History's Greatest Machines: Who is Dolph Lundgren?
Dolph Lundgren made his name as an action movie star. He’s also a chemical engineering graduate now hosting Sky HISTORY’s History’s Greatest Machines.
Image: History's Greatest Machines with Dolph Lundgren
When ranking the all-time greatest fights ever committed to celluloid, it’s hard to beat the climactic clash in Rocky IV. You might even have caught it on the big screen when this blockbuster sequel first hit (pun very much intended) British cinemas in 1986.
Rocky IV is especially memorable for its villain, Soviet boxer Ivan Drago. This snarling adversary of Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa was played to menacing perfection by Dolph Lundgren. With his immense strength, towering height and — above all — frenetic fighting style, Drago came across as an absolute machine in the ring.
Appropriately enough, Lundgren is now presenting Sky HISTORY’s History’s Greatest Machines, a series looking at how engineering breakthroughs have shaped the past. He’s more than qualified for the gig, too, having picked up chemical engineering degrees before finding stardom.
What else do you know about Dolph Lundgren?
Dolph Lundgren’s early life
Dolph Lundgren was born Hans Lundgren in Stockholm, Sweden on 3rd November 1957. Lundgren had a difficult relationship with his father Karl, who physically abused him. Dolph later reflected that this tough childhood inspired him to take up martial arts like boxing and karate.
Convinced that his career ambitions would be hamstrung in Sweden, the young Hans was determined to move to the United States. To do that, he would need financial support. It arrived in the form of scholarships that took him to American universities, including Washington State University and Clemson University.
Lundgren temporarily returned to Sweden to earn a degree in chemical engineering, graduating from the Royal Institute of Technology in the early 1980s. All the while, he continued practicing karate, even winning European championships. Lundgren also spent time in the Australian city of Sydney, where he obtained a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney.
Dolph Lundgren breaks into Hollywood
Lundgren’s stint in Sydney set off an extraordinary chain of events that would eventually change his life forever. After getting a job as a bouncer at a nightclub in the city, he was spotted by singer Grace Jones, who hired him as her bodyguard. The pair soon started a romantic relationship and subsequently moved to New York City together.
Lundgren’s experiences stateside led him to catch the acting bug. Jones even helped him to land his first big-screen role, playing a KGB assassin in the 1985 James Bond film A View to a Kill. By this time, Lundgren had adopted the first name ‘Dolph’
. It’s a name that would soon be in lights after Lundgren landed what remains his best-known role…
How Dolph Lundgren became Ivan Drago
Dolph Lundgren loved the Rocky films. So, when he heard that a fourth one was in the works, he sent photos of himself in boxing gear to Sylvester Stallone. As the film’s writer and director, Sly imbued Rocky IV with political undertones reflecting the then-ongoing Cold War. Key to this approach was the role of Ivan Drago, a boxer from the Soviet Union eager to face off against the American Rocky Balboa.
Lundgren’s steely composure in the film would be instrumental in making Drago one of the Rocky franchise’s most iconic characters. So much so, Lundgren would reprise the role decades later in 2018’s Creed II. It marked a memorable late-career encore for the Swede, who had by then cemented his action credentials in dozens of films since the 1980s.
Who could forget Lundgren as He-Man in the 1987 sword-and-sorcery adventure Masters of the Universe? In the 2010s, Lundgren also won new fans as Gunner Jensen in The Expendables. There, he’s joined by a ‘who’s who’ of Hollywood action titans, including Randy Couture, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sly himself.
Dolph Lundgren the engineer
Sky HISTORY’s History’s Greatest Machines is something of a full-circle moment for Lundgren. It’s a great opportunity for him to tap into the chemical engineering expertise he previously honed at university, before Hollywood came calling.
In the series, Lundgren waxes lyrical about many different machines from across the centuries. From awe-inspiring catapults used by Alexander the Great’s soldiers to miniature drones undertaking reconnaissance during the 21st-century War on Terror, it’s all there.
These machines didn’t emerge fully-formed out of nowhere - they all had to be carefully designed, developed, built and refined. As a former student engineer, Lundgren has his own insight into what kind of ground-breaking work would have been involved in making all this happen.
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