Steven Frederic Seagal is an American-born actor, screenwriter, and martial artist.
67 Facts About Steven Seagal
2.
Steven Seagal later moved to Los Angeles where he had the same profession.
3.
In 1988, Seagal made his acting debut in Above the Law.
4.
Steven Seagal has since appeared in films and reality shows, including Steven Seagal: Lawman, which depicted Seagal performing duties as a reserve deputy sheriff.
5.
Steven Seagal is a guitarist and has released two studio albums, Songs from the Crystal Cave and Mojo Priest, and performed on the scores of several of his films.
6.
Steven Seagal has worked with Stevie Wonder and Tony Rebel, who both performed on his debut album.
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Steven Seagal is an environmentalist, animal rights activist, and supporter of 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso.
8.
Steven Seagal is a supporter of Vladimir Putin, to whom he once referred as "one of the great living world leaders".
9.
Steven Seagal was granted both Russian and Serbian citizenship in 2016.
10.
Steven Frederic Seagal was born in Lansing, Michigan, on April 10,1952, the son of a medical technician and a mathematics teacher.
11.
Steven Seagal's mother was of Irish descent, while his father was Jewish.
12.
Steven Seagal stated that genetic testing determined that he has Yakut and Buryat ancestry as well.
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Steven Seagal moved to Japan at some point between 1971 and 1973.
14.
Steven Seagal taught at the school owned by Miyako's family.
15.
Steven Seagal returned to Taos, New Mexico, with his student Craig Dunn, where they opened a dojo, although Steven Seagal spent much of his time pursuing other ventures.
16.
Steven Seagal left Matsuoka in charge of the dojo, which the latter ran until the two parted ways in 1997.
17.
Steven Seagal helped train Brazilian mixed martial artist Lyoto Machida, who credited Steven Seagal for helping him perfect the front kick that he used to knock out Randy Couture at UFC 129 in May 2011.
18.
In 1987, Steven Seagal began work on his first film, Above the Law, with director Andrew Davis.
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Regardless, Steven Seagal considers it one of the most important and relevant moments in his career.
20.
Steven Seagal followed this with a sequel to one of his most successful films, Under Siege, titled Under Siege 2: Dark Territory.
21.
In 1998, Steven Seagal made The Patriot, another environmental thriller which was his first direct-to-video release in the United States.
22.
Steven Seagal produced this film with his own money, and the film was shot on-location on and near his farm in Montana.
23.
The film had fewer martial arts scenes than Steven Seagal's previous films, but it was a commercial success, taking almost $80 million worldwide.
24.
However, Steven Seagal was unable to capitalize on this success and his next two projects were both critical and commercial failures.
25.
Steven Seagal is credited as a producer and sometimes a writer on many of these DTV movies, which include Black Dawn, Belly of the Beast, Out of Reach, Submerged, Kill Switch, Urban Justice, Pistol Whipped, Against the Dark, Driven to Kill, A Dangerous Man, Born to Raise Hell, and The Keeper.
26.
In 2011, Steven Seagal produced and starred in an American television action series entitled True Justice.
27.
Steven Seagal's songs have been featured in several of his movies, including Fire Down Below and Ticker.
28.
Steven Seagal has been a Reserve Deputy Chief in the Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, Sheriff's Office.
29.
In October 2011, Steven Seagal was sworn-in as the Sheriff department's deputy sheriff of Hudspeth County, Texas, a law department responsible for patrolling a 98-mile stretch of the Texas-Mexico border.
30.
Steven Seagal has marketed an aftershave called "Scent of Action", and a range of knives and weapons.
31.
In 2013, Steven Seagal joined newly formed Russian firearms manufacturer ORSIS, representing the company in both a promotional capacity as well as lobbying for the easement of US import restrictions on Russian sporting firearms.
32.
Steven Seagal has an extensive sword collection, and at one time had a custom gun made for him once a month.
33.
Steven Seagal owns a home in the Mandeville Canyon section of Los Angeles, and a home in Louisiana.
34.
In February 1997, Lama Penor Rinpoche from Palyul monastery announced that Steven Seagal was a tulku, and specifically the reincarnation of Chungdrag Dorje, a 17th-century terton of the Nyingma, the oldest sect of Tibetan Buddhism.
