapa, Kylie Minogue, Ming-Na Wen and Wes Studi. The adaptation focuses on the efforts by Colonel Guile to bring down General M. Bison (Julia), the military dictator and drug kingpin of Shadaloo City who aspires to conquer the world with an army of genetic supersoldiers, while enlisting the aid of street fighters Ryu (Mann) and Ken (Chapa) to infiltrate Bison's empire and help destroy it from within.
Arnold Vosloo is a South African-American actor. He is known for roles such as Imhotep in The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns (2001), Colonel Coetzee in Blood Diamond (2006), Pik van Cleef in Hard Target (1993), Dr. Peyton Westlake in Darkman II (1995) and Darkman III (1996), Zartan in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) and G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), sniper Jacob Broadsky in the TV series Bones and terrorist Habib Marwan in the fourth season of 24.
Hard Target is a 1993 action film directed by Hong Kong film director John Woo in his U.S. debut. The film stars Jean-Claude Van Damme as Chance Boudreaux, an out-of-work homeless Cajun merchant seaman and former United States Force Recon Marine who saves a young woman named Natasha Binder from a gang of thugs in New Orleans. Chance learns that Binder is searching for her missing father, and agrees to aid Binder in her search. They soon learn that Binder's father has died at the hands of hunt organisers Emil Fouchon and Pik van Cleef, a ruthless businessman and his right-hand mercenary, who arrange the hunting of homeless men as a form of recreational sport. The screenplay was written by Pfarrer and is based on the 1932 film adaptation of Richard Connell's 1924 short story "The Most Dangerous Game".
Julie Cox is an English actress. She played Princess Irulan in the Sci Fi Channel's 2000 miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune and its 2003 sequel, Frank Herbert's Children of Dune. She also played The Childlike Empress in The Neverending Story III.
Wake of Death is a 2004 American action film directed by Philippe Martínez and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. Ringo Lam was the original director, but he left the project after a few weeks of filming in Canada. After that, Lam was replaced by Cess Silvera who was fired after two weeks of filming in Cape Town, South Africa. The film was released to some countries' cinemas but direct to DVD in most places.
Cyborg is a 1989 American martial-arts cyberpunk film directed by Albert Pyun. Jean-Claude van Damme stars as Gibson Rickenbacker, a mercenary who battles a group of murderous marauders led by Fender Tremolo along the East coast of the United States in a post-apocalyptic future. It was followed by the sequels Cyborg 2 (1993) and Cyborg 3: The Recycler (1994).
Derailed is a 2002 American-Bulgarian action film directed by Bob Misiorowski, and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Tomas Arana and Laura Harring. Van Damme's son Kristopher van Varenberg also appears as his fictional son. In the story, a secret agent must escort a thief (Harring)—and the bioweapon she has stolen—from Slovakia to Germany, but the agent's unsuspecting family and a dangerous criminal (Arana) end up on the same train as them.
Universal Soldier is a 1992 American military science-fiction action film directed by Roland Emmerich, produced by Allen Shapiro, Craig Baumgarten, and Joel B. Michaels, and written by Richard Rothstein, Christopher Leitch, and Dean Devlin. The film tells the story of Luc Deveraux, portrayed by Jean-Claude Van Damme, a former U.S. Army soldier who was killed in the Vietnam War in 1969, and returned to life following a secret military project called the "Universal Soldier" program. However, he finds out about his past, though his memory was erased, and escapes alongside a young TV journalist. Along the way, they have to deal with the return of his archenemy, Sgt. Andrew Scott, who had lost his sanity in the Vietnam War, and became a psychotic megalomaniac, intent on killing him and leading the Universal Soldiers.
Lionheart is a 1990 American martial arts film directed by Sheldon Lettich, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Deborah Rennard, Harrison Page, Lisa Pelikan and Brian Thompson. It also features the acting debut of Ashley Johnson. Van Damme plays a French Foreign Legionnaire stationed in Africa, who must desert to the United States and enter the underground fighting circuit to raise money for his murdered brother's family.
In Hell is a 2003 American action film directed by Ringo Lam. The film stars Jean-Claude Van Damme, with a supporting cast of Lawrence Taylor, Marnie Alton, Malakai Davidson, and Billy Rieck. An adaptation of the 1978 film Midnight Express, it is the third and final collaboration between Jean-Claude Van Damme and Hong Kong film director Ringo Lam. The film was released on direct-to-DVD in the United States on November 25, 2003.
Universal Soldier: The Return is a 1999 American science fiction action film directed by Mic Rodgers in his directorial debut, written by William Malone and John Fasano, and produced by Craig Baumgarten, Allen Shapiro and Jean-Claude Van Damme who also stars in the film reprising his role as Luc Deveraux. The film also stars Michael Jai White, Heidi Schanz, Xander Berkeley, Justin Lazard, Kiana Tom, Daniel von Bargen, James R. Black, Karis Paige Bryant and Bill Goldberg. The film was theatrically released in the United States on August 20, 1999. This was Van Damme's last widely released film in the United States until 2012.
On 2 November 1963, Ngô Đình Diệm, the president of South Vietnam, was arrested and assassinated in a CIA-backed coup d'état led by General Dương Văn Minh. After nine years of autocratic and nepotistic family rule in the country, discontent with the Diệm regime had been simmering below the surface and culminated with mass Buddhist protests against longstanding religious discrimination after the government shooting of protesters who defied a ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag.
Kickboxer 2 is a 1991 American martial arts film directed by Albert Pyun and written by David S. Goyer. The film is the second entry into the Kickboxer film series, and stars Sasha Mitchell in the role of David Sloan, the brother of Kickboxer's lead character Kurt, portrayed by Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Universal Soldier: Regeneration is a 2009 American science fiction action film directed and co-edited by John Hyams, written by Victor Ostrovsky, and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren. It is the fifth installment in the Universal Soldier franchise and an alternative sequel to the original Universal Soldier (1992), ignores the events from the 1999 theatrical sequel Universal Soldier: The Return and the two made for television sequels that were produced in 1998.
Kickboxer: Vengeance is a 2016 American martial arts film directed by John Stockwell, and starring Dave Bautista, Alain Moussi, Gina Carano, Georges St-Pierre, and Jean-Claude Van Damme. It is the sixth film in the Kickboxer franchise and also serves as a reboot. The film has a similar premise as the first film in the franchise. The film was released in select theaters and on VOD by RLJ Entertainment on September 2, 2016.
The Tet offensive attack on the United States embassy took place on the early morning of 31 January 1968, when a 19-man Viet Cong (VC) sapper team attempted to seize the US Embassy in Saigon at the start of the VC's Tet Offensive. While the VC successfully penetrated the embassy compound, they were unable to enter the chancery building and were pinned down by security forces, with the lone survivor eventually surrendering to US forces. Notwithstanding the attack's failure it had a profound political and psychological impact in the United States.
