During the '80s and '90s, it seemed like no
action film was complete without Jean-Claude Van Damme kicking butt and doing splits on
camera. But he's since faded right into the direct-to-DVD
bin. Even though he's no longer the mega-star he
once was, there are still a lot of cool stories about the King of Kicks that people either
don't know or have long forgotten. A history of movement Van Damme didn't just get off a bus in Los
Angeles and find work in Hollywood — he was an active fighter for years before finally
breaking into the film industry. His fight record stands at 18-1 in kickboxing,
with all 18 wins attributed to knockout. In semi/light contact fights, he holds 44
wins to 4 losses, so his skills in the ring are no secret. Many have attributed his fighting style and
graceful movement to his formal training in ballet, which definitely didn't hurt his on-screen
fight choreography. "Because of my big legs and karate I can do
splits no problem." The original Predator Once upon a time, the main alien in the Predator
franchise was going to be played by none other than Jean-Claude Van Damme. But he ended up leaving the film when he found
out that he wouldn't be doing any martial arts in his epic battle against Arnold Schwarzenegger. Apparently, stalking and clicking are poor
artistic substitutes for jumpkicking guys in the face. Because of the cumbersome and elaborate original
costume, his movement would have been very limited... not to mention the fact that the
story just didn't call for any sweet ninja flips. When he found out that he was hired to play
a special effect, it just didn't sit well with the Muscles from Brussels, so he walked
after only two days of production. That would become a theme which played heavily
throughout his career. His affair with Kylie Minogue It happens all the time — two people get
together to work on an incredibly terrible movie, and end up having an affair. It wasn't confirmed for almost two decades,
but Van Damme and Kylie Minogue got frisky while on set for Street Fighter in Thailand. Van Damme had even walked out of an interview
once after being asked about it, but in 2014, after years of speculation, Van Damme finally
admitted to it in an interview with The Guardian, saying, "It would be abnormal not to have had an affair,
she's so beautiful and she was there in front of me every day with a beautiful smile, simpatico,
so charming. I knew Thailand very well, so I showed her
my Thailand." The affair wouldn't have been such an issue
had Van Damme not been married at the time to his fourth wife, Darcy LaPier, who didn't
find out about it until he admitted to it in his interview. LaPier told Fox411, "I was shocked he would talk to the press
about this all these years later to gain some notoriety. I didn't know about it, I have had my feelings
hurt and I feel betrayed." He's been married five times Despite not being great at the whole "staying
faithful" thing, Van Damme has been married a total of five times to four women. He married his third wife, Gladys Portugues
in 1987, but the two divorced in 1992, then remarried in 1999. With Portugues, Van Damme had a daughter,
Bianca, who became an extremely capable martial artist, and a son, Kristopher, who is now
an action star who's worked on many of his father's projects. During their separation, he was married to
his fourth wife, Darcy LaPier, with whom he had another son, Nicolas, though the family
was estranged for many years after an ugly divorce. Recently, Van Damme's other two kids used
Facebook to connect the star with then-17-year-old Nicolas. Van Damme even took the time to get his son
into his film, Kickboxer: Retaliation. Mortal Kombat When the video game Mortal Kombat came out
in 1992, few people realized that the game was initially intended to be a tribute to
none other than Van Damme. Shortly after the success of his movie Universal
Soldier, the film's producers approached video game developer Midway with the hopes of making
a game based off the movie. Midway wasn't interested, but they did want
to work with Van Damme, so they worked out a deal with him to make a game based on his
film Bloodsport.... but they never finished the project. The idea evolved into Mortal Kombat, and based
fighter Johnny Cage on Van Damme, which is obvious once you really start looking at it. Not only are their appearances similar, but
their backstories are pretty similar too: Cage is a Hollywood actor, and both of their
initials contain "J.C." Since the licensing deal fell through, the character's appearance
was modeled from another actor, leaving Johnny Cage a bit more like a parody of Van Damme,
rather than a direct representation of him. But we all know it's him. "Johnny Cage wins!" addiction One of Van Damme's biggest problems once his
career began to lose momentum was a 10-gram-per-day habit, which reportedly cost him around
$10,000 a week. By 1999, he had racked up a DUI charge and
even tried rehab, but left after only seven days. He eventually relapsed a few years later,
and continued his destructive habits. During this time, Van Damme made some pretty
lousy films, including an unnecessary sequel to Universal Soldier. Most of his work went direct-to-DVD. Fourteen of his films made between 1999 and
2008 were bombs, earning him the nickname "Jean-Claude Van Desperate". It wasn't until he starred in 2008's JCVD
that he started his comeback. He had finally kicked his habit, and
was reflecting on his own life. The film was well-received, and helped to
bring him back into mainstream Hollywood. Fighting mental illness Van Damme suffered with bipolar disorder for
years before he was properly diagnosed. Before he understood his condition, he would
turn to his training to moderate his moods, saying, "When I didn't train for a couple of days,
I felt so low and nothing could make me happy." Van Damme was finally diagnosed with Rapid
Cycling Bipolar Disorder in 1998, and he began to take a mood stabilizing drug. He's been very open about his disorder in
interviews. And while playing himself in JCVD, he exposed
himself as a broken man who even had thoughts of ending his own life. When he finally kicked his cocaine habit,
he started to move forward, reconciling with his third wife, and he's been dealing with
his condition positively ever since. Going down fighting Van Damme retired as a professional fighter
in 1982, mostly because his acting career took over. In recent years, Van Damme has expressed interest
in fighting again, despite being well over 50 years old. But he doesn't want to fight just anyone:
he has a specific somebody in mind. Around 2010, Van Damme started expressing
interest in returning to kickboxing, to face then-37-year-old gold medalist Somluck Kamsing. The fight hasn't happened yet, though Van
Damme keeps trying to promote it. In one weird case, he jumped into the ring
during one of Kamsing's fights and began fanning him with a towel, which almost resulted in
a disqualification for Kamsing. Whether the fight will ever happen is still
a mystery, but it sounds like a reality show based on the battle would be a slam dunk either
way. "This was a terrible idea." But even with a proven history of fighting,
there's at least one person convinced Van Damme is faking it: the guy who inspired Van
Damme's first major film. As reported by the Las Vegas Sun, in 1997
Frank Dux — the kickboxer who Van Damme portrayed in Bloodsport — sued Van Damme
for $50,000, which he later increased to $1.5 million. Dux claimed the star didn't pay him for helping
co-write his 1996 movie The Quest. During the suit, Dux made sure to dig at Van
Damme, saying "I asked Jean-Claude to do a simple forward
roll [when tutoring him for Bloodsport], and he landed on his head." "Van Damme … lied to the public that he
was a martial arts champion." Unfortunately for Dux, the lawsuit went nowhere,
and a jury cleared Van Damme, saying the star didn't owe anyone anything. Thanks for watching! Click the Grunge icon to subscribe to our
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