| The entertainment career of former karate champion turned action film star Dolph Lundgren has served as a vivid reminder that in Hollywood, fame, success and respect do not necessarily arrive together. His imposing physical presence--six feet, five inches of lean muscle, a cruelly handsome visage and hair of gold--made Lundgren a natural for playing cold, implacable villains, most famously the superbly trained, steroid-enhanced Russian boxer Drago in "Roc ky IV" (1985), his feature "debut" (after a walk-on earlier that year as a KGB agent in the limp 007 vehicle "A View to a Kill"). Not only does his character kill Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) in the ring but he nearly destroys everyone's favorite underdog as well. Despite critical derision, the film was a hit thereby transforming Lundgren into an instant celebrity. Lundgren had first tasted notoriety a few years earlier as the boy-toy of the equally exotic black pop chanteuse Grace Jones. The two made a striking pair on the early 1980s NYC club scene: Jones deliciously dark, fierce and feral with the ice cool blond Lundgren, bare-chested and clad only in tight leather pants. This was undoubtedly a heady experience for a twentysomething Swedish chemical engineering student (he had earned his MA from the University of Sydney) who had been working as a doorman and bouncer at several trendy nightclubs just months before. That Jones played one of the villains in Roger Moore's last Bond outing probably helped her boyfriend make it in front of the camera. Nevertheless, his own impressive attributes paved the way for his subsequent success.
In 1987, Lundgren made his entry into the lucrative exercise video with "Maximum Potential", a take-no-prisoners workout based on his own daily regimen. His next theatrical release gave him his first starring role as Lundgren embodied He-Man, a muscle-bound Mattel action figure, with amusing verisimilitude in the kiddie sci-fi actioner "Masters of the Universe" (1987). While the project made money, its success did nothing to enhance Lundgren's status as a leading man. Nor did the subsequent blood-splattered heroic comic-book outings "Red Scorpion" (1989), in which he played a conflicted Russian agent; "The Punisher" (also 1989), as Marvel Comics' popular vigilante anti-hero; nor "I Come in Peace" (1990), a sci-fi thriller in which he was a human cop tracking down alien fugitives. The mayhem was a bit more character-driven in the well-crafted if unintentionally racist cop drama "Showdown in Little Tokyo" (1991) but most agreed that the big, dour Swede paled all the more beside his compact but charismatic co-star Brandon Lee. As if chastened by the experience, Lundgren was downright lively when paired with a winningly robotic Jean-Claude Van Damme in the diverting "Universal Soldier" (1992), helmed by a pre-"Independence Day" Roland Emmerich. His reputation as a second-string action hero was secure though he enjoyed far greater success overseas than in the US. Unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lundgren was a trained athlete rather than a bodybuilder.
Unlike Van Damme, he was an award-winning world-class martial artist. Unlike all of his tough-guy contemporaries, Lundgren was also an academic whiz who was accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Fulbright scholar before being lured to the limelight. Still his intelligence won him no respect. His Aryan good looks, Swedish accent, stiff performance style and poor choice of early roles kept him off the action A-list. In 1993, Lundgren formed his own production company, Thor Pictures and made his debut as an executive producer the following year with "Pentathalon", a character-driven adventure about a star East German pentathlete who defects to the US. While training for the role, he met and befriended several of the top US modern pentathletes. Tiring of Hollywood, Lundgren moved with wife back to NYC in 1994 where he became involved with the Ensemble Studio Theater. He even formed his own theater company, Group of Eight. Lundgren next turned up in a relatively high-profile "Johnny Mnemonic" (1995), as the crazed, messianic Street Preacher, a hitman tracking Keanu Reeves. Never before had his performance style been so over-the-top. Lundgren also used his celebrity to champion his adopted countrymen as the official team leader of the US modern pentathlon squad at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. |
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| Birth Name: | Hans Dolph Lundgren | | Eye color: | Blue | | Height: | 6' 5" (1.96 m) | | Notable feature(s): |
| | Education: | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts | | Spoken Languages: | Speaks three languages:
- Swedish
- English and some German.
- Said to speak Japanese as well, but actually knows only a few phrases. Also speaks some Spanish as he lives in Spain.
| | Family: | - Brother: Johan Lundgren. older; worked in offshore oil technology
- Two daughters:
- Ida Sigrid Lundgren (born April 1996) : Mother Anette Qviberg
- Greta Eveline Lundgren (born November 2001).Mother Anette Qviberg
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| - During the early 1980s he dated singer Grace Jones. He has been married to Anette Qviberg, a jewellery designer and fashion stylist, since 1994. The couple spends their time between their new home in London and Marbella.
| | Resides in: | Marabella/Spain | | Religious affiliations: | Roman Catholic | | Political affiliation: |
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| A world-class athlete and winner of several international karate c ompetitions, Lundgren took up martial arts at 14 and is now a 3rd Dan (third degree Black Belt) in Kyokushinkai (full-contact karate) and attends the Swedish Kyokushin camps yearly. His accomplishments in the sport include being the captain of the Swedish Kyokushin karate team and the winner of the European Heavyweight Kyokushin Karate Championship in 1980 and 1981, as well as the Australian heavyweight division title in 1982. titles. Lundgren's lifelong interest in physical fitness led to his 1987 release of an exercise video called "Maximum Potential," based on his own daily workout. Lundgren has been writting a fitness book due for an estimated 2008 release. |
| Dolphacts
- He was once a bodyguard for Grace Jones.
- Dolph Lundgren worked the door, alongside Chazz Palminteri, at a NYC nightclub.
- He visited Fort Hood, Texas On February 25, 2005 and was introduced by Captain James Van Thach. He thanked U.S. soldiers for their support on the War on Terrorism and also to promote The Russian Specialist.
- He made his directorial debut in 2004 with the film Defender.
- (At the age of 15), was self-described as "one of the weaklings people kick sand at on the beach", but later became an expert in Kyokushin Karate.
- (Earlier in his life) was engaged to Grace Jones and was in a long-term relationship with Paula Barbieri.
- Dolph Lundgren experimented with anabolic steroids to improve his physique for "Rocky IV".
- Dolph Lundgren was chosen by People Magazine to be one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world. (2000)
- He was a fan of the Kokino bar in the city of Montreal, Quebec.
- Dolph Lundgren injured Slyvester Stallone whilst filming "ROCKY IV" he punched him in the chest, Slyvester complained about chest pains and was took to hospital. He had a badly bruised chest.
- He is a 3rd Dan in Kyokushin Karate. He still trains and teaches in summer camps to this day. In the seventies and the early eighties, he was one of the best knockdown fighters in the world and could well have been the 1979 world champion.
- He was previously a team leader for the United States modern pentathlon team at the 1996 summer Olympics.
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