Steven Seagal

At 72 years old, Steven Seagal has this physical status:

Steven Frederic Seagal (born April 10, 1952) is an American actor, screenwriter, martial artist, and singer who holds American, Serbian, and Russian citizenship. Seagal was born in Lansing, Michigan.

He began his adult life in Japan as a martial arts instructor, becoming Japan's first foreigner to run an aikido dojo.

He then moved to Los Angeles, California, where he had worked in the same industry.

Seagal made his acting debut in Above the Law in 1988.

He had appeared in four hit films by 1991.

Casey Ryback, a Navy SEAL counter-terrorism specialist, appeared in Under Siege in 1992.

Seagal appeared in three more feature films and the direct-to-video film The Patriot in the latter half of the 1990s.

His work then shifted to mainly direct-to-video films.

He has appeared in films and reality television shows since, including Steven Seagal: Lawman, which depicted Seagal's duties as a reserve deputy sheriff. Seagal is a guitarist who has released two studio albums, Songs from the Crystal Cave and Mojo Priest, as well as appearing on many of his films' scores.

Stevie Wonder and Tony Rebel, both on his debut album, have collaborated together.

He has also been involved in the manufacturing of "therapeutic oil" products and energy drinks.

Seagal is also a well-known environmentalist, animal rights activist, and a fan of the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso.

He is known for his outspoken political views and support for Vladimir Putin, who referred to him as "one of the world's greatest living leaders" at one point.

In 2016, he was granted Russian citizenship.

He was named Russia's special envoy to the United States in 2018. Several people have accused Seagal of sexual harassment or assault from 1996 to 2018.

Early life

Steven Frederic Seagal was born in Lansing, Michigan, on April 10, 1952, the son of a medical technician and a mathematics tutor. His mother was of Irish descent, though his father was Jewish. His paternal grandparents, who immigrated to Russia, were Russian Jewish immigrants. Seagal admitted that he ancestors from Vladivostok, Siberian city, as well as Belarus and Saint Petersburg, during a Russian talk show interview. He said that genetic testing revealed that he had Yakut and Buryat ancestry.

He and his parents moved to Fullerton, California, when he was five years old. "He was a puny kid back then," his mother later told People magazine that before the move, Seagal was frail and suffering from asthma. But after the move [from Michigan], he flourished.' Seagal attended Buena Park High School and Fullerton College from 1970 to 1971. He spent a lot of time in his garage listening to loud rock music as a youth. When working at a dojo in Garden Grove with a friendly old Japanese man, he was invited to visit Japan.

Personal life

Seagal has a large sword collection, and at one time he had a custom rifle made for him once a month.

Seagal owns a home in Los Angeles's Mandeville Canyon neighborhood as well as a a Louisiana home.

Seagal is a Buddhist. Lama Penor Rinpoche of Palyul monkey announced that Seagal was a tulku, and specifically the reincarnation of Chungdrag Dorje, the oldest sect of Tibetan Buddhism, in February 1997. Seagal's recognition has reignited controversy in the American Buddhist community, with Helen Tworkov of Tricycle impugning the depth of Seagal's "spiritual wisdom" and implying that Seagal obtained his Buddhahood through donations to Penor's Kunzang Palyling center. Penor Rinpoche responded to the scandal by saying that Seagal, although appearing in violent films, had not really killed people and that Seagal was only acknowledged, but that enthronement as a tulku would need first a "long process of research and practice."

According to reports, Seagal has citizenship in three countries: the United States, Serbia, and Russia. He was born in the United States and has jus soli US citizenship. Following several visits to the country, he was granted Serbian citizenship on January 11, 2016, and he has been asked to teach aikido to the Serbian Special Forces.

According to government spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, Seagal was granted Russian citizenship on November 3, 2016. "He was insisting persistently and for a lengthy time to be granted citizenship." Though many outlets have cited Seagal and President Vladimir Putin as friends and a brother, Seagal has stated that he would not necessarily agree "I'm a huge fan" but "I've certainly seen some of his films."

Seagal married Miyako Fujitani, the daughter of an aikido instructor, while in Japan. He had a son, actor and actress Kentaro Seagal, as well as a daughter, writer, and actress Ayako Fujitani. Miyako was sent by Seagal to return to the United States.

During this period, he met actress and model Kelly LeBrock, with whom he started an affair that culminated in Fujitani's granting him a divorce. Seagal briefly married actress Adrienne La Russa in 1984, but the marriage was called off the same year because of rumors that his divorce had not been finalized. Annaliza, LeBrock's daughter, was born in early 1987. Seagal and LeBrock married in September 1987, and their son Dominic was born in June 1990. Arissa was born in 1993. LeBrock filed for divorce the following year, citing "irreconcilable inconsistencies" as the cause.

