Age, Biography, and Wiki
- Age: Born on April 10, 1952, Steven Seagal is 73 years old as of 2025.
- Biography: Seagal is known for his martial arts skills and his work in action films. He began his career in the 1980s and has since become a household name, starring in films like "Above the Law," "Hard to Kill," and "Under Siege."
- Wiki: His page on Wikipedia provides detailed insights into his life, career, and filmography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Seagal.
| Occupation | Environmentalist |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 10 April 1952 |
| Age | 73 Years |
| Birth Place | Lansing, Michigan, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Aries |
| Country | U.S |
Height, Weight & Measurements
- Height: Steven Seagal stands approximately 6 feet 4 inches (193 cm) tall.
- Weight: While specific weight details are not widely reported, his physique is often highlighted in his action roles.
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. It was considered at the time to be a "comeback" for Seagal. However, Seagal 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. It was ranked in a Rotten Tomatoes editorial on the 100 worst movies of all time. Seagal was also nominated for Worst Actor at the 2002 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards and the 23rd Golden Raspberry Awards.
At the height of his career, Seagal was one of the biggest action movie stars in the world, and one of the most successful martial arts actors of the 1980s and 1990s, alongside Jean-Claude Van Damme. Credited with popularising aikido in film, Seagal is considered an important figure in the development and popularization of East Asian martial arts in the West.
In 2017, actress Portia de Rossi accused Seagal of sexually harassing her during a movie audition. De Rossi alleged that during an audition in Seagal's office, he told her "how important it was to have chemistry off-screen" before unzipping his pants. On an April 18 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Katherine Heigl alleged on the final day of shooting for Under Siege 2 that Seagal told her that he had girlfriends the same age as the 16-year-old Heigl. Kimmel responded by displaying a photo from the film's promotional tour showing Seagal's hand on Heigl's chest while they posed for a photo. On November 9, 2017, Dutch model Faviola Dadis posted a statement on her Instagram account stating that she also had been sexually assaulted by Seagal years earlier.
| Height | 6ft 4in |
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Dating & Relationship Status
- Marital Status: Seagal is married to Erdenetuya "Elle" Batsukh, whom he wed in 2009. He has seven children from his marriages.
His mother was of Irish descent, while his father was Jewish. His paternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants. During an interview for the Russian talk show Let Them Talk, Seagal stated that he has paternal ancestors from the Siberian city of Vladivostok, as well as Belarus and Saint Petersburg. He claims that genetic testing determined that he has Yakut and Buryat ancestry as well. When he was 5, Seagal moved with his parents to Fullerton, California. His mother later told People magazine that prior to the move Seagal was frail and suffered from asthma: "He was a puny kid back then. But he really thrived after the move [from Michigan]."
According to Seagal's first wife, Miyako Fujitani: "I met Steven in California in the fall of 1974. He followed me back to Japan in October. We got married in December 1974." Fujitani was a second-degree black belt and daughter of an Osaka aikido master who had come to Los Angeles to teach aikido. After they married, they had a son, Kentaro, and a daughter, Ayako. Seagal taught at the school owned by Miyako's family and earned his aikido black belt in 1978. Interviewed in 1993, Fujitani stated that: "The only reason Steven was awarded the black belt was because the judge, who was famous for his laziness, fell asleep during Steven's presentation. The judge just gave him the black belt."
While in Japan, Seagal married his first wife, Miyako Fujitani, the daughter of an aikido instructor. With Fujitani, he had a son, actor and model Kentaro Seagal, and a daughter, writer and actress Ayako Fujitani. Seagal left Miyako to move back to the United States. During this time, he met actress and model Kelly LeBrock, with whom he began an affair that led to Fujitani granting him a divorce. Seagal was briefly married to actress Adrienne La Russa in 1984, but that marriage was annulled the same year over concerns that his divorce had not yet been finalized. LeBrock gave birth to Seagal's daughter Annaliza in early 1987. The following year, LeBrock filed for divorce citing "irreconcilable differences".
