Steven Seagal is a complicated guy. There is a lot of negative press about him out there, especially as of late and particularly in the MMA realm.
He rubbed many people the wrong way when he took credit for Anderson’s epic front kick KO over Vitor Belfort which really is a pretty basic technique in martial arts and his art of expertise, Aikido, doesn’t really specialize in kicking techniques.
Like many of our on-screen heroes, off-screen, they are far from perfect and Steven Seagal is certainly a very flawed man with an ego just as big as his belly.
Nevertheless, his films definitely helped to popularize the martial arts and inspire many of us to take up martial arts training and begin our own martial arts journey.
Here are some things about him you may not know.
5) He beat up John Leguizamo
Seagal is well-known for being a tough guy on movie sets and this instance on the set of Executive Decision (1996) was no different. Seagal got physical when Leguizamo broke out laughing at him which Leguizamo explains in the below clip.
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Leguizamo also shares some harsh words for Seagal in this clip which may very well be warranted.
4) He’s a cop
Many people don’t know that Seagal is actually a real-life cop in Louisiana, well, sort of. He’s what you call a reserve deputy sheriff in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. You may have seen him on A&E’s Steven Seagal: Lawman, but apparently he was actually a ‘lawman’ for 2 decades prior to the show.
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Check out the above clip to see Seagal performing his duties.
3) He broke Sean Connery’s wrist
Long before Seagal became the big star he was, he was a fight choreographer on various films including Never Say Never Again (1983) starring Sean Connery. Much like the incident with Leguizamo, there was an incident on set where Seagal got a little too carried away and ended up breaking Connery’s wrist.
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Connery goes into the incident in detail above and admits he still suffers from the same injury.
2) He’s an environmentalist
When he’s not beating people up on movie sets, Seagal isn’t too bad of a guy it seems. He’s an environmentalist as well as an animal rights activist. A couple of his films were focused on this passion of his including On Deadly Ground (1994) and Fire Down Below (1997). In this clip from his A&E show, we see Seagal using a tank of all things to apprehend some cockfighting ring suspects.
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Seagal also received a PETA Humanitarian Award for his work against exporting baby elephants.
1) He got whipped by a judoka
Seagal’s years of being a tough guy on movie sets finally came back to haunt him when he finally met his match with a legitimate tough guy and judoka named Gene LeBell. This famous story involved Seagal being choked unconscious then he apparently lost control of his bowels in obviously extremely embarrassing fashion.
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Check out the above clip from the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast to find out all of the details.
Bonus fact: He is friends with the Russian president
Bonus: He is friends with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin and 80’s action star Steven Seagal share a passion for martial arts which is how their longtime friendship started. Seagal is an expert in Aikido, and Putin is an expert in Judo. They’ve appeared together at martial arts demonstrations and official events, including the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.
In the video below, President Putin is giving Steven Seagal a Russian passport.
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You may also want to check out how Seagal pronounces his BFF’s name in the video below.
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