Seagal is married to Mongolian Erdenetuya Batsukh (Mongolian: атсван туа), also known as "Elle" in Mongolia. Kunzang has one son who lives with his partner. Elle began training as a dancer at the Children's Palace in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, from an early age. She pursued a career as a professional dancer after graduating from high school and the Children's Palace. She won a number of dance competitions and was named Mongolia's top female dancer, excelling at ballroom dancing in particular. Elle first visited Seagal in 2001 while serving as his interpreter on his return to Mongolia.

Seagal has seven children from four families, two grandchildren by his oldest son, Kentaro, and one granddaughter by his daughter Ayako Fujitani. Seagal is the guardian of Yabshi Pan Rinzinwangmo, Tibet's only child. Seagal was her minder and bodyguard when she first arrived in the United States.

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Career

In 1987, Seagal began work on his first film, Above the Law (titled Nico in Europe), with director Andrew Davis. Following its success, Seagal's subsequent movies were Hard to Kill, Marked for Death, and Out for Justice; all were box office hits, making him an action hero. Later, he achieved wider, mainstream success in 1992 with the release of Under Siege (1992), which reunited Seagal with director Andrew Davis.

On April 20, 1991, Seagal hosted Season 16 Episode 18 of Saturday Night Live. The series' long-time executive producer Lorne Michaels and cast-members David Spade and Tim Meadows called Seagal the show's worst host ever. Spade and Meadows cited Seagal's humorlessness, his ill-treatment of the cast and writers, and his refusal to do a "Hans and Franz" sketch because the skit's title characters had previously said that they could "beat up Steven Seagal". Seagal has never been invited back to the show. Meadows commented, "He didn't realize that you can't tell somebody they're stupid on Wednesday and expect them to continue writing for you on Saturday." The cast and crew's difficulties with Seagal were later echoed on-air by Michaels during guest host Nicolas Cage's monologue in the September 26, 1992 Season 18 premiere. When Cage worried that he would do so poorly that the audience would regard him as "the biggest jerk who's ever been on the show", Michaels replied: "No, no. That would be Steven Seagal."

Seagal directed and starred in On Deadly Ground (1994), featuring Michael Caine, R. Lee Ermey, and Billy Bob Thornton in minor supporting roles. The film emphasized environmental and spiritual themes, signaling a break with his previous persona as a genre-ready inner-city cop. On Deadly Ground was poorly received by critics, especially denouncing Seagal's long environmental speech in the film. Regardless, Seagal considers it one of the most important and relevant moments in his career. Seagal followed this with a sequel to one of his most successful films, Under Siege, titled Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995).

In 1996, he had a role in the Kurt Russell film Executive Decision, portraying a special ops soldier who only appears in the film's first 45 minutes. The same year, he filmed a police drama The Glimmer Man (1996). In another environmentally conscious and commercially unsuccessful film, Fire Down Below (1997), he played an EPA Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance agent fighting industrialists dumping toxic waste in the Kentucky hills.

In 1998, Seagal made The Patriot, another environmental thriller which was his first direct-to-video release in the United States (though it was released theatrically in most of the world). Seagal produced this film with his own money, and the film was shot on-location on and near his farm in Montana.

After producing Prince of Central Park, Seagal returned to cinema screens with the release of Exit Wounds in March 2001. The film had fewer martial arts scenes than Seagal's previous films, but it was a commercial success, taking almost $80 million worldwide. However, he was unable to capitalize on this success and his next two projects were both critical and commercial failures. The movie Ticker, co-starring Tom Sizemore and Dennis Hopper, was filmed in San Francisco before Exit Wounds, and went straight to DVD. Half Past Dead, starring hip hop star Ja Rule, made less than $20 million worldwide.

Other than his role as a villain in Robert Rodriguez's Machete, all of the films Seagal has made since the latter half of 2001 have been released direct-to-video (DTV) in North America, with some theatrical releases to other countries around the world. 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 2009, A&E Network premiered the reality television series Steven Seagal: Lawman, focusing on Seagal as a deputy in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana.

In the 2010s, Seagal's direct-to-video films increasingly started to become ensemble pieces, with Seagal playing minor or supporting roles, despite the fact that he often received top billing. Maximum Conviction, Force of Execution, Gutshot Straight, Code of Honor, Sniper Special Ops, The Asian Connection, The Perfect Weapon, Cartels, and China Salesman all exemplify this trend. This has led some commentators to criticize Seagal for his low-effort participation in movies which heavily promote his involvement.

In 2011, Seagal produced and starred in an American television action series entitled True Justice. The series first aired on Nitro, a TV station in Spain, on May 12, 2011. It premiered in the UK on 5 USA, with the first episode broadcast July 20, 2011. April 26, 2012 the series was renewed for a second season airing on ReelzChannel July 4, 2012. In the UK, True Justice has been repackaged as a series of DVD "movies," with each disc editing together two episodes.

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