35.
Steven Seagal reportedly holds citizenships in three countries: the United States, Serbia, and Russia.
36.
Steven Seagal was granted Serbian citizenship on January 11,2016, following several visits to the country, and has been asked to teach aikido to the Serbian Special Forces.
37.
Steven Seagal left Miyako to move back to the United States.
38.
Steven Seagal was briefly married to actress Adrienne La Russa in 1984, but that marriage was annulled the same year over concerns that his divorce had not yet been finalized.
39.
Steven Seagal and LeBrock married in September 1987 and their son Dominic was born in June 1990.
40.
Steven Seagal is married to Mongolian Erdenetuya Batsukh, better known as "Elle".
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Steven Seagal won a number of dancing contests and was considered the top female dancer in Mongolia, excelling at ballroom dancing in particular.
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Steven Seagal has seven children from four relationships, two grandchildren by his eldest son, Kentaro and one granddaughter by his daughter Ayako Fujitani.
43.
When she studied in the United States, Steven Seagal was her minder and bodyguard.
44.
Cheryl Shuman filed a case against Steven Seagal, accusing him of threatening and beating her during the filming of On Deadly Ground.
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Seagal denied the allegations, but his reality show Steven Seagal: Lawman was suspended while his attorneys resolved the case.
46.
On February 27,2020, the US Securities and Exchange Commission announced settled charges against Steven Seagal for failing to disclose payments he received for promoting an investment in an initial coin offering conducted by Bitcoiin2Gen.
47.
Steven Seagal was promised $250,000 in cash and $750,000 worth of B2G tokens in exchange for his social media promotions and a press release in which he "wholeheartedly" endorsed the ICO, which violated the anti-touting provisions of federal securities laws.
48.
Steven Seagal agreed not to promote any securities, digital or otherwise, for three years.
49.
Steven Seagal became embroiled in a legal case involving film producer Julius R Nasso after Nasso attempted to extort Seagal.
50.
Nasso produced seven of Steven Seagal's films beginning with Marked for Death in 1990.
51.
Steven Seagal visited Prisco in prison at Rahway, New Jersey and paid Prisco's lawyer $10,000.
52.
Steven Seagal testified for the prosecution about the mobsters' extortion attempt.
53.
Steven Seagal has been accused by former stunt performers who have worked with him, including Kane Hodder, Stephen Quadros, and Gene LeBell, of intentionally hitting stuntmen during scenes.
54.
Seagal bodyguard and stuntman Steven Lambert stated he was present and said that a confrontation did happen, during which Seagal elbowed LeBell before he could lock the hold on Seagal, after which LeBell flipped Seagal.
55.
Sometimes Steven Seagal has a tendency to cheese off the wrong people, and you can get hurt doing that.
56.
LeBell however declined to participate, revealing the feud with Steven Seagal was hurting him professionally.
57.
Steven Seagal did however criticize Seagal for his treatment of stuntmen, and left open the possibility of a professional fight if Seagal wanted to do it.
58.
Actor John Leguizamo claimed that during rehearsals on Executive Decision, in retaliation for laughing at him, Steven Seagal caught him off guard and knocked him into a brick wall.
59.
Steven Seagal lent his voice as a narrator for an activist film project, Medicine Lake Video.
60.
Steven Seagal wrote an open letter to the leadership of Thailand in 2003, urging them to enact a law to prevent the torture of baby elephants.
61.
Steven Seagal expressed support for the annexation of Crimea by Russia.
62.
In July 2014, following calls for a boycott, Steven Seagal was dropped from the lineup of the August Blues Festival in Haapsalu, Estonia.
63.
Steven Seagal visited the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2015 and met with the country's long-time president, Ilham Aliyev.
64.
Steven Seagal has expressed support for Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and dispute with neighboring Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
65.
In October 2017, Steven Seagal met with Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte while scouting locations in Manila for a possible film.
66.
In 2021, Steven Seagal gave a katana to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as Russia's Foreign Affairs Ministry special envoy while visiting Canaima National Park.
67.
In March 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Steven Seagal visited Moscow where he organized his birthday party, attended by many people connected to Vladimir Putin, including some affected by international sanctions.