Dolph Lundgren's Real Name: Hans Lundgren

Quick answer: Dolph Lundgren was born Hans Lundgren in Stockholm, Sweden, and that is the name on his birth certificate. NPR reports that he took the name Dolph, "a relative's name from his mother's side of the family," when Rocky IV came out in 1985. His official biography styles him Hans Dolph Lundgren. Before playing the Soviet boxer Ivan Drago, he earned a degree in chemical engineering (NPR; The Irish Times).

Real name and early life

The Irish Times describes him as "Hans Lundgren (as it says on his birth certificate)," the son of Karl, a Swedish economist and engineer, and Sigrid, a language teacher. His official website opens its biography with "Hans Dolph Lundgren was born and raised in an academic middle-class family in Stockholm." Most references give his birth date as November 3, 1957. The Library of Congress name authority files him as "Lundgren, Dolph, 1959-," so library catalogs may show a different year.

NPR reports that allergies kept him from excelling at sports as a child. "So my kind of way to feel like I was somebody was to answer all the questions the teacher asked," he said. According to his official biography, he served in the Swedish Marine Corps and then studied chemical engineering at Stockholm's Royal Institute of Technology. He also studied on scholarships at Washington State University and Clemson University and earned a master's degree through an exchange with the University of Sydney. In 1983 he won a Fulbright scholarship to MIT.

Career highlights

In New York before starting at MIT, he met singer Grace Jones. She suggested he try out for a henchman role in the James Bond film A View to a Kill (1985), his screen debut. "My father called it a disastrous decision," he told the Irish Times. His official biography says Sylvester Stallone chose him from about 5,000 hopefuls after a nine-month audition process to play Captain Ivan Drago in Rocky IV (1985).

The role made him an international action star. He played He-Man in Masters of the Universe (1987) and the Punisher (1989), and he has made more than 50 films. A karate black belt, he captained Sweden's national karate team. He also served as team leader for the U.S. Olympic pentathlon team at the 1996 Atlanta Games. Stallone brought him back for The Expendables (2010) and its sequels, and he reprised Drago in Creed II (2018). He has also directed several features.

Name notes for searchers

Hans is his legal first name. Dolph, borrowed from a maternal relative, became his screen name in 1985. You may see him listed as Hans Lundgren, Hans Dolph Lundgren, or Dolph Lundgren. His birth year appears as 1957 in most sources and as 1959 in the LOC heading.