Olivier Gruner (French: [ɔlivje ɡʁyne] ; born 2 August 1960) is a French actor, filmmaker, martial artist and former kickboxer. Born in Paris, he moved to the United States in 1988 after serving in the French military and competing as a professional kickboxer, during which time he won a silver medal at the W.A.K.O. World Championships. He has appeared in over 40 films and four television series and is best known for martial arts and action films.[1][2][3]
Gruner was born the second of three sons[4] to a French family of surgeons and engineers.[5][6]
At age 11, he saw a Bruce Lee movie and became captivated with martial arts and inspired by the film industry.[1][5] Being constantly bullied at school pushed him to learn martial arts in order to defend himself.[7] He began studying Shotokan karate, then boxing, kickboxing, and full contact kickboxing,[8][6][4] which is essentially a mixture of Western boxing and traditional karate.[9]
In 1978, at age 18, he joined the French Navy, volunteering for their Commandos Marine unit, also nicknamed the Bérets Verts (Green Berets).[8][6] He was operational in Djibouti and Somalia, where he was particularly involved in anti-piracy operations.[10]
In 1981, Gruner left the military with the aim to train full-time in order to compete professionally as a kickboxer.[6]
In 1984, he began fighting as a professional kick-boxer. By 1985, his successes in the ring were allowing him to train and fight full-time.[6][4][better source needed] He won a Silver Medal, in the Men's Full-Contact Middleweight category, at the 1985 W.A.K.O. World Championships.[11]
Gruner retired from professional kickboxing in 1987 and pursued an acting career, following the lead of bodybuilders Reg Park and Arnold Schwarzenegger.[1][5][7] To promote himself, Gruner plastered posters of himself around Cannes during the 1987 Cannes Film Festival, which caught the attention of a producer. Gruner was invited to Los Angeles for screen tests.
Gruner joined Imperial Entertainment Corporation (Turner Classic Movies - TCM) and began acting in action movies.[5] He has appeared in martial arts magazines, such as Budo Journal, Combat, Impact, Inside Karate, Inside Kung Fu Yearbook and many more.[12]
In 1989 he starred in his first movie : the urban action movie Angel Town.[10] Although the film was not well received, Gruner was recognized his presence, with his acting compared favourably to that of Dolph Lundgren.[13]
In 1992, Gruner starred as "Alex Raine" in Albert Pyun’s cyberpunk 1992 science fiction thriller Nemesis.[2][14][3] The critics appreciated that Nemesis was filled with amazing stunts, thrilling action sequences, and innovative special effects that were pushing at the time the film industry limits of Blade Runner and Terminator 2.[15] Both Nemesis and Angel town have been extremely popular in video,[16] and Nemesis is one of the movies Gruner is most proud of.[7] In this movie, he offers action, drama, fighting, and gunfights and had to drop down to a 4% body fat to be at his peak physically.[15]
In 2010, Gruner acted as "Corsair Duguay" in Tales of an Ancient Empire, also named Abelar: Tales of an ancient Empire. In this movie, he had the pleasure to be reunited with Albert Pyun, his mentor in Nemesis.[7]
Gruner has also played roles in:
Gruner has been announced as "Jagger" in Escape from Paradise (2019), and as "Duguay" in Cyborg Nemesis: The Dark Rift (2019), as well as in The Target (2019).
Already in 1999, Gruner appeared as "Dieter Vanderval" in the episode titled Wildlife of a television series named Martial Law.
In 2001, he appeared multiple times as "Tawrens" in 26 episodes of the television series Code Name: Eternity.
In 2005, NBC contracted Gruner for producing a TV series named The Pros, a way of life. This was a project that Gruner himself had started in videos since 2003. It shows what happens behind the scene, and the life, training, and discipline of professional athletes.[10] He had already done episodes on boxers, surfers, and MMA fighters,[7] when NBC finally decided to shelve the TV series, and it was never published by them.[5] A video published by Gruner is available.
He was also contracted to play "Ivan" in the television series Seven Days published in 2019.
Gruner first involvement as a director was in 2002 with Interceptor Force 2.
In 2011, he premiered his first feature film as a screenwriter, a director, and an actor,[5] titled Re-Generator. This film was previously known as 'One Night', a project Gruner had been working on since 2010.[17]
In 2014 he featured as a director in Sector 4: Extraction, a direct-to-video release.
