[[quoteright:210:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Steven_Seagal_00231_8426.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:210: Getting ready to snatch some birthdays.]]

->''"Every Seagal movie features his character as a humble, soft-spoken guy who just gets pushed too far, to the point that he has to go on an ass-kicking rampage, standing up for the little guy with each arm he breaks."''
-->-- '''Website/{{Cracked}}.com''', discussing one of Seagal's more [[http://www.cracked.com/article_16150_10-scenes-brutal-violence-guaranteed-make-you-laugh.html#ixzz13w3XftIc infamous kills]]

Steven Frederic Seagal (born April 10, 1952 in Lansing, Michigan) is an American actor, producer, writer, musician, businessman, 7th-dan black belt in UsefulNotes/{{Aikido}}, [[RealityTV reserve deputy sheriff]], father of seven, practicing [[{{UsefulNotes/Buddhism}} Buddhist]], "cultural ambassador" of the United States to Russia (according to the Kremlin, at least), and guardian (legally and literally) of the only child of the 10th Panchen Lama of Tibet. According to Website/ThatOtherWiki, he was also the first foreigner to operate an Aikido dojo in Japan, but this claim has been debunked since the dojo was actually his mother-in-law's and managed by his first wife, Miyako Fujitani.

For the last few decades, the ponytailed star has neck-punched his way through dozens of movies since his late-[[TheEighties '80s]] debut in ''Film/AboveTheLaw1988'', which was directed by Creator/AndrewDavis. His films largely consist of him shrugging off bullets, taking on dozens of mooks singlehandedly and eventually killing the BigBad in brutal fashion. ''[[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Several times over]]''.

After the success of his first movie Seagal went on to make box office hits ''Film/HardToKill'', ''Film/MarkedForDeath'' and ''Film/OutForJustice'', securing his place as a top action star during the late '80s and early '90s. Before his limitations became obvious it even seemed that he might make the transition from exploitation films to serious drama, à la Creator/MickeyRourke. In his review of ''Above the Law'', Creator/RogerEbert even claimed that "[Seagal] can play tender and he can play smart, two notes often missing on the [[Creator/CharlesBronson Bronson]] and [[Creator/SylvesterStallone Stallone]] accordions".

The apex of his success came with his most well-known movie, ''Film/UnderSiege'', which was also directed by Davis. Unfortunately, this proved to be the beginning of the end of his big box office success. The 1994 film ''Film/OnDeadlyGround'' was a pet project of the actor, with a large budget and even an all-star cast. Co-produced, directed and starring Steven Seagal, the movie was a BoxOfficeBomb and got torn apart by critics.

Despite ''Film/UnderSiege2DarkTerritory'' being successful, Seagal's movies rapidly declined in financial success. He seemed to make a comeback with ''Film/ExitWounds'', but his follow-up ''Film/HalfPastDead'' was a critical and commercial flop and since then most of his films have gone DirectToVideo. He made a proposal to have American releases of Tony Jaa's Thai smash-hit ''Film/OngBak'' re-cut with him in the prologue and epilogue as the MightyWhitey who trained him into a Muay Thai master, but the idea was rejected. He was later seen in the reality TV show ''Steven Seagal: Lawman'', and made his return to the big screen in 2010 as the main villain of Robert Rodriguez's ''Film/{{Machete}}''. He also recorded two albums -- a debut, ''Songs from the Crystal Cave'', and the straight-blues ''Mojo Priest'' -- and created and co-wrote many episodes of the TV series ''True Justice'' (starring guess who).

There was also an energy drink made in his name: Steven Seagal's Lightning Bolt.

As his film career has declined, he’s become known for his admiration and vocal support of strongmen leaders like Vladimir Putin, Nicolas Maduro and Rodrigo Duterte. He holds Russian and Serbian citizenship, an “Order of Friendship” award from Russia, and occasionally serves as a “special envoy” for the Kremlin.

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with Steve Segal, a former]] Creator/{{Pixar}} [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant animator from 1995-1998.]]

