Most people may recognize him as Ivan Drago from the movie classic Rocky IV. In addition to his successful career as an actor, Swedish Dolph Lundgren has dealt with a number of different things. Above all, he has always continued practicing Martial Arts, which is close to his heart.
Following in his family’s footsteps
While born and raised in an academic middle-class family in Stockholm he had an early interest in playing the drums. He was also acting in high school comedies but decided to follow the footsteps of his father and older brother and become an engineer. He completed his military service in the Swedish Marine Corps and then enrolled in the Royal Institute of Technology where he studied chemical engineering. He also attended both Washington State University and Clemson University in South Carolina on scholarships. He graduated from The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and completed his master’s degree in Sydney, Australia. He graduating at the head of his class and got a Fulbright scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston.
The step into the film industry that would change his life
During that same year he met the singer Grace Jones and they fell in love. Love made him decide to move to New York City. He started modeling to make some extra money, he was a bit too muscular for modeling and he started going to MIT a few months later. His friend told him: “Hey man, you look like you should be in the movies” and that’s where his movie career began. His debut on the movie screen came in the James Bond feature A View To A Kill in 1985.
Dolph’s performance in Rocky IV that same year made him famous worldwide. The audition process for the part was nine months long and 5000 applicants. He got the part as Sylvester Stallone’s Russian opponent, Captain Ivan Drago. Dolph managed to build a nice career playing action-heros and has starred in over 50 feature films. He always continued practicing martial arts during his time in Hollywood.
A phone call from an old friend that would lead to success
After he got married and had two daughters, he spent a lot of time in Europe. In 2009 his old friend Sly Stallone called him and said:
”Yo, Dolph. I got this script…”
It was for the movie The Expendables where he played along Stallone, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“It was terrific working with Sly again and he had created a very colorful character for me the picture. It also felt great to be back on the big screen again.” says Lundgren.
He has also been involved in other parts of the film industry
He also starred in the two sequels. The third movie also featured Mel Gibson, Wesley Snipes, Antonio Banderas and Harrison Ford. Besides being an actor, Dolph has also directed five feature films. He has two production companies called Thor Pictures and Red Orm Productions. He has, among other projects, produced, co-written and starred in the action-triller Skin Trade about human trafficking.
”This is a script I’ve had for seven years and I never thought it was going to get made. It’s incredibly exciting to finally stand on the set and realize that it is actually happening. Especially working with actors like Ron Perlman, Peter Weller, Michael Jai White, Celina Jade and Thai martial arts legend Tony Jaa.”
Dolph is also a founding member of the off-Broadway theatre group called Group of Eight. His career has also included creating workout videos, writing books and producing vitamins and supplements.
Dolph and Karate
After a lot of work he was given his third degree black belt by the World Karate Organization in Tokyo, Japan. During his career he was the captain of the Swedish National Karate Team and also the champion of the Swedish, European and Australian Heavyweight Full Contact Divisions. In addition to his Karate expertise, During the Olympic Games in Atlanta 1996 he was selected as the Team Leader of the U.S. Olympic Pentathlon Team.
Dolph Lundgren started training judo at the age of 16, while playing ice hockey in a small northern town in Sweden. He then switched to karate a year or so later.
Dolph explains why: “A big fat guy grabbed me in a judo choke-hold, laid on top of me — sweating all over me. So I thought; sure, martial arts is great but in karate at least you can stay further away from your opponent.”
Dolph started in the traditional Japanese style Goju-ryu, but soon switched to Kyokushinkai, the more powerful style developed by Japanese karate legend Mas Oyama. Dolph kept training throughout high school and then moved back to Stockholm to complete his military service and go to University. This is when Dolph met his Sensei and future friend-to-be, Brian Fitkin, then a 4th Dan. At the age of 19, Dolph started competing; in non-contact “point fighting”. He lost his first four out of five fights.
“I was too nervous and insecure, putting too much pressure on myself.”
In 1979, while serving in the Swedish Marine Corps, Dolph was selected to fight in the 2nd World Open Karate Tournament in Tokyo one of the earliest international full-contact tournaments. Still only a green belt Dolph had to borrow a brown belt (one level higher) to be able to fight. “Full-contact-karate was something new at the time. Nobody really knew a lot about it, and neither did I.”
Nevertheless, Dolph knocked out his first two opponents with a “hiza-geri” (knee-kick to the face) and the crowd started to take notice of the tall, gangly Swede. ” I felt a little bad for my opponents but after winning those two fights, I knew full-contact was definitely for me”.
