Steven Seagal (born April 10, 1951) is an American action movie actor, producer, writer, director and a singer. A 7th-dan black belt in aikido, Seagal began his adult life as an aikido instructor in Japan, before moving to the Los Angeles, California area where, after being noticed by entertainment executives, he made his film debut in 1988. Since this time, Seagal has become a well recognized action star, and his movies have gone on to earn over $600 million worldwide.

Seagal has used his fame as an action star to cross over to other industries, as he is also a recording artist and the founder of Steven Seagal Enterprises. In addition to his professional achievements, he is also known as an environmentalist, Aikido pioneer (Takeshigemichi), eco-warrior, animal rights activist, and has been recognized as a reincarnated Buddhist Lama (Tertön Chungdrag Dorje).

Born in Lansing, Michigan, Seagal relocated to Fullerton, California in his youth, and began studying the martial arts under the direction of renowned Shito-ryu karate master Fumio Demura and aikido under Rod Kobayashi, the President of the Western States Aikido Federation. This was the beginning of his life-long focus on Asian culture, with a particular emphasis on Japan. In his late teens, Seagal became part of Demura's Karate Demonstration Team and performed daily demonstrations in the former Japanese Village and Deer Park, in Southern California. In 1974, he was promoted by Kobayashi-sensei to shodan in Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido.

He graduated from Buena Park High School in Buena Park, California, and held one of his first jobs at a Burger King. After college, Seagal moved to Japan c. 1970 with then-girlfriend Miyako Fujitani, native of Japan whom he later married, and lived with her parents, who owned an aikido school; allegations surfaced that he left in order to avoid the Vietnam draft at the time, and married Ms. Fujitani in order to provide reasonable evidence to his remaining there in spite of a possible draft-call.

During his time in Japan, Seagal changed affiliation from Koichi Tohei's Ki Society and Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido to the Aikikai. Seagal claims that he battled the yakuza (Japanese mafia) over the rights to the Tenshin Dojo, which he claims that his wife's father lost in a gambling game; however, his former wife Miyako Fujitani, claims "it's a lie", and that he yelled at some drunks, but "never fought anyone".

Seagal initially returned to Taos, New Mexico with senior student and later stuntman Craig Dunn. There, they opened a dojo, but Seagal spent much of his time pursuing a film career and other ventures. Under the title Master Take Shigemichi, Seagal was reputedly the first foreigner ever to own and operate an aikido dojo in Japan: the Aikido Tenshin Dojo in the city of Osaka. Dunn stayed in New Mexico and is there to this day, still running the dojo. Seagal returned to Japan, and came back to the U.S. with senior student Haruo Matsuoka in 1983. The two opened an aikido dojo. This school was initially located in Burbank, California, but later moved to the city of West Hollywood. Seagal left Matsuoka in charge of the dojo, which he ran until the two parted ways in 1997.

Seagal's years in Japan have been a source of pride in recent times: "I was raised in Japan. I was schooled in martial arts. I was given the title of master. They take a movie The Last Samurai. They have a five foot two inch little guy, whether he was straight or gay, I don't know. I don't care. He had never been to Japan. He doesn't speak Japanese. He has never held a sword. They make him the last samurai."


1990s: the action hero years

From there, Seagal began work on his first film, Above the Law (also known as Nico in Europe and Canada), with director Andrew Davis. Following its success, Seagal made three more pictures (Hard to Kill, Marked for Death, and Out for Justice) that were decent box office hits, marking him as an action hero. Hard to Kill grossed $47 million in the United States. Seagal found wider mainstream success in 1992 with the release of Under Siege. The film reunited Seagal with the director Andrew Davis and was a blockbuster in America and abroad, grossing $156.4 million worldwide.

After the success of Under Siege, Seagal made his directorial debut with On Deadly Ground (1994) in which he also starred, alongside Michael Caine. The movie was a failure with both audiences and critics, and made a financial loss, costing an estimated $50 million to make and grossing less than $39 million in the United States.

To try and recoup popularity, Seagal filmed a sequel to Under Siege titled Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995) and a cop drama (The Glimmer Man) (1996). In 1996, Seagal also had his first supporting role, in the Kurt Russell film Executive Decision, in which Seagal was incorrectly billed as having a starring role. He then tried again to make an environmentally-conscious film. In Fire Down Below (1997), Seagal played an EPA agent fighting industrialists dumping toxic waste in the Kentucky hills region, but the movie was not a commercial success.


Retreat to video

The next year, 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 taking a couple years to produce Prince of Central Park, Seagal released Exit Wounds in March 2001. The film had fewer martial arts scenes than Seagal's previous films, but it was a commercial success. However, his next two projects, Ticker co-starring Tom Sizemore and filmed in San Francisco, and Half Past Dead, starring rap star Ja Rule, were commercial failures.

As of November 2006, every film Seagal has made since 2003 has been released direct-to-video in North America, with only limited theatrical releases in the rest of the world. However, the regularity at which these films are produced makes Seagal one of the most prolific actors in the movie industry and the relative commercial and critical failure of recent efforts has done nothing to temper this. Steven Seagal is working on a comeback for 2007 with Action films Once Upon A Time In The Hood and Prince of Pistols which he will direct.

Seagal intends to leave his cinematic canon to the ages; "I am hoping that I can be known as a great writer and actor some day, rather than a sex symbol." Indeed, he has been explicit regarding the intentions of his filmcraft; "Above the Law was a politically conscientious movie. On Deadly Ground was environmentally conscientious so I want to keep making movies like that which are more geared with a certain entertainment value but also bring people forward into contemplation."

Seagal has produced many of the movies that he stars in, and has also participated in writing and directing. Seagal's roles do not fit the standard action hero archetype; instead, Seagal's characters are usually "born perfect", displaying no limitations, character flaws, or character development (as is typically included in the story arc for most action heroes). His characters are often associated with attributes given to action movie antagonists or villains, such as clandestine government associations (Under Siege), great wealth and high-level corporate ties (On Deadly Ground), high-level biochemical research skill (The Patriot), et cetera. Seagal's characters are normally nigh-on invincible and are unable to be beaten or even slowed down. Reports state that Seagal insists on such roles, even allegedly becoming hysterical when his character was scripted to die even a heroic death in the movie Executive Decision, when director Stuart Baird insisted he must do it as scripted. Seagal held up filming for a few days, and finally acted the death scene as scripted after threat of contractual breach.

While his acting performance in Above The Law gained praise from the likes of Roger Ebert, Seagal has repeatedly faced criticism from both actors and fans who accuse him of playing the same character in many of his movies, as well as displaying a lack of emotional range.

Others have surmised that Seagal's unorthodox approach to film is actually an elaborate joke. This is supported by Seagal's statement regarding humor: "I’m a very funny guy, if you’ll forgive me for saying so. When I did The Glimmer Man with Keenan Ivory Wayans, he and I were talking about who was funniest, and...I kicked his ass every day."