Steven Seagal

Name: Steven Seagal
Date of Birth: April 10, 1951
Place of Birth: Lansing, Michigan

Mini-bio: 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 ...( read more)Warner Bros. production Above the Law (1988). 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 (1988), was wildly received by action fans and actually received some complimentary critical reviews. He followed up Above the Law (1988) with another slam-bang thriller, Hard to Kill (1990), 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 (1990), before returning to fight psychotic mob gangster William Forsythe in the even more punishing Out for Justice (1991). Seagal was by now enormously popular, and his next movie, the big-budgeted Under Siege (1992), 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.

eagal'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 (1994) to save the Eskimo population from an oil disaster; in Fire Down Below (1997) he plays an environmental agency troubleshooter investigating the dumping of toxic waste in Virginia coal mines, and in the slow-moving The Patriot (1998/I) 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 (1996), 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 (1996).

In 1999 Seagal took a different turn in his film projects with the surprising genteel Prince of Central Park (2000), 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 (2001), Half Past Dead (2002), Out for a Kill (2003) and Belly of the Beast (2003).

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.

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sharafbe

posted 47 days ago
lepchaman

I am great fan of Seteven Seagal since I was teenage, I saw his move "above the law' the basic instict " and many more to date.. I like his personality very much, though he bashup badguys like a punchbag but he looks very compassionate in nature.. cos he;s buddhist !! I enjoy watching his movies quite a lot !!

posted 72 days ago
cottoncandymusicalla

Goodmorning I just have a few things 2 say...

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY AND I WISH U MANY MORE IN THE FUTURE 2 COME...

I hope u get everything u wish 4...
Be happy but most of all be safe...

A loving fan...

posted 83 days ago
bajwan

GOOD ACTION HERO

posted 93 days ago
1973fara

neverovatan je,stevo aj me zeniiiiiiiiiiiiiii kiss

posted 99 days ago
yasirinho

diz man sux!!!

posted 101 days ago
babywipe1961

oh he very handsum guy .he can wind dine me any time lol xxx

posted 102 days ago
mhavic143

Steven Seagal is a great martial arts actor and he's act is true amazing.... the way he delivers his defense technique.........AIKIDO is really good

posted 131 days ago
signofthezodiac4

hahahha i love the main picture
hahaha never gets old

posted 202 days ago
spicey299

i think he was great back then and he is handsome .

posted 292 days ago