Olivier Gruner

In 1981 Gruner left the French military with the aim to train full-time in order to compete professionally as a kickboxer.[8] He traveled to the French Alps and began an intensive training regimen.[6] In order to pay for his training expenses, he had to hold down four jobs, as a bouncer, a ski patrol member, a martial arts trainer, and a ski lift operator.[8]

This taught him the financial basics and philosophy of professional fighting. It is a business at the professional level, and winning or losing is not as important as it is for amateurs. For the pros, it is all about money. Sometimes a guy with as many "loses" as "wins", but who fights in an entertaining way, will make more money than an undefeated fighter...[9] this wisdom would be key for him to learn how to manage properly the ups and downs of a film industry career, which is cyclical by nature.[12]

In 1984, he began fighting as a professional kickboxer. On that same year,[2] after 10 professional fights only, he became France middleweight champion.[1][7] By 1985, his successes in the ring were allowing him to train and fight full-time. In 1986, he became World Middleweight Kickboxing Champion.[8][6]

Kickboxing titles

• 1984 Middleweight kickboxing France champion
• 1985 Middleweight full contact kickboxing world champion -75 kg at W.A.K.O. World Championships in Budapest
• 1986 Middleweight kickboxing world champion

Having achieved in 6 years his dream of becoming a world champion, he retired from professional kickboxing in 1987 and made the leap from athlete to actor.[1][7][9] Gruner perception is that as soon as one reaches the top in a discipline, the only way forward is downwards. So once he had become world champion, he decided it was time to explore something else. Following the lead of Reg Park and Arnold Schwarzenegger, he chose to move on to the movie industry and become a movie star.[7]

In a very pro-active way, he did some serious self-promotion at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival. He plastered posters of himself around Cannes, which caught the attention of a producer. Days later, Gruner was flying to Los Angeles to do some screen tests. He passed those tests with a flying 74% and his next stop was the beginning of a film career.[2]

Gruner joined Imperial Entertainment Corporation (Turner Classic Movies - TCM) and began acting in action movies. Along the years, he has developed a reputation as a hard working and disciplined Hollywood actor.[7] During this time, he has been frequently appearing in martial arts magazines, such as Budo Journal, Combat, Impact, Inside Karate, Inside Kung Fu Yearbook and many more.[13]

In 1989 he starred in his first movie; the urban action movie Angel Town.[12] For a first timer Gruner did an admirable job,[2] and was immediately recognized by the critics for his presence, as well as his martial arts abilities, being compared to the likes of Dolph Lundgren,[14] Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Steven Seagall.[6]

In 1992, Gruner starred again as "Alex Raine" in Albert Pyun’s cyberpunk 1992 science fiction thriller Nemesis.[3][15][4] 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.[16] Both Nemesis and Angel town have been extremely popular in video,[17] and Nemesis is one of the movies Gruner is most proud of.[9] 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.[16]

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.[9]

Gruner has also played roles in Automatic (1994), Savate aka The Fighter (1995), Mercenary (1996), Savage (1996), Mars (1997), T.N.T. (1997), Mercenary 2:Thick & Thin (1998), Interceptor Force (1999), Velocity Trap (1999), The White Pony (1999), Crackerjack 3 (2000), Kumite (2000), G.O.D. (2001), Extreme Honor (2001), The Circuit (2001), Power Elite (2002), Interceptor Force 2 (2002), The Circuit 2: The Final Punch (2003), Deadly Engagement (2003), SWAT: Warhead One (2004), Crooked (2005), The Circuit 3: the street Monk (2006), Blizhniy Boy: The Ultimate Fighter (2007), Lost Warrior: Left Behind (2008), Skorumpowani (2008), Brother's War (2009), One Night (2010), Tales of an Ancient Empire, also named Abelar: Tales of an ancient Empire (2010), Re-Generator (2011), Cyborg: Rise of the Slingers (2013), Sector 4: Extraction (2014), EP/Executive Protection (2015), The whole World at our Feet (2015), Assassin X also named The Chemist (2016), Beyond the Game (2016), Showdown in Manila (2016), Darkweb (2016), Iron Cross: The road to Normandy (2018), and Amour (2019).

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.[12] He had already done episodes on boxers, surfers, and MMA fighters,[9] when NBC finally decided to shelve the TV series, and it was never published by them.[7] 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,[7] entitled Re-Generator. This name is the re-titling of a film previously called One Night, on which Gruner had been working since 2010.[18]

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 2010s, at the exception of Interceptor Force 2 in 2002, that he cumulated 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 Frontline (2015). And he was both an actor and a producer in Iron Cross: The road to Normandy (2018).

Amazingly, 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 occasionally does bodyguarding for celebrities. This is more comfortable for some clients to have a fellow star, who understands stardom's pressure and demands, that also fulfills the role of a bodyguard. Gruner indeed not only has got one of the highest special forces military training one can receive,[12] but also provides bodyguarding training at his academy. One of such bodyguarding clients is the famous Canadian singer Celine Dion.[19][20][21]

Gruner has been producing training videos for martial arts, combat skills, bodyguarding, and survival techniques since 2012.[6] 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.[22][23]

Gruner has always kept a side activity as a personal trainer in various martial arts such as kickboxing and mixed martial arts.[12][7] 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.[22][23]

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.[12] Moreover, he was also the helicopter co-pilot in the 1999 movie Storm.[24]

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.[12]