Dolph Lundgren went from student in Australia to movie stardom  (2024)

Today Dolph Lundgren is one of the biggest names in action movies, and has been for over thirty years starring in everything from The Expendables franchise to Rocky IV.

But back in the early eighties he was just a 24-year-old from Sweden on a scholarship studying a masters in chemical engineering at Sydney University.

In fact, the martial arts expert and actor freely admits 'Sydney was the catalyst' to his career of Hollywood stardom.

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Lundgren learned the streets of Sydney off by heart by riding his push bike all around the city, too poor to afford a car and having to work as bouncer in his spare time to earn cash.

Usually a regular on the doors at the notorious Kings Cross clubbing scene, he agreed to 'help a friend out' to do security at a Grace Jones concert.

The rest, as they say, is history.

'It's so long ago, I almost forgot about that being back in Sydney again,' Lundgren told the Daily Mail Australia.

'I met her (Grace Jones) at the Capitol Theatre where she was performing and I was doing security with a couple of friends of mine.

'I got put on her detail as she went around the nightclubs in Sydney and I guess she took a liking to me.

'Four years later, we were still together.'

Lundgren's romance with Jones - the biggest pop star in the world at the time - threw him in the spotlight and he soon left his academic life in Sydney behind, moving to New York with the iconic musician.

It was through her high-profile Hollywood connections that he landed his first two major film roles in 1985: a bit part in James Bond movie A View To Kill For and one of his most famous characters to date, Russian boxer Ivan Drago in Rocky IV.

'She was instrumental in kind of introducing me to showbusiness,' he said.

Back in Australia for the first time in over a decade, Lundgren has been filming the latest Optus campaign and playing up to his touch guy image in a recent photo shoot in Marrickville.

The 56-year-old father of two has also been taking a walk down memory lane, touching down in Sydney on Saturday and reminiscing about some of his favourite haunts.

'I went for a morning walk around Darling Habour and I remember all these big, empty warehouses which were super rundown,' he said.

'They're all quite high end now. It's fun to be back in Sydney, it's really nice to be back.

'I did a little tour of the university and have been reliving in my old memories... it's strange but kind of enlightening in one way how life can change so quickly.

'Sydney was the catalyst, as they say in chemical engineering.

'I'm grateful I got to know this country when I was younger.'

Mind you, Lundgren has had plenty of brushes with Australia since Sydney in the eighties as not only an actor, but also a writer, director and producer.

He returned to film a movie version of Marvel comic book series The Punisher, and says he has been 'constantly bumping into Aussies' in Hollywood ever since.

Most recently he worked with two members of the Gum Nut Mafia - Mel Gibson and director Patrick Hughes - on blockbuster action franchise The Expendables 3.

In a career that has spanned nearly 60 films, he was originally hesitant to sign on to the series after his longtime friend Sylvester 'Sly' Stallone sent him the script.

'I was surprised when Sly called my five years ago and out of the blue said "Hey Dolph, I got this script. Check it out or whatever."

'At page three there was this big, drunk Swedish guy with a knife killing people and I was like "Okay, I guess that's me."

'I wasn't really looking for it because I've played so many Saxon guys kicking butt in over 50 movies, but The Expendables wasn't like anything else.

'I was getting to work with a lot of great guys from my past -Jean-Claude Van Damme and Arnie (Arnold Schwarzenegger) - and work with the biggest ships and tanks and guns.

'It's a fun day's work.'