From teen idol to cocaine and star fever: how the career of Jean-Claude Van Damme slipped (31 photos + 1 video)

Fans of action films from the end of the last century are very familiar with Jean-Claude Van Damme. The famous actor encouraged no boy to take up martial arts. But his stellar journey, in fact, is not so long. After all, in a short period of time, the Hollywood star of the 80s and 90s quickly faded away.





But what potential there was. From a capricious, frail and often ill boy in glasses with thick lenses, Van Damme turned into a martial artist. Of course, he could have continued with ballet, but his father intervened in time, tired of his son constantly getting punches from bullies.







By the time he came of age, Jean-Claude received a black belt in karate, and 2 years later he won the European Championship. In addition, thanks to his physical fitness, he managed to win international bodybuilding competitions.





Fueled by ambition, in 1981 Van Damme decided to become an actor and conquer Hollywood. True, he spent three years wandering around to no avail, unable to even achieve a cameo role.

During this time, he managed to work as a driver, fight in underground fights, and also as a bouncer in the club of Chuck Norris, who was already a star then. It was he who opened the door to the cinema for Van Varenberg (Van Damme's real name).





The main role in the action movie Bloodsport immediately made him famous. Girls admired the actor's special European accent and figure, while many young guys tried to imitate his signature twirl.





True, there were some incidents. Frank Dukes, whose story formed the basis of the film, accused Van Damme of fraud and default on debt obligations. He also called the actor an amateur, claiming that he had never won the European Karate Championship.



But the heated proceedings ended in Van Damme’s favor. And not everyone believed in the authenticity of Dukes’ story.



By the way, in the year the film was released (in 1988), the actor also managed to fight with his security guard Chuck Zito. True, the battle turned out to be short, ending not in favor of the first. Since then, the offended Van Damme does not really like to remember this story.

But all this was followed by a series of bright roles in the films “Cyborg”, “Hard Target”, “Kickboxer”, “Double Impact”, “Nowhere to Run” and, of course, “Universal Soldier”. The actor, who had been striving for fame for a long time, turned into a star of the first magnitude. But as expected, there was a dark side to this whole story: an exacerbation of star fever.













Van Damme's financial appetite gradually began to grow, and his behavior began to scare away producers. The actor's biggest commercial success was with the film Time Patrol, which brought him $44 million in 1994. After that, he was offered a contract for three films, with a fee of 12 million for each.





At the same time, Jim Carrey told the media that he received $20 million for his role in “The Mask.” Van Damme demanded the same payment, but in return he was blacklisted by Hollywood.



As a result, his popularity began to decline. In addition, viewer interest in martial arts action films gradually began to decline. The following films with his participation, including “Colony”, “Legionnaire” and “Fuse”, no longer took off, derailing the actor’s life.







In 1998, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. With this diagnosis, people are prone to drug addiction. Van Damme was no exception, becoming addicted to cocaine. He managed to quit drugs only in 2008, which allowed him to return to Hollywood.



But it’s hard to call this return successful. Most films did not even score 5 rating points.







The only exception was the second part of The Expendables, in which he was apparently persuaded to participate in it by the success and box office of the first film. True, Van Damme initially resisted the latter, since Stallone could not explain what the image of the proposed character was.



As a result, “The Expendables 2” became the most profitable project for the actor in more than 10 years.







Do you think Van Damme’s career could have turned out more successfully if he had not encountered stardom and all the ensuing consequences?