Steven Segal is a striking and somewhat boyishly handsome looking (often with ponytail) and usually impeccably dressed action star who burst onto the martial arts film scene in 1988 in the fast-paced Warner Bros. production Above the Law. The enigmatic Seagal commenced his martial arts training at the age of seven under the tutelage of well known karate instructor and author Fumio Demura, and in the 1960s commenced his aikido training in Orange County, California, under the instruction of Harry Ishisaka. Seagal received his first dan accreditation in 1974, after he had moved to Japan to further his martial arts training. After spending many years there honing his skills, he achieved the ranking of a 7th dan in the Japanese martial art "aikido" and was instructing wealthy clients in Los Angeles when he came to the attention of Hollywood power broker Michael Ovitz.

Ovitz saw star value in the imposing-looking Seagal. The high-octane action movie genre was in full swing in the late 1980s, and Seagal's debut movie, Above the Law, was wildly received by action fans and actually received some complimentary critical reviews. He followed up Above the Law with another slam-bang thriller, Hard to Kill, as a gunned-down cop who revives from a coma to strike back at the mob. The movie also starred Seagal's wife at the time, leggy Kelly LeBrock, who was married to him from 1987 to 1996 and is the mother of three of his children. His next outing was battling voodoo-using Jamaican drug "posses" in the hyper-violent Marked for Death, before returning to fight psychotic mob gangster William Forsythe in the even more punishing Out for Justice. Seagal was by now enormously popular, and his next movie, the big-budgeted Under Siege, set aboard the battleship USS Missouri and also starring Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey, was arguably his best film to date, impressing both fans and critcs alike.

Seagal's fighting style was rather different from that of other on-screen martial arts dynamos, such as Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme, who were predominantly fighters from striking arts background such as karate or tang soo do. However, aikido is built around using an opponent's inertia and body weight to employ various locks, chokes and holds that incapacitate him. Seagal carries himself differently, too, and often appears wearing Italian designer clothes and usually favors an all-black outfit, generally with a three-quarter-length coat with an elaborate trim. Additionally, Seagal's on-screen characters were often seemingly benign or timid individuals; however, when the going gets rough they reveal themselves to be deadly ex-CIA operatives, or retired Special Forces soldiers capable of wholesale destruction!

As his box office drawing power grew, Seagal began to influence his film projects to reflect his personal and spiritual beliefs, especially concerning the abuse of the environment. He appeared as an oil fire expert who turns against his corrupt CEO (played by Michael Caine) in On Deadly Ground to save the Eskimo population from an oil disaster; in Fire Down Below he plays an environmental agency troubleshooter investigating the dumping of toxic waste in Virginia coal mines, and in the slow-moving The Patriot he plays a medical specialist trying to stop a lethal virus unleashed by an extremist group.

Action fans struggled to come to terms with social messaging being built into bone-crunching fight films; however, Seagal's box office clout remained fairly strong, and more traditional chopsocky projects followed with the "buddy cop" film The Glimmer Man, then almost a cameo role as a Navy SEAL alongside CIA analyst Kurt Russell, before Seagal is sucked out of a jet at 35,000 feet in Executive Decision.

In 1999 Seagal took a different turn in his film projects with the surprising genteel Prince of Central Park, about a child living inside NYC's most famous park. He returned to more familiar territory with further high-voltage, guns-blazing action in Exit Wounds, Half Past Dead, Out for a Kill and Belly of the Beast.

Unbeknownst to many, in 1997 Seagal publicly announced that one of his Buddhist teachers, His Holiness Penor Rinpoche, had accorded Seagal as a tulku, the reincarnation of a Buddhist Lama. This initial announcement was met with some disbelief until Penor Rinpoche himself gave a confirmation statement on Seagal's new title. Seagal has repeatedly discussed his involvement in Buddhism and how he devotes many hours studying and meditating this ancient Eastern religion.

While his box-office appeal has somewhat declined from his halcyon blockbusters of the mid-'90s, Seagal still has a very loyal fan base in the action movie genre and continues to remain a highly bankable star.


Mercenary for Justice (2006): $4,750,000
Into the Sun (2005): $4,000,000
Out of Reach (2004): $4,000,000
The Glimmer Man (1996): $10,000,000
Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995): $15,000,000
Marked for Death (1990): $1,000,000

Is the first foreigner ever to own and operate an Aikido dojo in Japan. Known as "Master Take Shigemichi", he was the chief instructor at the Aikido Tenshin Dojo in the city of Osaka. Has three children with Kelly LeBrock: Annaliza, Dominick, and Arissa. Father of Kentaro Seagal and Ayako Fujitani. His Santa Inez (CA) home includes 200 acres planted with cabernet grapes, which are sold to wineries after harvesting. Has been a bodyguard His first seven films were all starring roles, ending with Executive Decision (1996). Is a singer and guitarist. In 2005, he released an album titled "Songs from the Crystal Cave". Owns a very large collection of guitars and samurai swords. The February 17, 1989 draft of the screenplay for Hard to Kill (1990) credits Steven Pressfield & Ronald Shusett & Steven Seagal as writers. Pressfield & Shusett are not credited in the final film and Seagal only received an acting credit. All of his main leading role movies have been a rated "R" except for Half Past Dead (2002) which was the only Seagal film to be a "PG13". Used to own a production company with Julius R. Nasso called Seagal/Nasso Productions from 1994-2000. Discovered by then-head of Creative Artists Ageny (CAA), Michael Ovitz, who was one of Seagal's martial arts students. He agreed to star in Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995) if Warner Bros. allowed him to direct On Deadly Ground (1994). Made his film debut in Above the Law (1988). As of 2009, all of his movies had been released direct to video since 2003 (although The Patriot (1998) and Ticker (2001) had the same fate). This will end with Robert Rodriguez's Machete (2010). For almost 20 years, Seagal has been working as a fully commissioned deputy with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office in Louisiana. Lives in Los Angeles, California and Eads, Tennessee. Also lives in Jefferson Parish County in Louisiana while he works as a police officer. Has been visiting children's hospitals for more than 25 years, and has stated that he will continue to do so until the day that he dies.