Jean-Claude Van Damme net worth
Number of divisions: 11
What is the net worth of Jean-Claude Van Damme?
Jean-Claude Van Damme, also known as JCVD, is a Belgian actor and retired martial artist with a net worth of US$40 million. He is best known for his series of popular martial arts action movies that he shot in the late 1980s and 1990s.
early life
Jean-Claude Camille François van Varenberg (Jean-Claude Camille François van Varenberg) was born on October 18, 1960 in Bechem-St. Agat, Brussels, Belgium. He started practicing martial arts when he was 10 years old, when his father registered him for Songtaokan Karate School. This seriously affected his fighting style, including Songtaokan karate and taekwondo. Finally, at the age of 18, he won a black belt in karate. Later, he began to practice Taekwondo and Muay Thai, and began to learn ballet at the age of sixteen for five years.
Martial arts career
Van Damme joined Centre National de Karaté (National Karate Center) at the age of twelve, where he trained for four years and won a place in the Belgian Karate team. He started his competitive karate career in Belgium when he was fifteen. From 1976 to 1980, he won a total of 44 wins and 4 losses in championship and non-tournament semi-contact competitions. When he won the European Karate Championship in December 1979, he was also a member of the Belgian Karate team. He moved on and started his full-contact career in 1977, scoring 18 wins and 1 loss before retiring from the game in 1982.
(Photo by Richard Bode/Getty Images)
Acting career
In 1982, 22-year-old Jean-Claude and an old friend moved to the United States to pursue a career in Hollywood. After opening a series of private gyms in his home country, it was reported that he was already a millionaire when he decided to move to California to become an actor. He soon became an extra in the movie “Breakin” (1984), but the movie that allowed him to enter the stratosphere as an action star was “Bloodsport” in 1988.
Subsequently, he played the leading role in films such as “Kickboxer” (1989) produced by Cannon Films. After the success of his movie, Van Dam joined the action star lineup of the Cannon Group, along with famous figures such as Chuck Norris, Charles Bronson, Sho Kosugi and Michael Dudikov. His other successful films include “Death Guarantee” (1990), “Lion Heart” (1990) and “Double Shock” (1991), in which he played the dual roles of twins Alex and Chad Wagner. His 1992 movie “Universal Warrior” was one of the best-selling blockbusters of the year, directed by Roland Emmerich. Its global revenue is 102 million U.S. dollars, and its budget is 23 million U.S. dollars.
He signed three film agreements with Columbia Pictures and reportedly paid him $3.5 million. The first movie he got from this deal was “Nowhere to Run” (1993) opposite Rosanna Arquette. He continued to star in multiple films for Universal Pictures, such as “Hard Target” (1993), “Street Fighter” (1994), “Time Police” (1994) and “Sudden Death” (1995). He returned to Colombia with “Best Risk” (1996) and “Duo” (1997). In the “Duo” directed by Hong Kong director Tsui Hark, Van Damme starred with NBA star Dennis Rodman. This movie was Van Dam’s first big box office bomb, and his 1998 project “Knockdown” was also bombed. Another high-profile project of his is the Belgian crime drama “JCVD” in 2008. In it, Van Damme played a semi-fictional self.
In addition to acting in movies, Van Dam has also participated in many other acting and film-related projects over the years. He guest starred in the two episodes of the TV show “Friends” “The One After the Super Bowl”. He directed the movie “The Quest” in 1996 and co-starred with Roger Moore. He also directed, edited, produced, wrote and starred in the 2014 movie “All Love”. In his 40-year film career, Jean-Claude Van Damme has starred in more than 50 films, including the “Expendables” series, which is a hit at the international box office. Although he is a widely acclaimed actor, he has only won a few awards, including the 1988 Double Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screen Couple Award (with Dennis Rodman) and the 2004 International Action Superstar Bollywood Film Awards, and the 2014 Macau International Film Festival Golden Lotus Award.
(Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images)
Personal life and real estate
In the mid-1990s, Van Damme took the very expensive cocaine and had to participate in a drug rehabilitation program. At that time he spent $10,000 a week on cocaine. He was eventually diagnosed with rapid cycling bipolar disorder. He has been married to four different women five times and has three children.
In 2012, Van Damme spent US$6 million, which was US$125,000 above the asking price, to purchase a brand new luxury mansion in Marina del Rey, California. In 2016, he sold the house to rapper Ice Cube for $7.25 million.
Salary highlights
In 1988, Van Dam received a paltry $25,000 for the film “Blood Movement” that made him a star. He then made approximately $75,000 for each of the films “Black Hawk,” “Taekwondo,” and “Death Order.” His salary began to rise in the early 1990s, when he made $600,000 for the 1991 “double shock”. In the second year, he earned 1.5 million US dollars for “Universal Warrior.” In the second year, he earned 3.5 million US dollars for “hard goals.” In the second year, he earned $5 million for “Timecop”. In the same year, 1994, Van Dam received a career-high $8 million with “Street Fighter”. In 1995, he made $5 million with “Sudden Death”.
During the period from 1991 to 1995, Van Damme’s pre-tax base salary was approximately US$40 million. This is equivalent to about 70 million US dollars today.
