Dolph Lundgren Biography

Dolph Lundgren was born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden. Despite an early interest in music and the fine arts, Dolph decided to follow in his father's footsteps and pursue an Engineering degree. After having completed his military service he enrolled at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

It was in the military when Dolph first came in contact with the martial arts. Five years later, Dolph had become a World-Class competitor in Japanese Karate and was deeply involved with a discipline that was to become an important part of his life.

After graduating High School, Dolph spent considerable time studying in the Unite States and abroad on various academic scholarships. He attended Washington State University and Clemson University in South Carolina. In 1982, he received a scholarship to complete his Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Sydney, Australia. In 1983 he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, one of the world's top engineering schools.

That same year, Dolph decided to move to New York City and take up acting. He started studying drama at the Warren Robertson Theatre Workshop in Manhattan, not knowing how quickly his life was about to change.

(1998) (TV) by Hong-Kong action legend Dolph's motion picture debut came in the James Bond feature A View to a Kill (1985). However, it was his performance in _Rocky IV (1988)_ 8qv) later that year that definitely got him noticed. After a 9-month audition process among 5,000 hopefuls, he was cast opposite writer-director Sylvester Stallone, as his Russian opponent, Ivan Drago. Following the success of Rocky IV (1985), Lundgren moved to Los Angeles and has since starred in more than thirty feature films. Lundgren portrayed the classic action-heroic lead in such films as Gary Goddard's Masters of the Universe (1987), Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991) co-starring Brandon Lee, and BlackjackJohn Woo.

(1992) opposite Lundgren has also continued to turning memorable performances as the main adversary to other action-stars, most notably in Universal SoldierJean-Claude Van Damme, directed by Roland Emmerich, as well as Robert Longo's Johnny Mnemonic (1995) opposite Keanu Reeves. In February 2004, Dolph Lundgren directed his first feature film, the thriller The Defender (2004) in which he also starred. In 2005, he directed and starred in yet another feature, The Mechanik (2005) (a.k.a "The Russian Specialist"). In January 2006, he finished principal photography of Inchiesta, L' (2006) (TV), an Italian/American/Spanish co-production, directed by Giulio Base in which he played against, amongst others, Daniele Liotti, Max von Sydow, and F. Murray Abraham. In the fall 2006, Lundgren starred in Diamond Dogs (2007) , a Chinese/American co-production filmed on location in Mongolia, and he just completed principal photography on a new picture as a director, Missionary Man (2007) a modern day western shot in Texas.