Jean-Claude van Damme’s Net worth

How rich is Jean Claude van Damme?

Jean-Claude van Damme, whose real name is Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg, is one of the few Europeans who has really made it to the top in Hollywood. He now has an estimated net worth of 33.5 million euros . Without his martial arts talent, the actor from Belgium would not have been as successful by a long shot. Because his martial arts have earned him several leading roles in numerous action films. His nickname is appropriate. Because Jean-Claude van Damme is often referred to as “The Muscles from Brussels”, which translates as “The Muscles from Brussels”. The action star celebrates his big comeback in the Amazon Prime series “Jean-Claude Van Johnson”.

Five marriages and turbulent times

Despite all his wealth now and his marital bliss to wife Gladys, who have produced three children, there were worse times too. You also had to worry about the Belgian actor. In the 90s he could hardly get off cocaine. Week after week he spent the equivalent of around 9,500 euros for the white powder . In 1996 he went into therapy because of this problem, which he quickly stopped within a month. In addition, the actor was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which certainly didn’t always make it easy for his wives.

Because Jean-Claude Camille married François Van Varenberg five times. He married the mother of his three children twice and is still with her. The marriage to Maria Rodriguez only lasted from 1980 to 1984. Shortly thereafter, however, the Belgian married a second time. He was married to Cynthia Derderian from 1985 to 1986. After that marriage also failed, he was then married to a former fitness trainer and bodybuilder named Gladys Portugues from 1987 to 1992. She is currently his wife again. From 1994 to 1997, well-known actress Darcy LaPier was the woman at his side. He then divorced her and returned to the mother of his children. The Belgian has been in a relationship with his ex Gladys Portugues again since 1999.

This is how Jean-Claude van Damme’s career got rolling

Raised bilingually, Van Damme was allowed to train at the tender age of 10 with a karate coach named Claude Goetz in Brussels. Even if his parents didn’t know it at the time, they laid the foundation for their son ‘s later Hollywood career . In addition to bodybuilding, ballet also became one of Jean-Claude van Damme’s great passions. He trained in dance at the age of 16 and can probably benefit from his very good body control to this day. All that hard training paid off at just 19 years old. After all, Jean-Claude was named Middleweight Champion by the European Professional Karate Association. Of course he also has a black belt.

In 1978 he was able to look forward to the title “Mister Belgium” as a bodybuilder. The Belgian knew very early on that Jean-Claude van Damme wanted to pursue a career as an actor. For exactly this reason he moved to the USA in 1982 together with an old childhood friend named Michel Qissi. While he was initially able to get by as a bouncer, fitness trainer and limousine driver, success was still a long way off. He also acquired American citizenship and it  was thanks to Chuck Norris that he got his big break. He made sure that he was used as a stuntman for the action strip “Missing in Action”.

Many film highlights and high fees for Jean-Claude van Damme

The karate champion was able to secure his first major role in 1986. At that time he played the antagonist in ” Karate Tiger “. From this point on things should go uphill for Jean-Claude van Damme. His big break came in 1988 when he starred in Bloodsport. However, the actor experienced not only rosy times. While the following films were big hits, the action star even lived on the streets of LA. These strips helped him get his fortune: Cyborg, Karate Tiger 3, Timecop, Leon, Double Impact. Sylvester Stalloneoffered the Karate Tiger a role in The Expendables, which he turned down. He later regretted his decision and went on to star in the sequel The Expendables 2. In 2016, he lent his voice to Master Kroko in Kung Fu Panda 3. A series on the streaming platform Amazon Prime also came out with him: “Jean-Claude Van Johnson”.

Millions of dollars in fees for a film are not uncommon. Jean-Claude van Damme is an actor and can demand a salary accordingly. For example, he earned $8 million for “Street Fighter,” where he starred alongside Kylie Minogue. The 2006 film Hard Corps was starred by Jean-Claude van Damme, who got the lead role in it. He received a fee of 3 million US dollars for it. In 1995, he received $5 million for Sudden Death. A well paid actor!