75 Facts About Steven Seagal

Steven Frederic Seagal is an American actor, producer, screenwriter, martial artist, and musician.

Steven Seagal later moved to Los Angeles where he continued teaching aikido.

In 1988, Seagal made his acting debut in Above the Law, which is regarded as the first American film to feature aikido in fight sequences.

Steven Seagal has since appeared in films and reality shows, most notably as the main villain in Robert Rodriguez's Machete, and Steven Seagal: Lawman, which depicted Seagal performing duties as a reserve deputy sheriff.

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.

Steven Seagal has worked with Stevie Wonder and Tony Rebel, who both performed on his debut album.

Steven Seagal is an environmentalist, animal rights activist, and supporter of 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso.

Steven Seagal has been the subject of controversy during his career.

Steven Seagal was granted both Russian and Serbian citizenship in 2016.

Steven Seagal was born on April 10,1952, in Lansing, Michigan, the son of Patricia Anne Fisher, a medical technician, and Samuel Steven Seagal, a mathematics teacher.

Steven Seagal's mother was of Irish descent, while his father was Jewish.

When he was 5, Steven Seagal moved with his parents to Fullerton, California.

Steven Seagal attended Buena Park High School in Buena Park, California, and Fullerton College between 1970 and 1971.

Steven Seagal taught at the school owned by Miyako's family and earned his aikido black belt in 1978.

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.

Steven Seagal left Matsuoka in charge of the dojo, which the latter ran until the two parted ways in 1997.

Later in his career, 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.

In 1987, Steven Seagal began work on his first film as an actor, Above the Law, with director Andrew Davis.

Steven Seagal was asked to make the film by agent Michael Ovitz, who reportedly became convinced that Steven Seagal had movie star potential after taking aikido classes with him.

Ovitz' role in starting Steven Seagal's acting career led to a long-standing, unfounded rumor that the agent had made a bet that he could turn anyone into a movie star and decided to bank on his martial arts teacher to win his wager.

Steven Seagal achieved mainstream success in 1992 with the release of Under Siege, which reunited him with director Andrew Davis for what critics described as "Die Hard on a battleship".

Regardless, Steven Seagal considers it one of the most important and relevant moments in his career.

Steven Seagal followed this with a sequel to one of his most successful films, Under Siege, titled Under Siege 2: Dark Territory.

In 1996, Steven Seagal had a role in the Kurt Russell film Executive Decision, portraying a special ops soldier who appears in only the film's first 45 minutes.

Former Warner Bros Vice President Bill Daly later stated Steven Seagal agreed to the role in exchange for the studio forgiving him losing his director's salary due to going over-budget with On Deadly Ground.

In 1998, Steven Seagal made The Patriot, another environmental thriller which was his first direct-to-video release in the United States.

Steven Seagal produced this film with his own money, and the film was shot on-location on and near his farm in Montana.

The film had fewer martial arts scenes than Steven Seagal's previous films, but it was a commercial success, taking almost $80 million worldwide.

However, Steven Seagal was unable to capitalize on this success and his next two projects were both critical and commercial failures.

Steven Seagal was nominated for Worst Actor at the 2002 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards and the 23rd Golden Raspberry Awards.

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.

In 2011, Steven Seagal produced and starred in an American television action series entitled True Justice.

At the height of his career, Steven Seagal was one of the biggest action movie stars in the world, and one of the most successful martial arts actors of the 1980s and 1990s, alongside Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Steven Seagal's characters differ from those of other action movie icons by virtue of their near-invulnerability; they rarely face any significant physical threat, easily overpowering any opposition and seldom facing bodily harm or even temporary defeat.

Two notable exceptions are Executive Decision, in which Steven Seagal's character is introduced as a false protagonist only to be killed halfway through and Machete, which features Steven Seagal in a rare villainous role.

Steven Seagal's music appears in several of his films, as does his fluency in other languages and religion.

Steven Seagal plays the guitar and among his extensive collection are guitars previously owned by "the Kings"; Albert, BB, and Freddie, as well as Bo Diddley, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Jimi Hendrix.

Steven Seagal has been a Reserve Deputy Chief in the Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, Sheriff's Office.

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.

In 1997, Steven Seagal was to be featured in an action video game for the Nintendo 64 and the original PlayStation called Deadly Honor, but it was cancelled for undisclosed reasons in its beta phase of development.

Steven Seagal has marketed an aftershave called "Scent of Action", and a range of knives and weapons.

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.

Steven Seagal has an extensive sword collection, and at one time had a custom gun made for him once a month.

Steven Seagal owns a home in the Mandeville Canyon section of Los Angeles, and a home in Louisiana.

Steven Seagal formerly lived on Staten Island in New York.

Steven Seagal is a Buddhist and 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.

Steven Seagal holds citizenships in three countries: the United States, Serbia, and Russia.

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.

Steven Seagal left Miyako to move back to the United States.

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.

Steven Seagal and LeBrock married in September 1987 and their son Dominic was born in June 1990.

Steven Seagal is married to Mongolian Erdenetuya Batsukh, better known as "Elle".

Steven Seagal won a number of dancing contests and was considered the top female dancer in Mongolia, excelling at ballroom dancing in particular.

Steven Seagal has seven children from four relationships, two grandchildren by his eldest son, Kentaro and one granddaughter by his daughter Ayako Fujitani.

When she studied in the United States, Steven Seagal was her minder and bodyguard.

Steven Seagal lent his voice as a narrator for an activist film project, Medicine Lake Video.

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.

Steven Seagal expressed support for the annexation of Crimea by Russia.

In July 2014, following calls for a boycott, Steven Seagal was dropped from the lineup of the August Blues Festival in Haapsalu, Estonia.

Steven Seagal visited the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2015 and met with the country's long-time president, Ilham Aliyev.

Steven Seagal has expressed support for Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and dispute with neighboring Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

In October 2017, Steven Seagal met with Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte while scouting locations in Manila for a possible film.

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.

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.

Cheryl Shuman filed a case against Steven Seagal, accusing him of threatening and beating her during the filming of On Deadly Ground.

Seagal denied the allegations, but his reality show Steven Seagal: Lawman was suspended while his attorneys resolved the case.

Nasso produced seven of Steven Seagal's films beginning with Marked for Death in 1990.

Steven Seagal visited Prisco in prison at Rahway, New Jersey and paid Prisco's lawyer $10,000.

Steven Seagal testified for the prosecution about the mobsters' extortion attempt.

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.

Seagal's bodyguard and stuntman Steven Lambert stated that a confrontation did happen, during which Seagal elbowed LeBell before he could lock the hold, after which LeBell flipped Seagal.

Steven Seagal has directly denied that a confrontation took place, calling LeBell a "sick, pathological scumbag liar".

LeBell however declined to participate, as the feud with Steven Seagal was hurting him professionally.

Steven Seagal did however criticize Seagal for his treatment of stuntmen, and left open the possibility of a professional fight if Seagal wanted.

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.