Long before JCVD landed in America, he was already on his way as an actor. Sort of. He had an incredibly small role in the Belgian-French drama film “Woman Between Wolf and Dog” (Also known as “Woman in a Twilight Garden” as well as a number of other names) in 1979. The film starred Marie-Christine Barrault as the female lead and none other than Rutger Hauer as the male lead.
Where did Van Damme land in the credits? He didn’t. His role – two, actually: Moviegoer and Man in Garden – was uncredited. The only reason his name is even on the Wikipedia page for the movie is because he became one of the biggest stars after the fact. Interestingly, the cinematographer for the movie was one Charles van Damme. We’re not sure if there’s any relation, but maybe that’s where Jean-Claude got the name.
A Winning Record
From 1976 to 1980, Van Damme began his competitive career at the tender age of fifteen. In tournament matches and non-tournament semi-contact matches, he racked up an impressive record of forty-four wins and only four losses. He was a member of the Belgium Karate Team when it won the European Karate Championship, making Jean-Claude Van Damme a Championship fighter.
Van Damme himself placed second in the Challenge Coupe des Espoirs Karate Tournament, beating twenty-five opponents over a three-day period before going up against his teammate from Belgium, Angelo Spataro, and losing. Beginning in full-contact karate, Van Damme then accumulated a record of eighteen victories and a single, solitary loss in 1982. The loss came just before Van Damme decided to hang up his fighting equipment, despite getting plenty of attention from the karate world as a whole.
More Than Just Fighting (But a Lot of Fighting)
It wasn’t just karate where JCVD excelled. He fought against numerous powerful opponents, including what he calls his most memorable match against former teammate Patrick Teugels. He’s gone up against Teugels a couple of times, but in 1977 he won a TKO by kicking Teugels so hard in the nose that he was unable to continue.
In addition, he was named “Mr. Belgium” in a bodybuilding competition. Once again, it seemed like Van Damme had the whole world at his fingertips. He was handsome, had plenty of physical skills, was earning championship hardware, and was getting his name out there. What else was there to do for somebody so young? Plenty of things, it turns out. He was catching a lot of eyes.
Before Leaving Brussels
Before JCVD decided to strike out away from his mother nation, he had a few irons in the fire – enough, in fact, to possibly keep him there for good. While in his teen years, he sold flowers at restaurants, but during his time as a karate champ he actually owned a gym. It was called “California Gym” for some reason, it opened in 1979, and it catered to anything you might want, from karate to bodybuilding to dancing.
And the gym flourished! At one point it was earning fifteen thousand dollars a month. In the end, however, Van Damme heard the siren call of Hollywood and sold the gym. His father almost couldn’t believe it, since it was more than providing for him. He had an apartment, a car, and a successful business. Was he really going to give all that up?
He Gave It All Up
In 1982, Jean-Claude Van Damme and his childhood friend Michel Qissi set off on a trip to the United States in an effort to make it big as actors. The two of them did a variety of odd jobs around town to keep themselves stable while they looked for acting roles. Both of them made it into a certain infamous eighties film you might have heard of: “Breakin.’”
Both men can be seen dancing in the background during one of the many dance scenes in the film. It wasn’t exactly a breakthrough, but it’s a pretty funny piece of movie trivia. At last, we have a reason to watch “Breakin.’” Clearly, there would be more than that required to get Van Damme a star on the Walk of Hollywood.