As Jean-Claude Van Damme's meta comedy series Jean-Claude Van Johnson is release on Amazon, Jonathan Bernstein recalls the highs and lows of 'The Muscles from Brussels'

Jean-Claude Van Varenburg was a chubby fearful Belgian child who, through sheer force of will, transformed himself from a bully-magnet into a karate champion with 18 knockouts to his name. In 1981, Van Varenburg retired from competitive martial arts at the age of 20 and set his sights on Hollywood stardom.

It didn’t matter that he had little more than a rudimentary grasp of English, limited funds and few contacts in the film industry; that same force of will propelled the newly-christened Jean Claude Van Damme to Los Angeles where his persistence and willingness to show off his trademark roundhouse kick won him bit parts in several B-movies.

After an abortive few weeks sweating inside the alien costume on the Arnold Schwarzenneger movie, Predator, Van Damme got his big Hollywood break.

In 1986, he spotted Menahem Golan, one half of the Israeli producing team behind the notoriously cheap and scrappy exploitation studio Cannon Films, eating breakfast at a Beverly Hills restaurant. Van Damme kicked his leg over Golan’s head and then did the mid-air splits. Golan recognized a fellow hustler.