Dolph Lundgren

Dolph Lundgren was married to jewelry designer Anette Qviberg from 1994 to 2011, and they have two daughters, Ida Sigrid Lundgren and Greta Eveline Lundgren. Lundgren has been married to Emma Krokdal since 2023.

In May 2023, Lundgren revealed that he had been battling kidney cancer since 2015. He also became a United States citizen with Emma Krokdal in 2024.

Lundgren studied chemical engineering at Washington State University and Clemson University before graduating from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. He received a master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney in 1982 and was later awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He began training in martial arts as a child and later became a competitor in Kyokushin karate. He captained the Swedish Kyokushin karate team, won the European championships in 1980 and 1981, and won the Australian Kyokushinkai Full-Contact Karate Tournament in 1982. His athletic background became a defining part of his screen persona.

Lundgren made his film debut as Venz, a KGB assassin, in the James Bond film A View to a Kill in 1985. Later that year, he gained international recognition as the Soviet boxer Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, opposite Sylvester Stallone, Carl Weathers, and Brigitte Nielsen. Lundgren secured the role after a nine-month audition process involving about 5,000 hopefuls.

He continued to play leading and villainous roles in action films such as Masters of the Universe, Red Scorpion, The Punisher, I Come in Peace, Showdown in Little Tokyo, and Universal Soldier. In Universal Soldier, he played Sergeant Andrew Scott opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme, a role he revisited in later entries in the franchise.

Lundgren returned to the character of Ivan Drago in Creed II in 2018. He also appeared as King Nereus in Aquaman and its sequel, and played Gunner Jensen in The Expendables film series alongside Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, and Randy Couture.

Lundgren made his directorial debut with The Defender in 2004, in which he also played the bodyguard of the head of the National Security Agency. He directed and starred in The Russian Specialist, Diamond Dogs, Missionary Man, Command Performance, and Icarus. He later directed and starred in Castle Falls in 2021 and Wanted Man in 2024.

His other work has included television appearances in SAF3, Arrow, and Chuck, voice roles in Seal Team and Minions: The Rise of Gru, and a 2017 appearance in the music video for Imagine Dragons' song "Believer." In 2010, he co-hosted Sweden's Melodifestivalen and performed Elvis Presley's "A Little Less Conversation."