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!!Screen roles:
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* Nico Toscani in ''[[Film/AboveTheLaw1988 Above the Law]]'' (1988)
* Mason Storm in ''Film/HardToKill'' (1990)
* John Hatcher in ''Film/MarkedForDeath'' (1990)
* Gino Felino in ''Film/OutForJustice'' (1991)
* Casey Ryback in ''Film/UnderSiege'' (1992) and ''Film/UnderSiege2DarkTerritory'' (1995)
* Forrest Taft in ''Film/OnDeadlyGround'' (1994)
* Austin Travis in ''Film/ExecutiveDecision'' (1996)
* Jack Cole in ''Film/TheGlimmerMan'' (1996)
* Jack Taggart in ''Film/FireDownBelow'' (1997)
* Wesley [=McClaren=] in ''Film/{{The Patriot|1998}}'' (1998)
* Orin Boyd in ''Film/ExitWounds'' (2001)
* Frank Glass in ''Film/{{Ticker}}'' (2001)
* Sasha Petrosevich in ''Film/HalfPastDead'' (2002)
* Jonathan Cold in ''The Foreigner'' (2003) and ''Black Dawn'' (2005)
* Robert Burns in ''Out for a Kill'' (2003)
* Jake Hopper in ''Film/BellyOfTheBeast'' (2003)
* Jack Miller in ''Clementine'' (2004)
* William Lansing in ''Film/OutOfReach'' (2004)
* Travis Hunter in ''Into the Sun'' (2005)
* Harlan Banks in ''Today You Die'' (2005)
* Chris Cody in ''Submerged'' (2005)
* John Seeger in ''Mercenary for Justice'' (2006)
* Jack Foster in ''Shadow Man'' (2006)
* Marshall Lawson in ''Film/AttackForce'' (2006)
* John Sands in ''Flight of Fury'' (2007)
* Simon Ballister in ''Urban Justice'' (2007)
* Matt Conlin in ''Pistol Whipped'' (2008)
* Jacob in ''Kill Switch'' (2008)
* Cock Puncher in ''The Onion Movie'' (2008)
* Roland in ''The Keeper'' (2009)
* Tao in ''Against the Dark'' (2009)
* Ruslan in ''Driven to Kill'' (2009)
* Shane Daniels in ''Film/ADangerousMan'' (2009)
* Rogelio Torrez in ''Film/{{Machete}}'' (2010)
* Bobby Samuels in ''Born to Raise Hell'' (2010)
* Cross in ''Maximum Conviction'' (2012)
* John Alexander in ''Force of Execution'' (2013)
* John Alexander in ''A Good Man'' (2014)
* Paulie Trunks in ''Gutshot Straight'' (2014)
* John Alexander in ''Mercenary: Absolution'' (2015)
* Robert Sikes in ''Code of Honor'' (2016)
* Jake Chandler in ''Sniper: Special Ops'' (2016)
* Gan Sirankiri in ''The Asian Connection'' (2016)
* Decker in ''End of a Gun'' (2016)
* John Harmon in ''Contract to Kill'' (2016)
* The Director in ''The Perfect Weapon'' (2016)
* John Harrison in ''Cartels'' (2017)
* Lauder in ''China Salesman'' (2017)
* "Axe" in ''Attrition'' (2018)
* Jack Alexander in ''General Commander'' (2019)
* Augustino "Finn" Adair in ''Beyond the Law'' (2019)

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV ]]

* AsHimself in ''Steven Seagal: Lawman'' (2009-10)
* Elijah Kane in ''True Justice'' (2010-12)

