Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg was born on 8th October 1960, in Berchem Sainte Agathe, Brussels, and as Jean-Claude Van Damme has become an actor and director who rose to fame mainly for his extensive knowledge and training in martial arts, which he converted into participating in action films such as “Timecop”, “Hard Target”, “Bloodsport”, “Universal Soldier”, and “Sudden Death”.
So just how rich is Jean-Claude Van Damme? It is estimated by sources that as of 2014 Jean-Claude’s net worth is over $30 million, accumulated largely from his acting career, spanning a period of more than 30 years. His assets include a property in Hollywood for which he paid $3 million.
Jean-Claude Van Damme Net Worth $30 Million
Jean-Claude began learning karate at the age of 10, gaining his black belt by 18, but simultaneously taking up kickboxing and ballet, as well as improving his physique to the point where he won the “Mr. Belgium” body-building title. (Jean Claude has the playful nickname of “Muscles from Brussels”.) In his late teens, Jean-Claude participated in contact karate and kickboxing tournaments,being defeated only once, which gave him the idea of transferring his talent to movies, so with this aim he moved to the USA.
His film career is considered to have begun during the early ’80,s when he and his friend moved to Hollywood. His career launched really quickly when he auditioned for and secured a role in the movie called “Breakin'”. That was the start of his career which has so far spanned over three decades. During the 80s he starred in the aforementioned movies; the movie “Bloodsport” actually launched Jean-Claude’s career, as it became a box-office hit, and of course put him into audiences thoughts. Since then he has had more than 50 roles in movies, in most of which he has had to use his training in martial arts and knowledge of various other sports he learned over his teenage years. More recently he has starred in a so-called ensemble cast movie called “The Expendables”, which features every major action movie star of the past two or three decades, including Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Eric Roberts, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Mickey Rourke among others.
Of course all these projects have contributed to Jean-Claude’s net worth. Usually Van Damme now gets paid millions for a movie, having started with a humble check of about $70,000 per movie. He was paid $1 million for his hit movie “Universal Soldier”, and he got a whopping $6 million for the movie “Street Fighter”, which became an epic movie. More recently he appeared in “Universal Soldier – Day of Reckoning”, and “Enemies Closer”, plus a French-language situation comedy TV series “JC 1er” in 2015.
As fame can sometimes be a dangerous thing, Jean-Claude has also had his fair share of problems. Stress first caused him to became addicted to cocaine in the mid-90s, which cost him $10,000 per week. He eventually entered a drug rehab clinic where he enrolled in a program, but he eventually quit drugs of his own volition. Later in life he was diagnosed with rapid cycling bipolar disorder, which is quite serious but doesn’t appear to have effected his abilities.
Speaking about personal life, Jean-Claude Van Damme has married five times, to Maria Rodriguez(1980-84); Cynthia Derderian(1985-86), Darcy Lapier(1994-97) with whom he has a son; and Gladys Portugues(1987-92) and again from 1999 to the present – although they are apparently on the verge of divorce again – and with whom he has a son and daughter.