Seagal became embroiled in a legal case involving film producer Julius R. Nasso after Nasso attempted to extort Seagal. Nasso produced seven of Seagal's films beginning with Marked for Death in 1990. The two "became best friends", according to Seagal, and formed Seagal/Nasso Productions together. Their relationship became strained, however, and their partnership ended in 2000. Believing that Seagal owed him $3 million in compensation for backing out of a four-film deal, Nasso enlisted members of the Gambino crime family to threaten Seagal in an attempt to recoup money Nasso allegedly lost.
| Parents | |
| Husband | Miyako Fujitani (m. 1975-1986) Adrienne La Russa (m. 1984-1984) Kelly LeBrock (m. 1987-1996) Erdenetuya Batsukh (m. 2009) |
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Net Worth and Salary
- Net Worth: As of 2025, Steven Seagal's net worth is estimated to be approximately $14 million, primarily from his film career, music ventures, and business investments.
- Salary: His earnings for specific roles have varied, with notable figures including $6.5 million for films like "Exit Wounds" and "Ticker".
Seagal has claimed that he helped train CIA agents in Japan: "They saw my abilities, both with martial arts and with the language. You could say that I became an advisor to several CIA agents in the field, and through my friends in the CIA, I met many powerful people and did special works and favors." Fujitani has refuted these allegations and has also dismissed Seagal's claims that he had combatted yakuza. There is no evidence that Seagal has ever worked with the Central Intelligence Agency. In the early-1980s, Seagal had aspirations to return to America and become a movie star. Fujitani then "scrimped and saved for years, even denying herself and her children necessities, to help pay his way home." According to Fujitani, "he then availed himself of her savings and hied off."
In 1996, Seagal had a role in the Kurt Russell film Executive Decision, portraying a special ops soldier who appears in only the film's first 45 minutes. Former Warner Bros Vice President Bill Daly later stated Seagal agreed to the role in exchange for the studio forgiving him losing his director's salary due to going over-budget with On Deadly Ground. 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.
Career, Business, and Investments
- Career: Seagal began his journey in the entertainment industry in the late 1980s. He gained fame with films like "Above the Law" (1988) and "Under Siege" (1992). Over the years, he has expanded his career into producing and directing, with recent works including "Attrition" (2018) and "Beyond the Law" (2019).
- Business Ventures: Seagal has also ventured into music, releasing blues albums that showcase his skills as a guitarist and singer.
- Investments: While specific investments are not widely detailed, his business ventures and real estate likely contribute to his net worth.
By 1991, he had starred in three commercially successful films, and would go on to achieve greater fame in Under Siege (1992), where he played Navy SEALs counter-terrorist expert Casey Ryback, a role he reprised in the sequel Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995). In 1994, he starred in his directorial debut film On Deadly Ground. During the latter half of the 1990s, Seagal starred in three more feature films and the direct-to-video film The Patriot. Subsequently, his career shifted to mostly direct-to-video productions. He has since appeared in films and reality shows, most notably as the main villain in Robert Rodriguez's Machete (2010), and Steven Seagal: Lawman, which depicted Seagal performing duties as a reserve deputy sheriff.
Seagal has been the subject of controversy during his career. Since 1991, multiple women have accused Seagal of sexual harassment or assault. A supporter of Vladimir Putin, he backed the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He was granted both Russian and Serbian citizenship in 2016. In 2018, he was appointed Russia's special envoy to the U.S.
Seagal attended Buena Park High School in Buena Park, California, and Fullerton College between 1970 and 1971. Seagal has been described as a “pathological liar” due to his propensity of making greatly exaggerated or outright fabricated statements about his personal life and achievements. For instance, Seagal has claimed that he was a student of the founder of aikido, Morihei Ueshiba; despite the fact that Ueshiba died in 1969 when Seagal was 17 and five years before Seagal moved to Japan at age 22 — when he moved there to allegedly avoid the draft for the Vietnam War by marrying a Japanese national.
Seagal 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 United States in 1983 with senior student Haruo Matsuoka. They opened an aikido dojo, initially in North Hollywood, but later moved it to the city of West Hollywood. Seagal left Matsuoka in charge of the dojo, which the latter ran until the two parted ways in 1997. In the early 1980s, Seagal had his first experiences in the film industry by working as a fight coordinator on The Challenge (1982) which was shot in Japan, and Never Say Never Again (1983).
