Dolph Lundgren

Dolph Lundgren (birthname: Hans Lundgren) is an iconic action figure, sporting one of the show business’s most remarkable male physiques. Popularly remembered as Ivan Drago, Rocky’s Russian opponent in Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky IV (1985), Lundgren not only claims nearly 100 acting credits but is a multi-hyphenate as writer-producer-director, including his 2023 crime drama, Wanted Man, with Kelsey Grammer and Roger Cross. 

Dolph Lundgren was recommended to the producers of the James Bond thriller, A View to a Kill (1985), with Roger Moore and Grace Jones, scoring him an eye-catching role in his debut, followed by his Rocky IV role as Drago, which earned him instant icon status.

Lundgren soon made a mark in mass audience action adventures such as Masters of the Universe (1987), with Frank Langella; Red Scorpion (1988) with M. Emmet Walsh; an early Marvel Comics entry, The Punisher (1989), with Louis Gossett Jr. Lundgren co-starred with the late Brandon Lee in Mark Lester’s buddy cop movie, Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991), then the hit science fiction action drama, Universal Soldier (1992), the first of a half-dozen pairings of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Lundgren, who portrays a maniacal Vietnam vet. Lundgren switched modes for the surreal cyber story based on a William Gibson fiction, Johnny Mnemonic (1995), co-starring Keanu Reeves and directed by artist Robert Longo. 

For the next twenty years, many of Dolph Lundgren’s movies went direct to video, most consigned to obscurity or the confines of niche genre audiences. Other than a sequel to Universal Soldier, Regeneration (2009), again with Van Damme, Lundgren’s few theatrical releases during this period included his writing-directing debut, Missionary Man (2007), then the post-Cold War thriller, Icarus (2010), Lundgren’s second project as director as well as star.

In the same year, Lundgren joined the high-testosterone lineup for the first in Sylvester Stallone’s successful The Expendables franchise, with Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, and Mickey Rourke, earning $274 million worldwide.

Lundgren made another left turn into American indie filmmaking with fellow Swede Jonas Åkerlund’s Small Apartments (2012), with Peter Stormare, Juno Temple, Johnny Knoxville, Amanda Plummer, Rosie Perez, Billy Crystal, and James Caan. Beyond minor direct-to-video projects, Lundgren alternated between Expendables and Universal Soldier movies through the decade, until he returned as Drago in the Rocky spinoff, Creed II (2018), with Michael B. Jordan, Stallone, Tessa Thompson, and Phylicia Rashad, scoring $214 million in the global box office and strong reviews.

Also in 2018, Lundgren joined the cast of another hit studio movie, the DC Comic Extended Universe Aquaman, featuring Jason Momoa, Nicole Kidman, Amber Heard, Willem Dafoe, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Patrick Wilson. 

Dolph Lundgren returned to directing in 2021 with the heist movie, Castle Falls, co-starring Scott Adkins, followed by the action-adventure, Wanted Man (2023). Lundgren joined Van Damme again—this time as a vocal actor—in Illumination Entertainment’s Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022), with Steve Carell. Lundgren revived his roles of King Nereus in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023) and Gunner Jensen in The Expendables 4 (2023), with Stallone, Statham, 50 Cent, Megan Fox, and Andy Garcia.