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* AsHimself in promotional material, as well as a USN Commander in his likeness, in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarships'' (2016)
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!!Tropes associated with Steven Seagal:
* CharacterShilling: Almost all of his movies feature at least one or two characters talking about how incredibly amazing he is. His early films usually had a bad guy worriedly noting the badassness of Seagal's character, while his later DirectToVideo movies mostly dispensed with that, instead just having someone gush directly ''to'' his character.
* CoolShades: A staple of Seagal's later characters, whether day or [[SunglassesAtNight night]]. On the few occasions where he plays a villain, it's SinisterShades instead.
* CreatorThumbprint: His characters are often depicted using an M1911 pistol as their preferred sidearm, [[AuthorAppeal owing to Seagal's own fondness for the gun.]] For extra cool points, said pistol is often [[FiringOneHanded shown being fired one-handed as well.]]
* DullSurprise: Seagal maintains his cool, gritty action hero persona in just about everything he does, whether it's film, commercials, or ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', and refuses to settle for anything less, [[TheComicallySerious which often makes his works unintentionally funny as a result]].
* {{Flynning}}: A staple of his characters' sword or knife fighting for RuleOfCool, as demonstrated in movies like ''The Asian Connection'' or ''A Good Man'', where blade duels are drawn-out with excessively flashy theatrics, typically a lot of wild swinging and clashing.
* InvincibleHero: Seagal is well-known for insisting that his characters be unstoppable killing machines who are almost never seriously challenged by any opponent he faces, with almost every fight ending up being an utter CurbStompBattle in his favor (seriously, if you ever see him take so much as a punch in any of his later films, it'll be a cold day in Hell). There was exactly ''one'' attempt at changing this in ''Film/ExecutiveDecision''. It ended up in his character making a HeroicSacrifice to save others rather than, as was originally in the script, have his head explode from air pressure. Seagal reputedly went on a one-man strike until this was changed.
* KavorkaMan: Especially apparent in his late-career films, where Seagal's characters are overweight and surly, and yet at the same time frequently shown to be romantically involved with young women about a third of his age, with RescueRomance and BodyguardCrush being the more frequent excuses for this happening.
* LightningBruiser: Any character played by Seagal is fast enough to hit an opponent before they could react and strong enough to put them down quickly. How convincing this is varies depending on the era, the budget, and the editing.
* MookChivalry: If Seagal's character is involved in a fight scene against a group of bad guys, they will usually attack him one-on-one despite their significant numerical superiority, for no apparent reason other than to allow him to steamroll each of them with ease.
* MookHorrorShow: A commonly occurring (and sometimes criticized) aspect of Seagal's films is the excessive violence and brutality his character uses to take out bad guys.
** One notable example is ''Film/HardToKill''. Yeah, the bad guys killed his wife and put him in a seven-year coma, but the way Mason Storm stalks and kills them one by one, taunting them the whole time, you can't help but pity them. Especially the one he runs down and publicly executes with a neck-snap in front of all of Chinatown and his own son. Another example is ''Film/OnDeadlyGround'' where Forrest Taft beats up a group of oil rig workers for [[SarcasmMode the heinous crime]] of being on the clock and standing right in front of him.
** Also, Seagal's Aikido fighting style is, in reality, about personal enlightenment and understanding nonviolence and is known for being largely ineffective for self-defense or combat sports. This fact ''heavily'' clashes with the excessive brutality shown in Seagal's films.
** Not surprisingly, both ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' and ''Series/MadTV''[[note]]Creator/WillSasso, to be specific.[[/note]] would [[https://youtu.be/hu0Kb_NkO9c?t=15 poke fun]] at Seagal over this trope, specifically.
* MightyGlacier: His later body of work utilizes fight choreography that doesn't require him to move much. He'll even shoot entire fight scenes where he's sitting down.
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: In most of Seagal's movies, the main villain is dispatched via an extensive (and almost entirely one-sided) beating.
* ObviousStuntDouble: He is rather infamous for his excessive usage of body doubles in his later direct-to-DVD films, where many of his action scenes are actually performed by much fitter and younger stuntmen, even the standing and sitting ones, since Seagal is no longer in his physical prime. Any time he is not in close-up or his face is not clearly visible, it's plainly obvious that a stunt double is standing in for him, and JitterCam is cranked up to eleven in fight scenes to hide this. He also has his voice looped by doubles.
* PretentiousPronunciation: Seagal pronounces his last name "Sea-GALL", as opposed to the usual "SEA-gull". [[https://books.google.nl/books?id=DdQ9WL9ODdwC&pg=PA60&dq=steven+seagal+chagall&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwijqtfz2pfeAhVR3KQKHXw0AjIQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=steven%20seagal%20chagall&f=false According to an interview]], he used to pronounce it the usual way until he was inspired by a Chagall art exhibit. Interestingly though, Sea-GALL is very much the common way to say his name in Britain and Latin America.
* PromotedFanboy: The reason why he appears in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarships'' is because he's apparently a ''big'' fan of the ''Iowa''-class battleship USS ''Missouri'', AKA "Mighty Mo". In order for Wargaming to have him even do the advertising and voice a captain required Wargaming to make the ''Missouri'' playable, as opposed to just using the generic ''Iowa''-class tier IX. This could also count as an ActorAllusion, since ''Film/UnderSiege'' was set aboard the ''Missouri''.
* RecklessGunUsage: Compared to other action stars, Seagal is notorious for being very sloppy in the way he handles guns on screen, ''as the main character.'' He loosely carries them in his hands, often swaps grips while keeping his finger on the trigger, shoots blindly, and sweeps the muzzle around without seeming regard for who might be in front of him. Despite all of Seagal's characters having law enforcement (and even Seagal himself in real life once he was sworn in as a reserve deputy sheriff) or military backgrounds, they appear to have forgotten basic gun safety entirely.
* SignatureMove:
** Almost all his films will have him use wrist and arm locks and twists to immobilize opponents or flip them over or twist their body in some way as is standard in Aikido.
** When wielding bladed weapons, he'll twirl them around in elaborate, dance-like moves.
* SoulBrotha: Played with, as he's obviously not black. He began ''speaking'' like one, however, around the period where ''The Glimmer Man'' came out, which is likely intentional given his professed affinity for African-American culture and Blues music, which he has released two albums of with his band.
* StoutStrength: In his DirectToVideo years, he's put on a considerable amount of weight. However, this doesn't make any one of his characters any less of an InvincibleHero, if anything making them even stronger as they seem to dispatch their foes quicker and easier than ever. Of course, this is only in-story; see {{Acrofatic}} for behind the scenes.
* TheTysonZone: Mainly due to his notorious arrogance, there are anecdotes about Seagal having violent incidents with more or less every renowned martial artist or action film actor, and most of them have Steven [[ButtMonkey getting the shorter end of the stick]]. The list includes Bob Wall, Creator/JeanClaudeVanDamme, Wrestling/GeneLeBell[[note]]The story goes that Seagal claimed to [=LeBell=] that, because of his martial arts training, he couldn't be choked out. [=LeBell=] not only choked Seagal unconscious, Seagal also [[PottyFailure crapped his pants]][[/note]], Dan Inosanto, and even pro wrestler Wrestling/CurtHennig.
* WolverinePublicity: Many of his late-career movies have been criticized as only billing him on the cover to draw in attention, while Seagal himself usually has a very minimal appearance in them. This is most apparent in the movies where Seagal doesn't play the protagonist, especially the post-Keoni Waxman works. This isn't anything new, as it stretches as far back as ''Film/ExecutiveDecision'', where he was given top billing alongside Creator/KurtRussell despite his character dying early on in the film (though some releases excised him from the poster).
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