In his next fight Dolph was up against the overwhelming favorite for the world title, Makoto Nakamura. Dolph (a green belt) weighed 93 kg (205lbs) against Nakamura’s 110 kg (245 lbs). Nakamura (a 2nd degree black belt) attacked immediately and Dolph caught him with a roundhouse kick to the face. The crowd gasped. They sensed this Lundgren could be more than Nakamura had bargained for. The fight went the distance; plus two extensions and Nakamura was awarded a controversial decision. This proved to be the eventual world champion’s hardest fight.
“My sensei, Brian Fitkin was furious that Nakamura kept using a lot of foul techniques, and he told me to drop Nakamura with a “Kingeri” (kick to the groin – also a foul technique), but I guess I was to much of a nice guy to obey. Even though I lost that fight, I knew that I too could become a champion.”
Dolph went on to win the British Open Knockdown Heavyweight title in 1980 and 1981 and also became Australian Open Champion in the individual and team events a year later.
Now a Shodan (1st degree black belt) at the age of 23, Dolph went to Australia to study Chemical Engineering on a scholarship for a year. He had his own karate club at Sydney University, and made some extra money doing security for music acts touring Sydney. That is when he met singer Grace Jones.
“My best friend, also a Kyokushin karate student and myself were hired to do private security for Grace after the concert. That evening things got very late, one thing led to another and within two days we were head over heels in love.”
Dolph then met Grace again on his way back to Europe. He was in Tokyo to study with the karate master Mas Oyama while Grace was doing a TV-commercial.
They went back to the United States together, Dolph with a Fulbright scholarship to M.I.T. in Boston. After having completed his Master’s Degree, Dolph was to start post-graduate work at M.I.T later that year. In New York, Dolph trained with Tadashi Nakamura and Shigeru Oyama, both 7th Dan, and planned to enter 3rd World Tournament in Tokyo. “This time I wanted to do much, much better. I knew I had a good shot at doing very well, maybe even winning. Every morning at 5 am, I ran 5 miles and trained karate for 2 hours. Every afternoon I was either lifting weights or sparring for another 2-3 hours. I was in the shape of my life.”
“More importantly, I believe the martial arts made me
— and still makes me — a better person.”
During his preparation for the World Tournament Dolph used to hit the bag at the famous “Gleason’s Gym” in midtown Manhattan where some of the best boxers in the world used to train. A couple of the managers took one look at the tall, well built Swede. He was big, blonde, he could move, he could punch – he definitely looked the part.
“I guess they wanted me to become the next “Great White Hope”. Gerry Cooney used to train at Gleason’s when he fought Larry Holmes. I was very drawn to the idea of boxing professionally but many of my friends advised me against it – we like your face the way it is….”
Dolph turned the offers down, literally deciding not to sign his professional boxing contract twenty minutes before going to see his future manager.
Instead he had started doing some modeling and a friend of his though the Swede should try some acting lessons. “Come on – the way you look, there’s gotta be something you can do in the movies”. Dolph canceled his plans for the World Tournaments and turned to acting.
A year later Dolph went for an audition for “some boxing movie”, he met Sylvester Stallone and the rest is history. Dolph gave up his academic career (he did get his Masters degree) his martial arts career and his Swedish small town life to move to Hollywood. In a twenty-year career, Dolph has starred in more than 35 movies. Nevertheless, Dolph has stayed in close contact with Kyokushin karate throughout the years. He has performed karate exhibitions at three World Tournaments and on numerous other occasions. His long-time friend and teacher, Shihan Brian Fitkin, 6th Dan has helped his old student in most of his movies with physical conditioning and fight coordination. Dolph returned to his “home dojo” in Stockholm do a real challenge in 1998, when he passed his 3rd Dan promotion, suffering through a grueling Twenty Man Kumite (fighting 20 successive opponents one after the other without a break) as well as 3 hours of technical examination.
“Karate and physical fitness have kept me reasonably sane in a very tough and often spiritually empty business.”
Dolph actively also works with the Spanish Kyokushin Federation, since he & his wife own a home in Marbella, in Southern Spain. The couple and their two daughters spends their time between London and Marbella, where Dolph recently bought his 8 year old daughter her first karate uniform.
Dolph is currently training hard for his 4th Dan examination and to perform an exhibition at the World Karate Championships in Tokyo in 2011.
Dolph tries to sum up what martial arts have meant to him: “Karate has been so important to me, it is almost impossible to imagine myself and my life without it. Every time I’ve strayed away from the martial arts, I’ve somehow lost part of myself”
“It was through martial arts that I confronted my insecurities, gained inner strength, broke through my own self-fabricated barriers and came into my own as a man. Karate and physical training has definitely become part of my life forever.”
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