Later in his career, Seagal helped train Brazilian mixed martial artist Lyoto Machida, who credited Seagal for helping him perfect the front kick that he used to knock out Randy Couture at UFC 129 in May 2011.
In 1987, Seagal began work on his first film as an actor, Above the Law (titled Nico in Europe), with director Andrew Davis. Seagal was asked to make the film by agent Michael Ovitz, who reportedly became convinced that Seagal had movie star potential after taking aikido classes with him. Ovitz financed Seagal's successful screen test, which led Seagal to be offered a contract by Warner Bros. Ovitz' role in starting Seagal's acting career led to a long-standing, unfounded rumor that the agent had made a bet that he could turn anyone into a movie star and decided to bank on his martial arts teacher to win his wager. Above the Law was a success, grossing $18,869,631 in the U.S. and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times stated "It contains 50 percent more plot than it needs, but that allows it room to grow in areas not ordinarily covered in action thrillers." Following its success, Seagal's subsequent movies were Hard to Kill, Marked for Death, and Out for Justice; all were box office hits and made Seagal an action hero. Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote, "Mr. Seagal is effective for both his novelty value and his ability to be both literally and figuratively disarming."
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). According to co-star Morris Chestnut, Seagal rewrote many of the scenes he was in. "The only time they really stuck to the script or had ad libs was the stuff when he really wasn't there. It was a lot of stuff, because at that time I think he was flying a helicopter, he was doing something... He would come to set, "Okay, you're gonna say this. I'm gonna say this and this is gonna happen and then you do that." That's how we did a lot of that movie."
While Seagal's acting in Above the Law gained praise from the likes of Roger Ebert, Seagal has repeatedly faced criticism from both critics and fans who accuse him of playing the same character in many of his movies, as well as displaying a lack of emotional range. In fact, his typecasting has been informally referred to as "Seagalism" and has become the subject of much parody. In 2008, author and critic Vern published Seagalogy, a work which examines Seagal's filmography using the framework of auteur theory. Vern describes themes of government corruption (particularly involving the CIA), environmentalism, and adoption of foreign cultures as being examples of recurrent motifs in Seagal's films, among a variety of others. The first edition breaks Seagal's career into four chronological "eras", marked by specific differences in style and content. The 2012 updated edition adds a fifth era.
In 1997, Seagal was to be featured in an action video game for the Nintendo 64 and the original PlayStation called Deadly Honor, but it was cancelled for undisclosed reasons in its beta phase of development. In 2005, Seagal Enterprises began to market an energy drink known as "Steven Seagal's Lightning Bolt", but it has since been discontinued. Seagal has also marketed an aftershave called "Scent of Action", and a range of knives and weapons. In 2013, Seagal joined newly formed Russian firearms manufacturer ORSIS, representing the company in both a promotional capacity as well as lobbying for the easement of US import restrictions on Russian sporting firearms.
Seagal is married to Mongolian Erdenetuya Batsukh, better known as "Elle". They have one son together, Kunzang. From an early age, Elle trained as a dancer at the Children's Palace in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. After her graduation from high school and the Children's Palace, she pursued a career as a professional dancer. She won a number of dancing contests and was considered the top female dancer in Mongolia, excelling at ballroom dancing in particular. Elle first met Seagal in 2001, when she worked as his interpreter during his visit to Mongolia. Seagal has seven children from four relationships, two grandchildren by his eldest son, Kentaro and two granddaughters by his daughter Ayako Fujitani. In addition to his biological offspring, Seagal is the guardian of Yabshi Pan Rinzinwangmo, the only child of the 10th Panchen Lama of Tibet. When she studied in the United States, Seagal was her minder and bodyguard.
On January 15, 2018, actress Rachel Grant publicly accused Seagal of sexually assaulting her in 2002, during pre-production on his direct-to-video film, Out for a Kill (2003), stating that she lost her job on the film after the incident. In February 2018, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office acknowledged that it was reviewing a potential sex-abuse case involving Seagal.