In 2015, Gruner released one more film as a director, a producer, a screenwriter, and an actor: EP/Executive Protection.
Rather early in his career, Gruner got involved in the production of some of the films in which he was appearing as an actor. This is the case for Savage (1996), Mercenary (1996), Mercenary 2: Thick & Thin (1998), Interceptor Force (1999), The Circuit (2001), and Crooked (2005).
But it is only starting from the 2010's, at the exception of Interceptor Force 2 in 2002, that he accumulated his involvement both as a producer, as an actor, and as a director in One Night (2010), Re-Generator (2011), Sector 4: Extraction (2014), and EP/Executive Protection (2015).
He has also been involved, as a producer only, in Front line (2015). He was both an actor and a producer in Iron Cross: The road to Normandy (2018).
Gruner has had quite a taste for screenwriting and co-writing the stories of some of the movies in which he appeared as an actor.
He wrote the stories of T.N.T. (1997), Interceptor Force 2 (2002), Crooked (2005), One Night (2010), Re-Generator (2011), and EP/Executive Protection (2015).
He also co-wrote the story and the screenplay of Lost Warrior: Left Behind (2008), and co-wrote the story of Sector 4: Extraction (2014).
Gruner has always been involved in a number of other business activities, which also take up part of his time. He believes it is wise to maintain various sources of revenue generation while working in the film industry, which can be very cyclical. This has allowed him to compensate for financial down times, when he was not actively involved in a movie as an actor, director, or producer.[10]
Gruner occasionally does body-guarding for celebrities. It can be more comfortable for some clients to have a fellow star, who understands stardom's pressure and demands, who also fulfills the role of a bodyguard. Gruner indeed not only has one of the highest special forces military training one can receive,[10] but also provides body-guarding training at his academy. One of such body-guarding clients is the famous Canadian singer Celine Dion.[18][19][20]
Gruner has been producing training videos for martial arts, combat skills, body-guarding, and survival techniques since 2012.[4] He commercializes those under the various brands of "Gruner Tactical Training Academy" and "O.G Training". More recently, he has been producing a survival reality show video series under the name "Survival X" in 2018.
Gruner has always kept a side activity as a personal trainer in various martial arts such as kickboxing and mixed martial arts.[10][5] He usually dedicates this personal training time to competing martial artists, as well as retired champions.
He has also created his own "O.G" trademark athletic fashion brand. Several collections were produced, including "The Lone Operator" collection, and the "Pro Series" collection in 2018.
Gruner is a licensed helicopter pilot, which allows him to mix this activity with film producing requirements at times. For example, he worked for ABC News in Los Angeles where he did many chase videos, and saw a lot of damages and lethal encounters.[10] Moreover, he was also the helicopter co-pilot in the 1999 movie Storm.[21]
He regularly flies helicopters and considers it a big part of his life. For Blue Hawaiian Helicopters, he regularly flew tours on Hawaii Big Island. For Maverick Helicopters, he also flew tours over the Grand Canyon.[10]
Gruner lives in Santa Monica, California and Las Vegas, Nevada. He has one son.[5]
Otherwise, Gruner is a high energy person, who likes outdoor hobbies that require a lot of physical activity. He is frequently hiking, climbing, skiing, surfing,[6] ballooning,[22] sky diving, and scuba diving.[6][4] As a perfectionist,[5] he likes to practice what he shows in his movies, so his acting flows naturally, as he can show that he is actually doing the "real thing".[5]
He has been regularly maintaining his karate, boxing and kickboxing training, which he has been completing with Brazilian jiu-jitsu, wrestling and mixed martial arts.[5] Gruner considers that this allows him thereafter to be a better actor and director in his movies, as far as such martial arts are concerned.[5]
Moreover, he has been a volunteer fireman since 2015, and has enjoyed the training there as well as the charitable act of giving back to society.
Gruner does appreciate the lessons and wisdom of discipline. He practiced it through his military training and career, and his kickboxing training and career. He nowadays constantly practices it through his acting, directing, producing, as well as through his martial arts training, helicopter flying, and revenue sources diversification.[10]
