Steven Frederic Seagal

[2]
(born April 10, 1952)
[1][3]
is an American actor, film producer, screenwriter,
film director, martial artist, musician,reserve deputy sheriff and entrepreneur. A 7th-dan black
belt in Aikido, Seagal began his adult life as an Aikido instructor in Japan.
[4]
He became the first
foreigner to operate an Aikido dojo in Japan.
[5]

He later moved to the Los Angeles, California, area where he made his film debut in 1988 in Above
the Law. By 1991, he had starred in three successful films and achieved fame in Under
Siege (1992), where he played Navy SEALs counter-terrorist expert Casey Ryback. However
both On Deadly Ground (1994, which he directed) and Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995) did less
well at the box office. During the latter half of the 1990s, he starred in three more theatrical films and
the direct-to-video (in the US) film The Patriot. Since that time, with the exception of Exit
Wounds (2001) and Half Past Dead (2002), his career has shifted almost entirely to direct-to-video
films (often low budget productions and shot in Europe or Asia). From 1998 to 2009, he appeared in
a total of 22 of these. At the age of 59, he returned to the big screen as Torrez in the 2010
film Machete. In 2011, he filmed the third season of his reality show Steven Seagal: Lawman.
Seagal is a guitarist, recording artist, and the founder of Steven Seagal Enterprises.
[6]
In addition to
his professional achievements, he is also known as an environmentalist,
[citation needed]
an animal
rights activist, and a supporter of the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso.
[7][8]

Contents
[hide]
1 Early life
2 Aikido
3 Hollywood career
o 3.1 1990s
o 3.2 Direct-to-video work
o 3.3 Return to the big screen and television work
4 Themes and motifs
5 Other ventures
o 5.1 Music
o 5.2 Law enforcement work
o 5.3 Business ventures
6 Personal life
o 6.1 Relationships and family
7 Allegations and lawsuits
o 7.1 1995 lawsuit
o 7.2 2010 lawsuit
o 7.3 2011 lawsuit
8 Activism
9 Political views and friendship with Vladimir Putin
10 Honors
11 Stunts
12 Filmography
o 12.1 Films
o 12.2 Television
13 Discography
14 See also
15 References
16 External links
Early life
Seagal was born in Lansing, Michigan, where he lived until he was five years old, when the family
moved to California. His mother, Patricia (19302003), was a medical technician, and his father,
Samuel Steven Seagal (19281991), was a high school math teacher.
[9]
His mother was of Irish
ancestry and his father was Jewish (the son of immigrants from Russia).
[10]
In a Russian interview,
Seagal stated that he had a Mongolian grandfather (either Buryat or Kalmyk).
[11]
His parents
relocated to Fullerton, California, where Seagal attended Buena Park High School inBuena Park.
Aikido
At a very young age, Seagal lied about his age and got a job as a dishwasher at a restaurant
named The Wagon Wheel.
[citation needed]
One of the cooks at the restaurant was a Japaneseshotokan
karate expert and noticed Seagal moved very quickly around the kitchen. He taught Seagal the
basics of karate. Seagal began training in aikido under master Harry Kiyoshi Ishisaka, founder of the
Orange County Aikido School (Orange County Aiki Kai) (OCAK) in 1964. Seagal considers him to
have been the most important martial arts teacher in his life. Seagal moved to Japan at some point
between the ages of 19 and 21 with his father who was visiting for military purposes, and met karate
masters and decided to remain in Japan. He received his 1st dandegree (Shodan) under the
direction of Koichi Tohei. He continued to train in aikido as a student of Seiseki Abe, Tohei (whose
aikido organization, Ki Society, Seagal refused to join in favor of staying with the Aikikai), Kisaburo
Osawa, Hiroshi Isoyama and the second doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba. He attained a 7th dan degree
and Shihan in aikido and became the first foreigner to operate an aikido dojo in Japan.
[12]

After returning to California in 1974, Seagal met Miyako Fujitani, an aikido instructor teaching in Los
Angeles. He returned with her to her native Japan in 1975 where they married. When Seagal's
father-in-law, also an aikido instructor, retired, Seagal became the new head of the organization
known as Tenshin Aikido in Js, Osaka City (affiliated with the Aikikai). Seagal is known by his
students as Take Sensei. When Seagal left his dojo in Osaka, his then-wife Miyako became the
caretaker of the dojo which has continued to the present day. Seagal initially returned to Taos, New
Mexico, with his student (and later film stuntman) Craig Dunn, where they opened a dojo, although
Seagal spent much of his time pursuing other ventures. After another period in Japan, Seagal
returned to the U.S. in 1983 with senior student Haruo Matsuoka. They opened an aikido dojo,
initially in North Hollywood, California, but later moved it to the city ofWest Hollywood. Seagal left
Matsuoka in charge of the dojo, which he ran until the two parted ways in 1997.
[13][14][15]

He has helped train Brazilian mixed martial artists Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida. Silva, who is
the former UFC Middleweight Champion, went on to knock out Vitor Belfort with a kick, in their fight
at UFC 126 in February 2011,
[16][17]
and Machida also credited him for helping him perfect the front
kick that he used to knock out Randy Couture at UFC 129 in May 2011.
[18][19]

Hollywood career
1990s
In 1987, Seagal began work on his first film, Above the Law (titled Nico in Europe), with
director Andrew Davis and reportedly as a favor to a former aikido student, the agent Michael
Ovitz.
[20]
Ovitz took Seagal to Warner Brothers to put on an aikido demonstration and the executives
were impressed by him and offered him several scripts; Seagal turned them down but agreed to
write what would become Above the Law. Following its success, Seagal made three more movies
Hard to Kill, Marked for Death, and Out for Justice that were box office hits, making him an action
hero. Later, he achieved wider, mainstream success in 1992 with the release of Under Siege (1992).
That film reunited Seagal with director Andrew Davis, and was a blockbuster in the U.S. and abroad,
grossing $156.4 million worldwide.
[21]

Seagal then directed On Deadly Ground (1994). This film, in which he also starred, emphasized
environmental and spiritual themes, signaling a break with his previous persona as a genre-ready
inner-city cop. The film featured Michael Caine as well as R. Lee Ermey and Billy Bob Thornton in
minor supporting roles. On Deadly Ground was poorly received by film critics,
[22]
but despite many
critics denouncing Seagal's long environmental speech in the film, Seagal considers it to have been
one of the most important and relevant moments in his career. Seagal filmed a sequel to one of his
most successful films, Under Siege, titled Under Siege 2: Dark Terr