Dolph Lundgren
Swedish actor and Kyokushin karateka, captain of the Swedish team, European champion of 1980 and 1981 and a 4th dan holder, famous for the role of Ivan Drago in Rocky IV (1985).
Quick Facts
United StatesBiography
Dolph Lundgren is an actor and former Kyokushin karate competitor. He was born on 3 November 1957 in Spånga near Stockholm, Sweden.
According to the English Wikipedia, he began martial arts at seven with judo and Goju-ryu. For Kyokushin karate, the details in the same source differ: it once gives a start at ten, elsewhere from sixteen. He earned a 4th dan black belt.
He was captain of the Swedish Kyokushin karate team. In 1979 he entered as a challenger at the World Open Tournament organized by Kyokushin. In 1980 and 1981 he became European Kyokushin karate champion, and in 1982 he won the Australian Kyokushinkai Full-Contact Karate Tournament.
He earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and in 1982 a master's degree in the same field at the University of Sydney.
He came to film only after his sports career, the reverse of the usual order among action actors. He became famous for the role of Ivan Drago in Rocky IV (1985); for it he trained six days a week, in the morning about an hour with weights and in the afternoon boxing. In 2010 he appeared in the film The Expendables.
Associated Martial Arts
Ranks and titles
- 4th danKyokushin