Somehow, over the last ten years, I had managed to completely forget about Jean-Claude Van Damme. He wasn’t simply ‘out of sight, out of mind’, I had completely forgotten him. I can recall classic action movie conversations where he did not even come up. How can that happen? Maybe I saw his ass one too many times and repressed all memories in a scorched earth approach to subconscious therapy.

Well, its all come back now as someone felt the need to memorialize a Van Damme Birthday. I can now clearly recall the excitement of the John Woo/Van Damme team-up in Hard Target, or the Goldberg appearance in Universal Soldier and, well, they pretty much all run together at this point.

Happy birthday, Jean-Claude Van Damme! – By Grady Hendrix – Slate Magazine

“For a lot of actors, not being able to act would be an obstacle, but Jean-Claude has transformed it into his trademark. Acting? Acting is for weirdos like Forest Whitaker…”