Allegations of mistreatment towards stuntmen have continued throughout Seagal's later career, with both stuntman Peter Harris Kent (Arnold Schwarzenegger's stunt double) and Mike Leeder publicly criticizing his on-set antics. Actor John Leguizamo also claimed that during rehearsals on Executive Decision, in retaliation for laughing at him, Seagal caught him off guard and knocked him into a brick wall. Michael Jai White, who acted with him in a number of movies, stated that he routinely hit stunt men, and that he was known for it. He said they just accepted it. However, he stated that Seagal never hit him.
Social Network
- Social Media Presence: While not extensively active on all platforms, Seagal maintains a presence on social media, allowing fans to follow his updates and career milestones.
SNL cast member Julia Sweeney later recalled that Seagal "had this idea that he's a therapist and he wanted Victoria Jackson to be his patient who's just been raped. And the therapist says, 'You're going to have to come to me twice a week for like three years," because, he said, 'That's how therapists freaking are. They're just trying to get your money.' And then he says that the psychiatrist tries to have sex with her." 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."
Many of Seagal's films share unique elements which have become characteristic of his body of work. His characters often have an elite past affiliation with the CIA, Special Forces, or Black Ops (for example, Casey Ryback in Under Siege, a former Navy SEAL, Jack Cole in The Glimmer Man, an ex-CIA police detective, or Jonathan Cold in The Foreigner and Black Dawn, an ex-CIA Black Ops freelancer). His characters differ from those of other action movie icons by virtue of their near-invulnerability; they rarely face any significant physical threat, easily overpowering any opposition and seldom facing bodily harm or even temporary defeat. Two notable exceptions are Executive Decision (1996), in which Seagal's character is introduced as a false protagonist only to be killed halfway through and Machete (2010), which features Seagal in a rare villainous role.
These chronological "eras" describe different phases of Seagal's career, and include the "Golden Era" (1988–1991), the period of Seagal's first successes, the "Silver Era" (1992–1997), during which Seagal saw the peak of his fame and made high-profile blockbusters, a "Transitional Period" (1998–2002) during which he made lower-profile or ensemble films, a lengthy "direct-to-video" period (his most prolific to date, 2003–2008) and, in the 2012 updated addition, a "Chief Seagal" period (2009–present) during which Seagal moved into television and began reflecting elements of his Steven Seagal: Lawman persona in his films.
Seagal has been a Reserve Deputy Chief in the Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, Sheriff's Office. In the late 1980s, after teaching the deputies martial arts, unarmed combat, and marksmanship, then-sheriff Harry Lee (1932–2007) asked Seagal to join the force. Seagal's rank in Louisiana was ceremonial. Steven Seagal: Lawman, a series which follows his work in the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, premiered on A&E on December 2, 2009. Seagal stated that "I've decided to work with A&E on this series now because I believe it's important to show the nation all the positive work being accomplished here in Louisiana—to see the passion and commitment that comes from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office in this post-Katrina environment." The series premiere drew 3.6 million viewers, ranking as best season opener for any original A&E series ever.
Seagal was granted Russian citizenship on November 3, 2016; according to government spokesman Dmitry Peskov, "He was asking quite insistently and over a lengthy period to be granted citizenship." Various media outlets have cited Seagal and President Vladimir Putin as friends and Seagal stated that he "would like to consider [Putin] as a brother". Putin bestowed the Russian award of Order of Friendship medal upon Seagal in 2023; Peskov has said of Putin: "he's definitely seen some of his movies."
Education
- Early Education: Seagal developed an early interest in martial arts, studying disciplines such as Shito-ryu karate and aikido. His passion led him to Japan, where he immersed himself in martial arts culture.
Steven Seagal's career has been marked by significant highs and lows, with his reputation and controversies affecting his financial trajectory. Despite this, he remains a notable figure in the world of action cinema.
Seagal's films also frequently reflect aspects of his personal life. His music appears in several of his films (for example, Into the Sun and Ticker, where he appears as part of a bar band), as does his fluency in other languages (he speaks Japanese in Into the Sun) and religion (Buddhism features prominently in The Glimmer Man and Belly of the Beast). His past as an aikido teacher is also incorporated into several films, for example Above the Law (which opens with a montage of real-life photos from Seagal's own past) or Shadow Man, where he is seen giving an aikido demonstration. Several of his films also feature prominent political messages, most notably the environmentalism evident in On Deadly Ground.
