Dolph Lundgren Net Worth

Biography of Dolph Lundgren

Dolph Lundgren is a famous Swedish actor, film director and producer, as well as an athlete, chemist, martial artist. He became famous thanks to the role of Ivan Drago in “Rocky IV” by Sylvester Stallone. He also shot several action films with his own participation. Mostly plays in “male” action films: killers, soldiers and athletes.

Childhood and youth

Dolph Lundgren was born on November 3, 1957 in Spang, a suburb of Stockholm, into an ordinary middle-class family. In addition to him, his brother Johan and two more sisters, Annika and Katharina, also grew up in the family.

As a child, Dolph was in poor health. The boy was by no means strong and distinguished by thinness. Because of this circumstance, he was often ridiculed by those around him. The boy’s relationship with his father also did not work out, as the actor himself says, in childhood he was constantly attacked by his father: he often took out his anger on him and his mother, called him a loser.

All these humiliations strengthened the boy’s determination to prove that he was capable of something. Dolph began attending classes at a karate school and subsequently chose the direction of kyokushinkai for himself. Perseverance and extreme diligence soon gave the desired result. By exhausting himself with training, Dolph became strong, put on weight, and also developed fighting skills.

Education

Dolph studied well and dreamed of becoming a chemical engineer like his father. After graduation, the young man went to study in the United States, where he studied chemistry at the University of Washington and Clemson University. But it was not possible to complete the training, since in 1979 Lundgren was drafted into the ranks of the Marines.

After the service, the guy continued his studies already in Sydney, where he met an aspiring star, the colorful singer Grace Jones (she owns the vocal performance of Astor Piazzolla’s Libertango), with whom he went to America as her bodyguard. By the way, before that, Dolph nevertheless graduated from a Sydney university and became a master of chemical sciences.

Actor career

Upon arriving in Hollywood, Dolph was able to land a small role in A View to a Kill (1985) through his acquaintance with Grace Jones.

The real success came to the actor in the same year after the role of Russian boxer Ivan Drago in Sylvester Stallone’s film “Rocky 4”. This role became a turning point and a landmark for Lundgren’s career, later he returned to Drago and the images of courageous soldiers, athletes and assassins more than once.

After such a breakthrough, he played in the “Lord of the World”, “Red Scorpion”, “The Punisher” and “Angel of Darkness”. These films did not have much success among the audience, and from film critics one negative criticism fell upon Lundgren. Ignoring the unflattering reviews, Dolph continued his acting career.

In 1991, a film called “Showdown in Little Tokyo” was released, which helped Dolph “rehabilitate himself”. On the set of the film, the actor met Brandon Lee, who played one of the main roles.

In 1992, the film “Universal Soldier” was released, which was a success among the audience, but not among the critics – the Swede was too “wooden”, in their opinion. On the same set, the famous Jean-Claude Van Damme and the charming Ellie Walker worked with Dolph.

After that, the actor’s career began to decline, despite participation in the commercially successful Strelka and Blackjack. Dolph Lundgren was able to achieve success again only at the beginning of 2000. In 2005, he made his directorial debut with the action movie The Mechanic, in which he played the lead role.

In 2010, the Swedish actor starred in the film Universal Soldier 3: Rebirth and Sylvester Stallone’s new successful action movie The Expendables. On the film, together with Dolph, such masters of the genre as Jason Statham, Jet Li and Terry Crews worked. The continuation of the exciting action in 2012 and 2014 was not long in coming. At the same time, Lundgren delighted fans with his appearance in the popular TV series Arrow with Stephen Amell.

In addition to filming in films, in 2017 Dolph Lundgren took part in the filming of the video for the song “Believer” by the popular American rock band Imagine Dragons and starred in the Russian comedy The Bachelor Party.

Sports achivments

Dolph has achieved a lot in sports. In 1977, in a difficult fight, he won the Swedish championship and subsequently held the champion title for three years. In addition, he successfully performed at the World Championships in 1979 and received a black 2nd dan in karate.

After meeting Sylvester Stallone, the actor became interested in bodybuilding, he conducts daily morning hourly workouts 6 times a week.

In 2007, in the Russian show “King of the Ring” Lundgren had a fight with Oleg Taktarov, but was defeated.

Dolph Lundgren’s personal life

For some time, Lundgren met with his “boss” Grace Jones, and now they are on good terms.

In 1994, the actor married Swedish jewelry designer Annette Kviberg. After the wedding, the couple moved to Spain, later their daughters Ida (born 1996) and Greta Lundgren (born 2001) were also brought up there. According to the spouses, they wanted to give their children a normal childhood away from Hollywood (although in 2009, Ida played a small role in the film “Dangerous Tour” with her dad in the title role). In 2011, the couple publicly announced their divorce.

Dolph Lundgren now

It seems that the actor’s career has turned to a new round of development: now he is again in demand in Hollywood. In December 2018, the science fiction film “Aquaman” starring Jason Momoa will be released, where Dolph got the “villainous” role – King Nereus, who planned to kill Aquaman.

Around the same time, the action movie Black Waters will be released with the participation of Dolph Lundgren in one of the key roles. He will reprise his role as Ivan Drago in Creed 2 (a sequel to a young athlete Rocky trains) starring Michael B. Jordan.

In addition to the mentioned projects, in which the appearance of Dolph is already guaranteed, there are rumors about the future participation of the actor in several more projects.

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