Hans Lundgren

Hans "Dolph" Lundgren (, ; born 3 November 1957) is a Swedish-American actor, filmmaker and martial artist.

Born in Spånga, Sweden, Lundgren became interested in martial arts at a young age.

Hans Lundgren was born on 3 November 1957 in Spånga, a community in Stockholm County, Sweden, to Sigrid Birgitta ( Tjerneld; 1932–1992), a language teacher, and Karl Hugo Johan Lundgren (1923–2000), an engineer (M.Sc.) and economist (MBA) for the Swedish government.

He lived in Spånga until the age of 13, when he moved to his grandparents' home in Nyland, Ångermanland.

Some sources wrongly state 1959 as his year of birth, but Lundgren himself has confirmed it to be 1957.

He has two sisters, Katarina and Annika and a younger brother Johan.

Lundgren claims his father was physically abusive and took out his own personal frustrations on his wife and eldest son.

He has stated that, during his tirades, his father would call him a "loser", which motivated him later as he grew more ambitious to prove himself.

But he also said, "I still love my father, no matter what happened. There are many things about him I still admire. As a child, I was probably too much like him, very stubborn—perhaps that's what he couldn't deal with."

He has cited his troubled relationship with his father as the reason he developed a desire to participate in heavy contact sports such as boxing and karate.

Lundgren has said that, as a child, he was insecure and suffered from allergies, describing himself as a "runt".

He showed a keen interest in drumming and had aspirations to become a rock star.

At age seven, he tried judo and Gōjū-ryū.

He took up Kyokushin karate at the age of 10, and began lifting weights as a teenager.

Lundgren stated that "My dad always told me that if I wanted to make something special with my life, I had to go to America."

After graduating from high school with straight A's, he spent some time in the United States in the 1970s on various academic scholarships, studying chemical engineering at Washington State University and Clemson University.

In the late 1970s, he enrolled at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and graduated in the early 1980s with a degree in chemical engineering.

Amidst his years of studying, Lundgren honed his karate skills by training in the dojo for five years, and had attained a black belt in Kyokushin by the late 1970s.

He studied chemical engineering for a year at Washington State University between 1976 and 1977, prior to serving his mandatory one year in the Swedish Coastal Artillery at the Coastal Ranger School.

He captained the Swedish Kyokushin karate team, and was a challenger at the 1979 World Open Tournament (arranged by the Kyokushin Karate Organization).

This would lead him to hold the rank of 4th dan black belt in Kyokushin karate and become European champion in 1980 and 1981.

He won the European championships in 1980 and 1981, and a full-contact karate tournament in Australia in 1982.

In 1982, while studying to get a master's degree, he became the boyfriend of singer Grace Jones.

With her he moved to New York City and started to take acting classes.

In 1982, Lundgren graduated with a master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney.

During his time in Sydney, he earned a living as a bouncer in a nightclub in the notorious King's Cross area.

Lundgren was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to MIT in 1983.

However, while preparing for the move to Boston, he was spotted in the nightclub where he worked in Sydney and was hired by Grace Jones as a bodyguard, and the two became lovers.

He moved with Jones to New York City, where he dabbled in modeling at the Zoli Agency but was described as "a bit too tall and muscular for a model's size 40".

He earned a living as a bouncer at the Manhattan nightclub The Limelight, which was housed in the former Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion, working with Chazz Palminteri.

In the daytime, he studied drama at the Warren Robertson Theatre Workshop and has said that "my time in New York City opened up my adolescent Swedish eyes to a multitude of different people and lifestyles, mostly in the arts. I hung out with Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Iman and Steve Rubell, danced at Studio 54, and studied acting with Andie MacDowell and Tom Hulce."

Friends told him he should be in movies.

In 1985, Lundgren had a breakthrough role playing the lead villain as an imposing Soviet boxer named Ivan Drago in Sylvester Stallone's Rocky IV.

Lundgren went on to play lead roles in over 80 action-oriented films including Masters of the Universe, (1987), Red Scorpion (1988), The Punisher (1989), I Come in Peace (1990), Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991), Joshua Tree (1993), Men of War (1994), Silent Trigger (1996), and Blackjack (1998).

Furthermore he continued playing lead villains in Universal Soldier (1992) against Jean-Claude Van Damme and Johnny Mnemonic (1995) against Keanu Reeves.

Moving into the 2000s, Lundgren mostly appeared in direct-to-video films.

During this time Lundgren started directing and starring in his own films; these are The Defender (2004), The Mechanik (2005), Missionary Man (2007), Command Performance (2009), Icarus (2010), Castle Falls (2021) and Wanted Man (2024).

Lundgren returned to prominence in 2010 with the role of Gunner Jensen in Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables alongside an all-action star cast, he reprised his role in its sequels.

He also had notable roles in the fifth season of Arrow (2017), James Wan's Aquaman (2018), Kyle Balda's Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022), and more.

He returned to the role of Ivan Drago in Creed II (2018).