Steven Seagal is one of those actors that you simply can’t take your eyes off from.
Tall, charismatic, highly spiritual and with impressive martial arts skills, the American- born aikido master is arguably one of the most recognizable figures in the action cinema industry.
It is unbelievable that the actor with a boyish charm turned 65 this year.
Somehow Seagal still manages to shoot action movies in order to maintain his fading career, even though most of them are with very poor quality.
That was not the case back in the late 80’s and during the 90’s when Steven was dominating the action scene along with high grossing fellow stars Jean-Claude Van Damme, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Dolph Lundgren.
I love the 90’s!
The famous slogan ‘I love the 90’s’ brings nostalgia when it comes to the good old funny action movies.
During the 90’s, the world experienced a peak in the production of action films. It was also a period when a lot of actors have risen to stardom.
Steven Seagal was lucky enough to be physically in his prime during that remarkable period.
His debut motion picture “Above the Law”, directed by Andrew Davis, starring Sharon Stone and Pam Grier premiered in 1988 and became a total hit.
To these days, the movie is known to be one of the factors, led to the sudden popularization of the Aikido in Los Angeles.
After that, he participated in several other action hits such as “Hard to Kill”, “Marked for Death” and “Out for Justice”.
Steven gained iconic status in 1992 when he nailed it as a tough Navy cook in Andrew Davis’s blockbuster “Under Siege”.
We all remember the ponytailed chef with deadly martial arts skills, who saved the world by breaking a crazy number of arms with his Aikido techniques, while at the same time flirting with the sexy Erika Eleniak.
Unfortunately, the sequel didn’t live to its high expectations but anyway for the fans of Steven it was still a joy to see him reprising his role of Casey Ryback once again.
At the beginning of the new century, Seagal started to appear mostly in direct to video action productions.
“Exit Wounds” (2001) with the hit rapper DMX and “Half Past Dead” (2002) with the former rap star Ja Rule are among the few theatrical movies in which Steven has appeared lately.
Being a versatile person with many interests, Steven Seagal prefers not to concentrate all of his efforts entirely on the cinema venture.
The actor has always stated that his main passion remains the Aikido.
Holding a 7th -degree black belt in the Japanese martial art form, he operates Dojos in USA and Japan and continues to sell out his classes.
He is the first ever foreigner to open a Dojo in Japan and a key figure for popularizing the Aikido in the USA.
From Aikido to Blues
Another interesting aspect of his persona is his musical talent.
When he is not breaking arms or shooting people on the screen, Seagal is creating a beautiful mixture of pop, rock, country, and blues music with his blues band.
This project is pretty successful and often, when he finds the time, Steven is even touring the world with his band, thus proving that he is an accomplished guitarist, singer, and songwriter.
Steven’s name has been allegedly involved in a lot of controversies.
He has been accused of sexual harassment several times on different filming sets but either he was proclaimed as innocent, either the cases were dismissed.
Being a huge fan of Russian president Vladimir Putin, Seagal has a Russian as well as Serbian citizenship.
At some point, he was even asked to train the Serbian Special Forces to Aikido.
The man is definitely trying to keep himself busy.
Steven is highly religious Buddhist who has been officially recognized as a reincarnated lama, whatever that means.
His most recognizable trademarks include his perfect Aikido skills, his charming ponytail, and his intense face when he is breaking arms in his movies.
He often portrays tough CIA operatives, government enforcers or hitmen.
In the past five years, he is filming direct-to-video funny action movies that surprisingly find an audience.
His most recent flicks are “Contract to Kill” (2016), “End of a Gun” and “The Perfect Weapon” (2016.
If any of these titles doesn’t ring a bell to you, don’t worry it’s normal, unless you are a super die-hard Steven Seagal fan.
Work in Progress
Which is curious is the fact that among his future projects lies a sequel to “Above the Law”, entitled “Above the Law 2”.
As per Imdb.com, the movie has been announced and will be once again directed by Andrew Davis.
That would be definitely cool to see if the project gets accomplished of course.
Steven has another promising future movie in production, which is the sequel to Albert Pyun’s “Nemesis”, starring Olivier Gruner.
The movie will follow the events of “Nemesis 3: Prey Harder” from 1996 and will have Olivier Gruner and the guy from “Step by Step” and “Kickboxer” Sasha Mitchell.
Also, Steven is rumored to participate in the highly expected “Expendables” installment, scheduled to air in 2018.
So, hopefully, the ponytailed macho has a lot to offer to his movie fans.
We are impatiently waiting and meanwhile, we will listen to one of his melodic guitar riffs, fantasizing of Steven being in a “Desperado” sequel next to Antonio Banderas.
What do you think about that?
What is your favorite Steven Seagal movie? Leave me a comment below!